Home Insurance and Fallen Trees

rattyslane

I have a large Christmas tree in my garden which has been there 40 years and someone tells me that if these high winds brings it down I will have to pay for any damage it does - is this true? Isn't it an act of God?

InsideInsurance

It depends.

If you know there are problems with it (or should know) and dont do anything then yes it is your liability however your Buildings Insurance Public Liability would most likely payout anything you are liable for (but check the exclusions).

If there is absolutely nothing wrong with it as you as a layman looking at it and it falls then its an act of god.

The fact that a neighbour has now expressed concern over it means that it may be worth getting it checked out as they may use this as evidence that you should have known about any issues.

ilikewatch

rattyslane wrote: »

I have a large Christmas tree in my garden which has been there 40 years and someone tells me that if these high winds brings it down I will have to pay for any damage it does - is this true? Isn't it an act of God?

As far as I'm aware "act of god" doesn't have any bearing, however, you would only be liable if you had been negligent.
For example, if your tree was obviously in a relationship dangerous state, you were aware, and did nothing to make it safe then you would have been negligent and could be held liable for any damage if it fell.

EDIT: beaten to it by InsideInsurance

InsideInsurance

ilikewatch wrote: »

EDIT: beaten to it by InsideInsurance

By a whole 4 minutes :cool: :beer:

ilikewatch

InsideInsurance wrote: »

By a whole 4 minutes :cool: :beer:

If I hadn't spent 4 minutes trying (unsuccessfully) to figure out how to type "i.e" on this damn tablet without it capitalising the i and adding spaces then I'd have been first

InsideInsurance

ilikewatch wrote: »

If I hadn't spent 4 minutes trying (unsuccessfully) to figure out how to type "i.e" on this damn tablet without it capitalising the i and adding spaces then I'd have been first

believe me, typing on a Spanish ISO Mac keyboard into a Citrix virtualised copy of Windows that supposed to be using a UK Windows keyboard but is randomly at times turning into a US Windows keyboard isnt much easier.

Thankfully didnt need any pound signs, hashes or tildas etc so I'll let you off

Aretnap

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The fact that a neighbour has now expressed concern over it means that it may be worth getting it checked out as they may use this as evidence that you should have known about any issues.

And conversely it would be very difficult to argue that you'd been negligent if you could show that you'd recently consulted a professional, who had given the tree a clean bill of health.

rattyslane

An oak tree has just fallen over in the Churchyard where a relative's ashes are to be buried with her father and the only grave damaged is this one. The Church says it has no Insurance and it is to cost us £1500 for a new headstone.

InsideInsurance

As above - if the tree was evidently rotten then the owner of the tree is liable irrespective of if they have insurance or not. If it appeared to be perfectly normal to a layman then no liability and all parties carry their own losses

FlameCloud

I highly doubt a church grave yard has no insurance on it- what faith is it?