The Case of the Neighbor’s tree

After almost every serious windstorm, we get this question: “If the neighbor’s tree falls on my garage, his insurance will pay, right?”  The answer often surprises people.  In most cases the answer is “No”, and the person with the crushed garage has to rely on his or her own insurance to repair the damage.  On the surface, it would seem logical that the neighbor’s insurance should pay — after all, it was his tree and it did fall on someone’s garage.  So why doesn’t that happen?

First, it is important to understand that there are two primary parts of your homeowners insurance policy.  The first is Property and this covers your home, additional structures and contents.  The second part is Liability and this pays for your “legal liability” for certain things pertaining to a home such as someone slipping on your icy sidewalk or your dog taking a bite out of the mailman.

With that in mind, what part of the neighbor’s policy might pay for the damage to your garage?  Obviously, the neighbor does not insure the garage on his own Property portion since he does not own your garage.  That leaves only the Liability portion and now we have to look at the concept of “legal” liability.

The key word in almost all liability claims is “negligence”.  Was the neighbor somehow negligent in causing the tree to fall on the garage?  Well, we know the neighbor did not initiate the windstorm, so is it possible in any way for him to be negligent?  The anwers is “Yes”, but this occurs rarely.  If the tree was obviously diseased, or if it leaned perilously over the garage there may be a case for negligence.  I use the word “may” very carefully here.  The tree may be discovered after the accident to be diseased, but was this a condition that the neighbor was aware of?  If the tree was leaning over the garage, is there any reason the neighbor might have thought it would actually fall?  Additionally, did the owner of the garage ever express concern to the neighbor about the health of the tree or its position over his garage?

You see, this is where it gets sticky.  To make the case for negligence, there has to be some indication that the neighbor did not act in a reasonable and prudent manner with regard to the tree.  And the fact is, in most cases I have seen, there simply is not evidence of negligence.  Most of the claims of this nature that I have seen over the past 25 years are trees that no one suspected of being a problem, not the neighbor and not the property owner.  Sometimes stuff just happens, and that’s why you want to make sure your insurance adequately covers your garage.