what do you do when a neibors tree falls on to your property landing on your baby? it took out the driver fender, hood, widsheild, & part of the roof!!!! im so pissed i cant see straight!! i know my car isnt worth a lot of money but its my first custom. i didnt have insurance on it because it was beeing stored untill i could swap engines due to an oil presure issue. any ideas for first step other than beating some one?
Talk to a lawyer. I'd be pissed too, especially if wasn't my tree that fell. Hope you get things sorted out.
I'm thinking beating someone would be the last step... Unless they made the tree fall on your car. Have you tried talking to the neighbor?
Sorry to hear that. I would be livid myself. I would think that there homeowners would cover that situation. I hope you are on good terms with them and can talk with there agent. Best of luck.
Level with the guy, explain what happened, don't move anything and take a ton of pics. Hopefully if you don't approach him as the enemy he won't be.
yes , get a police report & talk to him . if he is an ass , have your homeowners talk to his homeowners & get it fixed . thats what insurance is for . you say you have no insurance , if you own your home you do have home owners , if you rent the landlord has it . dont let the guy off , especially if hes an ass !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! steve
Did the tree fall due to his trimming or lack thereof or as an act of God....Makes a lot of difference to insurance people......
Don't jump to conclusions about the value of your car! A '59 chevy around my neck of the woods is RARE. They go for TWICE what a 55, 56, 57 will go for. Besides that, '59 look better! Take pictures, get a lawyer, and tell him it's a rare car.
Why would you want to "beat some one" ?? what are you 11 yrs old? Do it right & you'll come out ahead of the deal.If he doesn't have insurance you'll have to sue him. nothin says you have to have insurance on your car if the car is on your property, you have to have insurance to operate the car on public streets.Does he rent or own? if he rents the property owner has to have insurance. Do it right. Jimv
the tree fell durring the night in a wind storm. i have taken pics, tried to talk to him, they arent home. i think i want to talk to him before calling the cops as that could cause issues for him and i for the projects in our yards, we live in town and have no complants about our stuff from the people around us. i dont want jhonny law to come in and start shit about junk vehicles.
maybe his home insurance will cover it. If the tree was on his property, he has responsibility for it. I live in an area with lots of trees, homeowner is responsible for them. Whether an act of god eliminates that responsibility I would get a lawyer depending on what he does
if its a "act of god" then you'll have to Sue him, i think the insurance companies use that as an excuse not to pay. tell them your an agnostic & you don't buy it.also i think the AOG shit only works for him( his damage), not boarding damage. JimV
Here in Washington State your homeowners ins. is the only thing that will cover that unless he did anything to the tree to make it unstable then of course he is at fault. Car ins. won't touch it.
As someone who had a really shitty accident, in which I was not at fault, please do these things: 1. Resist the urge to "go off". By remaining calm you not only come off as the good guy/victim, but you will be able to make rational decisions. 2. As someone else has said, take ALL THE PICS YOU CAN! If possible, don't move anything until the proper people have seen it. 3. Mine was a car to car accident, but the nieghbor has to have had home owners insurance. Talk to him and trade or at least get his info. He may even want to take care of it out his own pocket. Refer back to step 1. 4. If it begins to look like you may need a lawyer, get one. Do not hesitate. 5. Follow up with everything. Do not assume everyone is going to work quickly and on your behalf. Get copies of ALL documents as they become available. 6. Try not to let it get you down. That was one thing that took me a long time to do. Being depressed and crawling into a shell is NOT a good thing. Ask me about it, I have been there. 7. Be patient! Chances are your situation will work out a lot quicker than mine is (involved city vehicle), but it will still take time. 8. Go back to step 1. Keep your head up and try to remember that a car is a material thing, It will be fixed, but only if you want it to. If you need to and you probably will, talk to people when you feel down or when things begin to drag out. There are a lot of folks on this board who sent me PM's and let me vent. We are here for you. If you have to, yell every now and then do it in private. It won't do any good to bottle the anger up, but don't do it at people. They may not understand and will tend to withdraw from you. Good luck.
Was the tree dead or rotted and that is why it fell. Then it is not a act of god. Its his tree and it fell on your property, then he is responsible for the damages. talk to him first and then if you can not get anywhere you may have to get your homeonwers insurance Co. involved. Your Co. will help you. They will let you know what you have to do. Get a report either from the police or your insurance Co. Get alot of pictures of the car and tree. picture of there the tree broke or came out of the ground. also record what kind of day it was. ( Windy or raining.) You may have to go to court and maybe your insurnace Co. may help you with that also. Do not move anything until you find out what you can do. Do not take the law into your own hands. You will only lose.
