Neighbor's trees fell on our yard - Need advice. (sorry, long)

Two trees came crashing down during hurricane Irene and we are so incredibly lucky that one just grazed the side of our house after snapping some branches off on our roof (and is now laying across my back yard) and the other - which would have destroyed our shed and corner of the house - got stuck in a bigger tree in our yard.

That tree is still stuck there, hanging with all of its giant, broken limbs above our yard/house/shed.

On Sunday the neighbor behind us whose trees they are drove by, asked if we were okay and said he had a call in to his tree guy.

On Monday my husband and I walked over there and spoke to the wife, gave her all of our phone numbers and the numbers of our tree guys. She said she had a guy coming to give her an estimate.

Meanwhile we asked the company removing a tree next door to take a look and they said it was going to be a very expensive, complicated job. The tree is in two yards, no way to bring a big truck back there, and up very high.

All day Tuesday we did not hear from them. Our next door neighbor is concerned too because part is hanging over his deck.

We plan to stop by again today (they didn't give us THEIR number - I will be sure to get it this time) and see what progress has been made. It makes me VERY nervous having this tree there, but I don't want to shell out the money to have it taken down - it is the neighbor's tree and really should have been taken down months ago.

I honestly don't care about the fallen one - we can cut it up ourselves or I'll call our tree guys to clean it up since after witnessing the damage we are going to take down more trees in our yard. But I can't sleep at night with this huge tree hanging overhead.

My husband is going to call our homeowners insurance and see what can be done since it is a safety hazard. But I am really upset that the neighbor is not taking care of this with any sense of urgency.

Any advice? Do I have any way to get it done myself and have the bill sent to them?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Neighbor's trees fell on our yard - Need advice. (sorry, long)

we had a neighbor's tree fall in our yard a couple of years ago, we were told its "an act of god" and OUR insurance would cover it. I'm pretty sure its your responsibility, not theirs.

Re: Neighbor's trees fell on our yard - Need advice. (sorry, long)

It's still also in their yard. The trunk and roots are all there - it is leaning across their yard/fence then over the property line into our yard and the top is stuck in our tree.

It can't be taken down from our yard alone - trucks will need to be in their yard.

Edited to add a pic (taken from our bathroom window immediately after the storm) - the tree in question can be seen behind our shed. It's about four feet in on the neighbor's property and just fell across into our yard - but the root base is still half attached in theirs.The property line is immediately behind our shed.

Message edited 8/31/2011 9:59:11 AM.

Re: Neighbor's trees fell on our yard - Need advice. (sorry, long)

i think you need to be a little patient. the tree companies are swamped right now. we have 2 trees in our yard that need to come down and it's been a total nightmare dealing with these tree people. one company said they would come by for an estimate between 9-12 pm and didn't show up until 7 pm. then they wanted to charge us three times the price to come in the next few days. otherwise, everyone is saying they can't get to us until the weekend or next week.

trust me, i know how frustrating this is. one of the trees took down our power lines (which are still live and laying across our lawn and the street) and we have a branch just dangling that could fall at any time. i would love to get everything fixed and cleaned up right now. but we are totally at the mercy of LIPA and the tree company at this point.

Re: Neighbor's trees fell on our yard - Need advice. (sorry, long)

I agree, they should be better about communicating with you. But I did hear a similar thing that if the tree falls in your yard, it's actually your expense/insurance that fixes it. I'm not sure about it partially falling, although I'd assume the same.

Sounds crazy, right? I know people who have worked with neighbors, put it under their insurance, but the neighbor paid the deductible or at least half of it (which they aren't required to do).

At least half of the biggest trees that fell in our neighborhood were ones that were clearly dead inside or were in need of removal prior to the storm. Scary thought that your neighbor's laziness or bad financial situation can affect you so much.

However, if your trees are healthy, I don't think it's a good thing to just remove them for fear of a problem in the long run. I keep hearing this from so many people and it makes me sad. My healthy trees had barely any branches fall, but I have an arborist look at them every few years. The one that has to be removed wasn't stable from the get-go, and I knew it's time was limited but the only people it's affecting is us.

Anyway, I really hope you get it resolved soon and I agree that the tree people are swamped. I called six places, three promised estimates by yesterday and only one delivered. $275 to take down one cherry tree that's barely bigger than my 1 story home.

Message edited 8/31/2011 10:55:58 AM.

Re: Neighbor's trees fell on our yard - Need advice. (sorry, long)

Even if we just went ahead and took care of it, the tree company would need to get into their yard to do so. So I feel like I am stuck!!

As for the healthy trees - we had someone come in and look at them before and he told us they were fine, but that they may still drop big limbs in storms. We had so many huge ones come down that damaged our gutters. Also the Black Locusts it seem do not have a deep root system so they fall over in the big storms - these are so close to my house I just don't think I can mentally weather another storm worrying about them coming down on us. As it was we slept in our unfinished basement Saturday night/Sunday morning!

We will still have 3 giant trees in our tiny back yard even with these removed. They are literally 10-12 feet from the back of the house.

Message edited 8/31/2011 11:03:16 AM.

Re: Neighbor's trees fell on our yard - Need advice. (sorry, long)

We are in a similar situation. My neighbor's tree snapped in half. A portion on top of her shed. The rest of the BRANCHES/LEAVES/CANOPY part in our yard. Someone in insurance told me it was my responsibility.

Our neighbor said she would take care of it. But it took down a live wire so nobody can touch anything until LIPA comes.

The tree completely ruined my veggie garden. The entire canopy fell on top of it.

I have to be patient. My neighbor still has no power with a 90 yo mother. LIPA is not even coming yet to take care of the down wire.

So I have to wait.

Re: Neighbor's trees fell on our yard - Need advice. (sorry, long)

Funny you say that about Black Locusts - there are trees all around my job that are just weak. Every year, they lose more branches and just seem to not be as strong as others. All types of trees aren't created equal and some of them are just more prone to disease and damage I guess.

Re: Neighbor's trees fell on our yard - Need advice. (sorry, long)

Ultimately we decided to have a tree expert come in to assess the situation and give us an estimate.

We will take what he says to the neighbor's and HOPE that they will share the cost with us.

Insurance and the town can't help us since it's private property and no damage was done (yet).

I know it's going to be expensive though so I really, really hope they are reasonable people!