It can happen to anyone. A big thunderstorm hits, with high winds, and pelting rain. This causes your neighbor’s tree to fall over, and to crash down on top your garage. Whose insurance pays for the damages? What type of insurance policy would a person send a claim to?
The type of insurance policy that is designed to cover damages that happen to a person’s home, garage, shed, or other property is called homeowners insurance. You might have been required to purchase homeowners insurance when you bought your home. If not, then it is advisable that you get a homeowners insurance policy anyway, for your own protection.
This type of insurance policy is made up of several parts. Those parts are called: Dwelling, Other Structures, Personal Property, and Loss of Use. There may also be a Liability Protection attached, which would be made up of two parts: personal liability, and medical payments. Your garage would fall under the “other structures” portion of a homeowners insurance policy. If the tree fell on your shed, or patio, or onto a retaining wall, those things would be covered under the “other structures” portion of a homeowners insurance policy, too.
In our hypothetical situation, your neighbor’s tree fell over, and crashed on top of your garage, causing damage. This happened during a really big thunderstorm. Many people assume that since the tree was on their neighbor’s property, that it would be his responsibility to pay to fix your garage. You might think that filing a claim to your neighbor’s homeowners insurance would be the best way to start the process that would, eventually, lead to a nice, fixed, functional, garage.
Not so! You need to take into account the circumstances that caused the tree to fall in the first place. In this case, the storm caused the tree to fall. Insurance companies consider this sort of thing to be an “Act of God”. What does that mean for you? It means that the only way to have the repairs to your garage be covered by insurance is to file a claim to your own homeowners policy, not to your neighbors. Your neighbor didn’t cause the storm to happen, after all, so it isn’t his fault that the storm made the tree fall over.
Now, let’s try another hypothetical example. It’s a nice, warm, Spring day, and your neighbor is doing some yard work. He uses a chainsaw to cut down a tree that is on his property. Unfortunately, your neighbor didn’t plan things out very well. You hear him yell “Timber!”, and look out the window, just in time to see your neighbor’s tree smash down on top of the roof of your garage. Whose insurance pays in this situation?
This time, the damage that was caused to your garage absolutely, without a doubt, was your neighbor’s fault. The reason the tree fell is because he decided to take a chain saw to it’s trunk, fully intending to cut down the tree. In this situation, it would be appropriate to file a claim against your neighbor’s homeowners insurance policy.
Image by John Whitlock on Flickr