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When Somebody Else’s Tree Falls on Your Property, Here’s What Happens

“But I already bought a pole saw!” said my neighbor

By Amethyst QuPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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All photos of the author's yard by the author

One fateful day in July, around one in the afternoon, the sudden roar of the wind turned me toward my office window. In the blink of an eye, a gust yanked brutally on a thirty-foot tree limb, spun it around, flung it down onto my fence and into my yard. Only a thread of bark broke its fall and stopped my new fence from being flung to the ground with it.

The trunk of the tree was on the power company’s property. A bit of this huge fallen branch also overlapped my neighbor’s yard.

What would you do?

One day without rain, and it turned brown / photo by the author

What I Did

Living for decades in southeast Louisiana, I’ve got abundant experience with falling trees. So I actually know the answer.

Of course, the first thing I did was call the electric company since the wires were dragged down under the fall. They extracted and re-hung the wires, then turned the lights back on. They also quickly and quietly slipped away without a word of goodbye.

No surprise there. They wanted to avoid the debate about what to do with the honking huge tree limb left behind on my fence.

The danger of electrocution passed, I called the tree service to arrange for the appraiser to come out as soon as we got a break in the torrential downpour. When he got here, I strongly hinted I’d pay extra if he put my job at the head of the line.

Guy took the hint. He'd come on Friday. On Monday, a team showed up with a crane truck, a removal service truck, and a Bobcat to lift the debris into said removal truck.

Oh, I knew the fallen branch was big, but I had no idea how big until I saw it piled up in the removal truck to the point of overflowing.

Anyhoo, it was all very quick and efficient. The tree guys left nothing behind but a little sawdust sprinkled around the corner garden.

That loquat tree didn't get a scratch! / photo of corner garden by the author

The Neighbor Reacts

Arriving home later that afternoon, my next-door neighbor looked around with disbelief. “I just bought a pole saw,” he said.

Don’t worry. Home Depot will take it back.

“I called the electric company a bunch of times,” he continued, “and they said they weren’t going to do anything.”

I started laughing. “They didn’t. I went ahead and got the tree guys out. I was worried about leaving the tree sitting on the fence.”

Honestly, it didn’t even occur to me there was enough of the mess on the other side for the neighbors to be too concerned about it yet. I figured with all the rain, they hadn’t been in the back swamp for days. My main thought was I didn’t want hubby to get tempted to get busy with his chain saw.

Now that you mention it, I didn’t particularly need the neighbor learning how to pole saw right up against my fence. So that’s a problem solved I didn’t even know I had.

So we had a good laugh, and all was well that ended well.

Visible scar left behind / photo by the author

Why Did I Pay?

Like my neighbor, you may be wondering why the owner of the tree — in this case, the electric company — doesn’t have to pay for the removal. It’s a common question. The first time somebody’s tree falls on your property, you always think the other guy should pay.

But that isn’t how it works. Barring some gross negligence on the part of the property owner, your own property insurance pays for the tree damage that impacts your house.

If you think about it, that’s just as well. Can you imagine if trees were handled like car accidents? If every time a tree fell on somebody else’s property, blame had to be assessed, cops had to hand out tickets, lawsuits had to ensue about who paid for what, blah blah blah?

The courts would be even more of a tied-up mess than they already are. Also, insurers would insist we cut down all the trees on our property to reduce their legal exposure. Talk about environmental catastrophe.

In this case, the tree limb did not fall on my house, and my fence was undamaged. So guess who paid to clean up the mess.

Of course, if we were still young and eager to save money, we could have had that pole saw party the neighbor envisioned. But we’re not.

There aren’t many advantages to growing old and degenerate. The ability to sit back and watch somebody else do the chain saw work has to count as one of them.

Yeah, your homeowner's insurance DOES cover this / photo by the author (2005, Hurricane Katrina)

A Good Resource

Consumer Reports has a helpful article telling you to do what I just told you based on my experience, but they collect information from multiple sources including actual insurance agents. After all, any time you have a question about money, you don't want to take just one random internet person's word for it.

Author's Note: This story originally appeared on Medium but you can read it here without a paywall. I always gratefully accept tips if you find it helpful...

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About the Creator

Amethyst Qu

Seeker, traveler, birder, crystal collector, photographer. I sometimes visit the mysterious side of life. Author of "The Moldavite Message" and "Crystal Magick, Meditation, and Manifestation."

https://linktr.ee/amethystqu

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