Insurance is strange!?!

[lman]

I'm surprised somebody built that building and left the tree there.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Yes, I did think I goofed talking to the agent about it. I forgot to mention recently (July) I was in my garage at night and a limb from that tree hit the roof, poking a hole in it. Since metal couldn't be matched my insurance company paid for a new roof less my $1,000 deductible. Luckily for them it was garage addition not the main roof.
Within a week or two the power company will cut down a maple in front yard that died. It was healthy then one limb grew over to 7,200v line into transformer. Either tree was electrocuted or coincidence. Guy came out yesterday who said they'll drop it no charge if I haul everything away. I'll get quote from them felling that big oak. It's going to be a job not just size but between two buildings and another very large healthy oak and fence.

 

[TractorGuy]

Get ready for the next communication with your insurance company. You may get a non-renewal noticed until proof of said tree removal has occurred.

I have a huge oak behind my house and I worry every day the insurance company will want me to have it cut. Had I know when I built the house I could one day buy the property in front I would have built the house further from the tree. There goes that old hindsight thing again.

No way do I want to cut my old oak down. It is beautiful to look at and poses little to no danger to us if it falls on the house.

I am very shy of offering any information to the insurance industry, even to shop around. I called a company years back for an auto insurance quote. Not only were their rates higher than I was paying but they shared everything I told them with a data banking company without my knowledge or consent. Months later I received a letter from that company notifying me that they got all my information from "the company" I asked for a quote from and would share it with any insurance company that enlisted their service. They also gathered my vehicle ownership files and had me credited with a wreck that ocurred to a car BEFORE I owned it. I went round and round with them and never got them to agree to deleate or change my information.

 

[TheMan419]

I'm gonna take a guess, and I may be way off, so take it for what it's worth: a guess.

and say the cost of removing that tree will be just about equal to your insurance deductible.

Get some quotes. $2500 deductible after you loose your garage, cars, horse barn, etc... or $2500 deductible to take the tree down and avoid all those other losses and hassle of rebuilding.

That is the best advice in this thread.

Also never call the insurance company on things like this. They now have it in your file that tree is a known problem. They could use that information to deny coverage if that tree were to fall and damage something.

 

[TheMan419]

My power comes in from the street to a pole in my backyard, which isn't my backyard. (My fence is 3 feet over the line,) There are 3 trees before the backyard that are dead, on neighbors property. One is leaning towards my powerline and house. We have quit parking the Wife's car in that area. I called neighbor and they said they can't afford to have the trees removed. I told them I could drop them into their front yard, and they said they can't afford to have them removed if I did that, so don't. My tractor would destroy their manicured lawn if I drove on it so I am not able to use it to pick up the trees if I drop them, so I am not doing that! I called the power company and they won't touch it. They would come take down the line for me to cut it, then come back and put the line back up, which is more work than just using a boom truck to drop the top of the one tree on the ground (I will clean it up!!). The cable company won't even come drop their line, so that makes it an issue. However, the cable has been stretched by other tree limbs and just pulled itself off the pole, so right now might be a good time to take it down, except for a couple minor details, like why am I spending money to fix someone else's problem? I can just wait for the tree to hit my house and hope it isn't during a hurricane when all the power people are too busy to come fix it quickly. What my neighbor isn't seeing, is when my line drops, it will take out the breaker at the street pole, which is also going to cut their power, even though their's is underground from the street to their house. Guess I better get the generator running, lol!
I agree with most everyone else, now that you have informed the insurance company, you need to get that tree down as soon as possible. They aren't going to sit around and wait for it to become a $100,000.00 claim, they will send you notice of cancellation giving you just a few weeks to find a tree surgeon to have it removed. I ran into that with a roof, right after a hurricane. They did a bi-annual drive by and the inspector didn't like the looks of my roof. My agent had put "new roof" on the application, which was supposed to be a new roof on the garage apartment and unknown age on the house. They cancelled me unless I could get a new roof on it 45 days. I got a company to set a date for install a week after that, called the company and told them, and they said call them when the roof was replaced. I did, and they refused to insure me. Trust me, you do not want to have to look for insurance once you have been cancelled, it is a pain! If you get the notice of cancellation, immediately find another company because once you the cancellation goes into affect, it is hard to get a new company.
David from jax

You might want to take the time to write a letter (certified) to your neighbors informing them of the problem. When that tree comes down then you can put the costs of repair of your property on their homeowners insurance.

It is nice of you to want to help them solve the problem since it also helps you. Kind of odd they want you to solve the problem with zero inconvenience to them..... people are strange. If my neighbor was offering to do a good bit of the work you bet I would be out there helping.

 

[Have tractor did travel]

Insurance looks backward. Preventive maintenance looks forward. So, something happenED. Insurance pays.
If insurance paid for maintenance, then next year, the insured might change company's, and the insurance company gets nothing for covering the cost of the maintenance.
Alternatively, the insurance policy could be written as non-cancellable, and build the cost of the preventive maintenance into the annual rate for the expected number of years the preventive maintenance will have value, but who wants to get into that mess ?
As some have said, maintenance is owner's burden. Grin and bear it.

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

I hope I am not being "debbie downer" but from my understanding now you need to be a little careful as you have advised your insurance company of this danger so coverage may not be available.

Almost every policy I know of requires you to "mitigate" possible damages and/or further damage versus not taking actions.
Alternately when it comes time to renew they may decline as you say you have decided not to doing anything and expect them to cover a $100k claim.

Something you maybe should check out.

All insurance companies I know of take very good records of conversations and attach to customer files.

 

[k0ua]

This is just on opinion. Yeah you have created a mess. All of your own making. Calling the insurance company was a really really bad idea. NOW you must remove the tree. So get out your wallet and call the arborist. They can climb and use ropes to let down the pieces safely. But it has to be now and not on your schedule because I think you have just let the insurance company off the hook if the tree falls. They won't have to pay because you are letting a peril hang over your head. An event you could have and should have averted. The difference of an insurance company paying to have a rock ding in your windshield fixed for no cost to you, is because it helps the insurance company avoid a larger claim. AND this is an unforeseen event. You cannot do maintenance and avoided the rock ding, you can't see it coming. BUT you darn sure can do maintenance of that tree and you had decades to see it coming. You should have seen it coming before building the building. Or whomever built the building by that huge tree.

 

[ultrarunner]

This thread got me thinking of pro active action during the California fires...

Putting in vegetation breaks, felling trees, packing scheduled items and wetting down insured structures... no obligation I can see for preventative maintenance...

 

[ponytug]

Well some of it is now required after July 1st, 2021, in California;

https://www.fire.ca.gov/programs/communications/defensible-space-prc-4291/

Not so much the scheduled items.

I have been told that wetting down structures is only really useful when the embers are falling or the flames are there, or minutes away. The water evaporates too quickly. But I have no personal experience.

All the best,

Peter