REVscene Automotive Forum - Neighbours tree fell into your yard?

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Neighbours tree fell into your yard?

Relevent to the recent windstorm that blew half of vancouvers trees over. What if part of your neighbours tree fell over into you hard? Now that its within your own property line, who's responsible for the costs of the cleanup?

Send mother nature the bill

talk to your neighbour and see what both of you can come up with, if you and your neighbour are both unwilling or not capable of cleaning up, hire someone and split the bill.

if your neighbour is being a dick and will not take the common responsibility, or if the part of the tree that fell on your property can be manage between you and a freind with a saw just do it yourself, sometimes being proactive in a situation like that will cost you less stress dealing with a bad neighbour. but if there are damages to your property thats a different story.

call the city you live in and see if they'll deal with it.

Seems in most cases you would be responsible for cleaning it up and the associated costs, any damage would have to go through your home insurance policy, not your neighbors. This is unless the neighbor knew the tree was a hazard and was negligent in maintaining it.

Here is an article in The Star in Toronto from last year that covered this

Quote:

During last month’s ice storm your neighbour’s tree fell and damaged your house. So, who pays?

For most of us, this should be covered under a homeowner insurance policy, whether the branches are from your trees or your neighbour’s. If you have all perils coverage, you may also claim for any damages caused to your car as well.

But it’s not always that clear-cut, as the following case shows:

Ted Doucette and Daina Parent were neighbours in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. During a late November windstorm in 1991, a 60-foot poplar in Parent’s yard, about five feet from the boundary, snapped. The tree fell on Doucette’s fence, his snowmobile trailer and his motor home. He sued for damages.

A court later heard that an arborist believed the tree broke because of internal decay. You would not have been able to notice this by looking at the tree, even though it did have some dead branches.

In a 1996 decision, Justice George Valin of the Ontario Superior Court ruled that Parent was not responsible for the damages.

He argued:

“A property owner must take steps to ensure that trees located on his/her property are not hazardous to others,” he said. “It would seem to me that an owner can be held liable for failing to maintain a tree where the exterior of the tree provides sufficient warning signals. The signals would include general deterioration, a scarred trunk, discoloured bark, and a large amount of defoliation or dead branches.”

But since Parent was unaware of any exterior signs of trouble, she was not responsible, he ruled.

The judge also cited another decision which stated that in common law, a person who allows land to remain in its natural state is under no obligation to his neighbour in respect to what is growing on it. The court said the neighbour must protect himself, or suffer the consequences.

Judge Valin then stated that Parent was not liable for damage to Doucette’s property since growing a tree is a natural use of land.

Yet the judge also quoted a 1991 decision of the BC Court of Appeal in Hayes v. Davis. Davis’ tree fell during a windstorm and damaged Hayes’ property. In this case, Davis had been warned by Hayes that the tree was dangerous and she did nothing to fix it. The court ruled Davis was responsible because she was aware of the potential threat and did nothing.

Here are related questions:

If branches fall in my yard but do not damage anything, who pays to remove them?
You will have to clean this up yourself, even if the branches come from your neighbour’s tree. Most insurance policies do not pay for this type of damage.

Can I cut down or trim my neighbour’s tree if I think it is dangerous?

If you think the branches of your neighbour’s tree are too close to your home, you can cut them back to the property line, as long as you do not injure the tree. You cannot cut down the tree or enter your neighbour’s land to trim branches without permission.

The lessons are as follows:

If you are suspicious that a tree is sick or dying, get the advice from an arborist before doing anything or warning your neighbour. You can find an arborist at ISA Ontario | International Society of Arboriculture, Ontario Chapter ISAO

If your tree branches fall into your neighbour’s yard, in my opinion, you should be a good neighbor and assist in their removal;

Check your insurance policy to make sure you are covered, should this ever happen again.

If your neighbour?s tree falls in your yard, who pays? | Toronto Star

Only speaking about Vancouver as I don't know other City bylaws although I imagine it's the same.

COV has no jurisdiction to intervene b/c it's private property so it's a civil issue.

I would have thought this would be a city issue due to it being a natural cause. My neighbors tree got struck my lightning(inside property line) a few months back. It was deemed dangerous so the city came and removed the tree. This was in Burnaby though....

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvst8 (Post 8676022)

In Vancouver there's a very clear cut boundary of City Property vs Private Property. If it was a City tree that fell in your property, 100% they would deal with it. Abandoned garbage on City property same thing, abandoned on private property, you're problem. There are liability issues when you have City people coming onto your property. There really are only a hand full of departments in all of the City of Vancouver that can even come onto your property to do things. Property Use, Trades inspectors, Water and Sewer Ops only after you sign an agreement just to name a few.

If there was no damage to your house. Grab a 6 pack a chainsaw an axe and go to town on it. Make your neighbor help.

Camp fire ban was lifted.. S'mores tonight!

this one of those cases like some of these other threads where OP posts and is concerned and ready to take legal action without even talking to said neighbor?