Screw Wind!

BILL88L

BILL88L

PR Addict
If you weren't there or didn't hear Vintage Days had a 15 minute storm that took the life of at least 500 EZUP's and I wouldn't be surprised if it was 1,000+. I had just came back from a shower at just after 0700 and by the time I got my foot off the pitbike the leg of mine was about 5 feet in the air. I grabbed on and just stood there holding it down in the pouring rain for 15 minutes - it sucked. My buddy I was pitting with lost a huge Maxima one and there were dead ones everywhere you looked.

I'm sitting in my home/office at 3:58 PM today and I hear a loud boom. The daughter comes down and says "Dad a trampoline just hit the house"

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Came from a street and 4 houses away, hit one neighbors deck/drainspout and another's car. My insurance guy says he needs to file. The owner says his guys says it's an "act of god" so they don't pay. Near as I can tell there are a lots of what ifs-was it supposed to be secured, was there notice of the storm, etc. Anyone ever had something like this happen? I can't see me paying anything for this to include the cost of insurance going up if my carrier pays it.
 
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I'd tell your neighbor he better call his insurance guy back or break out his personal checkbook. Worst case scenario you have to drag him through court.
 
Oh man. That stinks Bill. And the problem with trying to patch some in is, it won't match. You'll either have to re-side that whole side, or the whole house.
A co-worker of mine had one hit his vehicle last year. I'll ask him about it and report back.
 
Next door neighbor's chimney got struck by lightning sending chunks of bricks all over. One went through my roof. Their insurance wouldn't pay to fix it, but mine did. Supposedly that is the norm for such occurrences.
 
We're going through a similar deal right now as well.

My neighbor to the west has a large silver maple tree in his backyard that is about seven feet from the fence line between us. A week ago Sunday, I woke up to find that it had dropped a very large limb, probably 20" diameter and 45-50ft long, heavily filled with smaller limbs and branch's and leaves. This limb split off and fell southwest into my yard, crushing his yard fence and one of our grandkid's swing sets.

He contacted his homeowners insurance and of course the first question they asked was: Was the tree branch rotted or dead? The answer to that is kinda yes and kinda no. The tree is very healthy, but the branch began it's growth on the north east side of the tree, and then sort of grew around the back of the tree. Where it split, It had a bad spot on the top side, but the lower portion was firm and healthy.

His agent told him that it was "An Act of God", and that they will cover the expense to have a tree service company come in and cut it up and remove it, and they will also cover his fence. After his deductible of course.
Any damage on my property would have to be turned in by me, to my insurance company.

We didn't care about the swing set, as we have another brand new one we had just bought, and I am also building a swing on the brand new play house that I have spent the last year building for the kids, which the tree just narrowly missed. I have probably $1600 wrapped up in building the play house. If it would of hit the playhouse, we would of had a major discussion with his insurance agent.

Neighbor talked to me Friday night, says the agent told him to get three estimates on the tree branch removal and turn them in.
It's been 8 days now...., I just want the damn thing out of my yard.

It's amazing how religious (believing in God) insurance companies have become when it comes to covering claims.

It's also raised the question about tree maintenance issues and insurance coverage. All of his trees are overgrown and need thinned out or removed. And one of them could do some serious damage to my new carport and house if it came down.
 
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Act of God or not, his property hit your house. His responsibility. If he didnt buy it or have it outside it wouldnt have hit your house .... liability..... If his ins wont pay it he should. I bet in court he would have to, and your court costs.
 
Came over last night and knows he's on the hook for it because it wasn't secured. Here's the problem and to Ron's point they probably can't match the siding. My insurance guy says there is a law in OH that says that if they can't they have to re-wrap the whole house, cedar in front, but still. Mine would pay it if I filed a claim. I feel bad for the guy, 2 young kids, just bought the trampoline a week ago. I am waiting to see what the siding people say before deciding what to do. I have owned houses since 1995 and never filed a claim.
 
Insurance man just left my house. One awning on the funmover one entry door and one trailer door. Oh and one 250 deductible!
 
I remember at Rock on the Range one year, an EZ Up was a couple of hundred feet in the air above the parking lot. Looked like a kite.
 
Slow damage. We have seemingly constant wind and all the trees lean to the east. This lone pine just finally fell over one day. We had a trampoline years ago. The frame was attacked to the ground. Wind gusts blew the frame apart and ripped the bed but the resulting mess didn't go anywhere.
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Seems like a pretty common siding color and looks relatively new. There will be some fade on yours so it will be tough, but I would think they could patch a few pieces in and get away with it. Quick fix as far as labor if they can match the color.
 
Here was our issue.
Neighbors tree. He said he wanted to run it through his insurance company, but drug his feet for 2 weeks. I finally had enough and Friday night I got busy with the saw. By Sunday afternoon my backyard was cleared again. My son hauled off the toppings yesterday morning (2-1/2 trailer loads), and the firewood went to a neighbor.

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Send him a bill. Paid $2000 to have a huge tree like that moved out after hurricane hit house in Florida last fall.
 
I never got hung up on the cost or the work to clear it out. I actually wanted to start on it the day that it came down, but he wanted to hold off for insurance. Two weeks was too long though.

When I bought the property 23 years ago, I had two seriously overgrown trees removed that were too close to the house, an Oak and a Dutch Elm. So I lost all of the shade. So we have always appreciated what shade and sun relief we do get from his trees.
And in that particular tree that fell, I would occasionally throw up a tire swing (Dunlop 21" mx :D ) for the grandkids to play on. And the kids love playing in the mountains of leaves in the fall. So we've benefited from my neighbors trees. No complaints there.

What I am struggling a little with now though, is this: His tree out front is too full, overgrown, and needs topped or thinned out. In a wind storm, it could do some serious damage to my house and carport. (and possibly my cars in the garage).
If my neighbors (who are 80 yrs old) cannot afford the cost of having this done, should I have to pay for this tree maintenance work to protect my property?
Him and I talked about it, and he agrees that it needs done, but I'm sure he doesn't have the extra cash to do it. And if a storm hit's and does damage to my property, it will only get fixed through a claim to my insurance policy???
And of course, tying this back to Bill's complaint and insurance claim, this will only cause my premium rate to increase, which cost's me even more year after year.

So, I'm likely going to have to pony up the dollars for that work. Sucks!
 
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GeorgiePorgie said:
Is it in the tree lawn ? Anyway the county or township might do it for you ?
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Yea, right in the front lawn not 20ft from his house.
Have to be kind of selective in who you have do tree work. There's a lot of crews out there that can really hack up and ruin a beautiful tree. The utility companies have a pretty good reputation for it.

Was kidding with the wife that if I end of having to pay for it we'll just turn it into a tree stump.:D
But the insurance company made one thing very clear.. Tree maintenance is the homeowners responsibility.
 
NQ1965 said:
But the insurance company made one thing very clear.. Tree maintenance is the homeowners responsibility.
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But we've had no problem with insurance covering tree on house damage. When you have a cabin in the woods, that's a good thing.
 
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