Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Question about a tree falling

great question.

when trees fall, they often fall upon the ground.

depending upon the State, the tree would be often owned by the property owner. see, it's really that simple. dead, leafless trees might be trted differently by different States.

depends on whose campaign you donated to.

Those squirrels must have big nuts...............

I'm going with this answer.

A friend of mine had a tree that was on his property blow over and knock down the neighbors fence. He said the neighbors insurance covered it.

You folks are having too much fun with this. It isn't a damaged tree...no issues with rotten limbs, etc. Just a tree that is clearly on my side of the line...15 or 20 feet on my side of the property line. Big, strong wind come along and blows it over. It falls across the property line and damages my neighbors car.

The majority of the group I was discussing this with said that the person that owned the car would be responsible for having it fixed..not the person that owned the tree. They went on to agree that if the tree was leaning or damaged someway and posed a danger and the neighbor had warned me of such...I would be responsible. Proof of warnings necessary.

I would have thought that the person that owned the tree would be responsible but it seems this isn't so....act of God thing I'm guessing is the case.

Elwood

My wife had a tree limb drop and hit her car while she was driving down the road. The home(tree)owners liability policy covered the car repairs, not us. This was in Pa.

Dale

http://consumerist.com/2011/08/when-a-tree-falls-who-pays.html

His property, his insurance. Unless he wants to file a suit saying that the tree was sick/dying/neglected and you ignored it.

Sounds like a big wind blew down a healthy tree. If there is a deductible you might offer to split it to be a good neighbor...

How would you know that about my tree leaning (oak tree specifically)unless you have been to my house spying on me Laughing Pig? And the trees were not an issue in the Wizard of Oz..... It was the house that fell on the witch that caused the big stir and sent all of the flying lawyers after Dorothy and her little doggy by the witches sister...... they were flying lawyers weren't they???

My big debate about this whole ordeal is, if I have a tree that is on my property and my neighbor has no trees on their property and my tree drops leaves on my neighbors property from a wind storm that comes by,am I responsible for raking my neighbors yard? This is not any different than the tree senario is it not?

Ask Issac, and then just take the oposite of his answer.

This is really pretty easy to decide.

If you have properly maintained the tree, and it was alive and healthy, it is simply an act of God.

If the tree was dead or neglected to a point that contributed to its falling, you're on the hook.

I handle these claims every week or so, and the courts rule this way. Insurance companies also see it the same.

I can tell you what the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will tell you when a large snag on their property falls during a storm taking two douglas firs with it and crushes a gate and fence on my property. So sorry about the gate and fence and good luck with replacing it. If you want it off of your property you can use your bulldozer to push it back onto the BLM property. If you want to cut up the two doug firs for firewood, you need to pay us a $10 permit.

This was the result of a phone call 4 hours ago. I'll push the whole lot back onto the BLM property and let it rot. It's what BLM is really good at doing - rotting.

Great response...thanks for the link. Honestly, I don't have this problem. Was just asking the question because the issue came up in a discussion. I think the "his property, his insurance" is the key. No real tree blew down so no deductable to split but that does seem like a fair thing to do.

I believe we got to the bottom of this....thanks to all.

Elwood

They're his leaves now....he can do with them as he sees fit.

The obvious answer is to not have any neighbors. Works for me.

Dang, that is a great answer and actually philisophical.

"Placing your (fill in the blank) in the path of a natural occurence (of fill in the blank) is only blameable on nature." Man I can foresee many instances of using that line, if I may?

Elwood I am in the tree business. To answer your question it depends on the laws of that state for one. Second was the tree a known and documented danger? If the tree was a healthy tree and it just went down in the wind in this state it would be on the car owners insurance.

I do that too. I call it add glibbing.

What if the owner's an Atheist ?

GTC