First things first; What's the value of your 59 Chevy??? Fender, hood, windshield are repairable/replaceable, but what about the roof damage-is it merely dented or did it mishape the windshield opening=major issue? What is the estimated cost to repair? Attorney fees could outweigh the repair costs of the car. Talk to the neighbor. He may make you a cash settlement rather than file a claim. Can you do the repairs yourself and make out moneywise? If not, let your insurance co. "subrogate" with his insurance co. Then there's always small claims court-usually< $5000 most states.
i think to avoid the insurance labeling it as an "act of god" you could go to your local nursery or arboretum and talk to a certified arborist, have him look at the tree, and get his professional opinion on paper, regarding the current state of the tree....maybe its been neglected, and should have been pruned a year ago....also get a police report.....the homeowners insurance will need this to process the claim......good luck
You are in the cat-bird seat, don't blow iy, stay cool and follow the steps. You'll be alright, just do YOUR part (pics, official report, insur. claim, ). I was hit by lightning 3 yrs ago, thru a vacuum that I was using on my screen porch( I had decided to postpone my shower, till after the storm, thats why I was vacuuming). Anyway......Blue flash in the woods, coming str8 at me, hits vacuum and I got blasted off my feet and blown against my gas grill, my outdoor motion sensor lite got fried (60ft away on garage?), the well control for my water well got fried and my computer got fried(it was off). The damned vacuum still works, a cheapy too? SOooo, I called it in to my home owners insure. and sumbitch they paid on the claim... no problem, no reciepts, just model #'s and they checked to see if there actually was a severe thunder storm in my area..... That was it! I was anticapating a problem (Mr. Happy) but it went pretty damn smooth. Hang in man, you'll come thru Ok. Good luck Howard
Sounds like he's a tinkerer too, and odds are he'll understand and do what he can insurance-wise to help. Perhaps I'm a raving optimist, but someone's got to be. Good luck.
If the tree branch (when it was still part of the tree) was hanging over onto your property, I think it was your responsibility to trim it back to protect your property (the law probably allows this). If you want to keep a good relationship with the police, don't call them - they'll just get pissed 'cause you're wasting their time - there hasn't been any law broken - what're they gonna do, give the tree a ticket? It's your responsibility to find out what your neighbor's liability is, and/or to find out what your insurance (homeowner's) covers. Listen to tfeverfred, he speaks the truth. I'm sorry for your loss and hope things work out, but if I were you, I wouldn't be counting on getting what it'll cost to repair the damage. vic
I had a neighbors tree fall on my house. My insurance covered my house, but their insurance would do nothing. The worst part was, the insurance co. doesn't cover cleanup and removal of the tree, that was my responsibility. What really sucked was it cost more to cut and remove the tree than the damage caused to my house.
Years ago during an icestorm we had a branch fall off a tree in the yard of a rental house me and a couple a guys lived at. It took out the neighbor lady's power line, and left her without power. She had an electrician come out & repair the weatherhead. She claimed we owed her for the fix, so we contacted our landlord {who lived out of town}. His insurance claimed seeing it was an act of god, they didn't have to pay. I don't know if this is correct or not, but she never fought it & we never heard nothing more from it. - just my 2 ¢
I can tell you from experiance on this one. If the tree fell from high winds it is considered an act of God. Your insuance will have to cover. No insurance? You eat it. If you can prove the tree was in bad shape, ie; dead or dying, you will have to get a lawyer and sue for negligence. You can get the money, but it will cost you money to get it.
I have a several of old cars sitting in my barn that are not insured. If my barn burns up, I am screwed. Home owners insurance does not cover uninsured vehicles, I least where I live. I think when a neighbors tree fall on your property by an 'act of God', it's your home owners insurance that covers the damage, not his. A couple of years ago I cut down a 50 foot tree on my property. I moved my truck, but not my wife's PT cruiser. Well, the tree did an about face and fell on top of here car beating the piss out of every body panel. We got a nice custom paint job out of the deal and it was covered under the car's comprehensive insurance, not collision.
Not to be a prick, but you had no insurance on your car, the wind took down a tree and smashed the car, so now you're pissed off at the neighbor and want HIM to pay????? WTF? What ever happened to taking ownership of a problem? YOU didn't have insurance - YOU fucked up! Man up to it and get it fixed yourself. Is evryone so used to somebody else taking care of them now, that nobody takes responsibility for their own actions or in this case, inactions? Sorry, man - I feel bad for you and the damage to your car, but unless your neighbor had a diseased tree that was obviously ready to crash on your property, I don't think he has any responsibility. It happened through an act of nature - deal with it.
with no ins. on your car your out! i'd also make sure zonining laws allow a car uninsured and unlicensed to be on your property before you make any waves. this sucks but you can end up with more problems than you need.
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