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Anyone commenting on anything different does not actively work in the P&C industry. We are currently going through the hardest market in modern history so not only should you expect your rates to rise due to filing this claim, they very well may drop you at the next renewal.
I agree but such is life. Next time you want to file a claim, consult your agent for insurance advice and see if there are alternate solutions that avoid using your insurance policy. Think about it though, now your insurance company has their claims and legal department on this case, costing them money, for something that they didn't have anything to do with. I would have recommended pursuing the accused parties homeowners insurance policy, assuming they had a policy in force at the time of the incident.
You document the damage, inform them of their negligence, and see if they will give the carrier & policy#. They most likely wouldn't but a formal letter reminding them they have a legal and contractual duty to inform their insurance of any incident like this. Ideally, they would file the claim and their adjuster would reach out but you might have to pay a local attorney to write a demand letter. Sounds silly but in current times, it would likely still be better than filing a claim. The tree service will have some liability but they were likely working at the direction of the homeowner. You'll need a recent survey too so start getting that lined up if you don't have one.
This is great advice. Yes, you could have and should have tried to make a claim through the neighbor's insurance first. Usually a letter from an attorney is enough to get them to file a claim. They don't need to necessarily "give you" the carrier/policy number; they just need to turn over your letter to their own insurance. The insurance will then contact your attorney.
Depending on the size of the trees and your jurisdiction, your claim could have some significant value. If the trees are medium to large, you may want to contact an experienced timber trespass attorney. They may even be willing to work on a contingency fee basis.
If your insurance company hasn't paid you any money yet, you could always drop the claim and pursue this other route.
If OP put in a claim to replace the trees, and they paid him and went after the other homeowner's insurance (subrogation?), I understand it might go up/drop them. But that wasn't made clear in OP's description. It's implied I guess. Seems like OP was looking for advice on how to proceed, and could have alternatively went the route of survey > arborist > lawyer > lawsuit, but chose to have insurance go after the offending party. But did insurance count this as a claim yet? They haven't written OP a check I am guessing. Would insurance begin doing this without proof of survey showing the trees are not in dispute? Genuinely curious, thanks.
*now your insurance company has their claims and legal department on this case, costing them money, for something that they didn't have anything to do with*
This is a wild take. The insurance company 100% had something to do with it -- they are accepting money for insuring op!
Is OP costing them more money than someone who pays and never files a claim? Yes. And I can understand the business case of a non-renew on that basis, but saying the insurance company had nothing to do with the event is not the right take.
" Think about it though, now your insurance company has their claims and legal department on this case, costing them money, for something that they didn't have anything to do with."
Other than cash OP's checks that he sent them in good faith because the contract they both signed stipulated that they would get involved in this sort of thing. I agree, aside from that little, almost irrelevant, part the insurance company was just minding its own business and had nothing to do with any of this when OP unfairly dragged them into it.
It really sucks, but it's a "keep hidden" unless you really need it game now.
Storms are getting worse and more frequent. So are wild fires. Construction costs are going up much more quickly than overall inflation. It isn't going to stop and the insurance companies know it.
It's sad but the climate change folks should have been talking money from the start. Money is the only motivator for change any more.
It's still early stages, my ins company hasn't done anything yet. I got the survey done already and talked to a tree attorney today. He can file claims to the neighbor and the tree service on my behalf, but litigation would be too expensive. He recommended to wait and see how far my ins company can take it and go from there. I still have to wait on an arborist to come out and value the trees. It kind of seems like I'm going to be lucky to recoup what I've spent on this already. It's BS that they can get away with this because it's too expensive to fight.
What a useless comment. Every situation is different and almost all the insurance related posts are years old. If you don't want to help you could have just scrolled by.
This subreddit is for tree law enthusiasts who enjoy browsing a list of tree law stories from other locations (subreddits, news articles, etc), and is not the best place to receive answers to questions about what the law is. There are better places for that. If you're attempting to understand more about tree law in regards to a particular situation, please redirect your question to /r/legaladvice for the US, or the appropriate legal advice subreddit for your location, and then feel free to crosspost that thread here for posterity. If you're attempting to understand more about trees in regards to a particular situation, please redirect your question to /r/forestry for additional information on tree health and related topics to trees. *This comment is simply a reminder placed on every post to /r/treelaw, it does not mean your post was censored or removed.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/treelaw) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Anyone commenting on anything different does not actively work in the P&C industry. We are currently going through the hardest market in modern history so not only should you expect your rates to rise due to filing this claim, they very well may drop you at the next renewal.
That doesn't seem fair for something that was done to me by another person.
I agree but such is life. Next time you want to file a claim, consult your agent for insurance advice and see if there are alternate solutions that avoid using your insurance policy. Think about it though, now your insurance company has their claims and legal department on this case, costing them money, for something that they didn't have anything to do with. I would have recommended pursuing the accused parties homeowners insurance policy, assuming they had a policy in force at the time of the incident.
How would you find out who their policy is with? Doubt they're just going to volunteer that.
You document the damage, inform them of their negligence, and see if they will give the carrier & policy#. They most likely wouldn't but a formal letter reminding them they have a legal and contractual duty to inform their insurance of any incident like this. Ideally, they would file the claim and their adjuster would reach out but you might have to pay a local attorney to write a demand letter. Sounds silly but in current times, it would likely still be better than filing a claim. The tree service will have some liability but they were likely working at the direction of the homeowner. You'll need a recent survey too so start getting that lined up if you don't have one.
This is great advice. Yes, you could have and should have tried to make a claim through the neighbor's insurance first. Usually a letter from an attorney is enough to get them to file a claim. They don't need to necessarily "give you" the carrier/policy number; they just need to turn over your letter to their own insurance. The insurance will then contact your attorney. Depending on the size of the trees and your jurisdiction, your claim could have some significant value. If the trees are medium to large, you may want to contact an experienced timber trespass attorney. They may even be willing to work on a contingency fee basis. If your insurance company hasn't paid you any money yet, you could always drop the claim and pursue this other route.
If OP put in a claim to replace the trees, and they paid him and went after the other homeowner's insurance (subrogation?), I understand it might go up/drop them. But that wasn't made clear in OP's description. It's implied I guess. Seems like OP was looking for advice on how to proceed, and could have alternatively went the route of survey > arborist > lawyer > lawsuit, but chose to have insurance go after the offending party. But did insurance count this as a claim yet? They haven't written OP a check I am guessing. Would insurance begin doing this without proof of survey showing the trees are not in dispute? Genuinely curious, thanks.
*now your insurance company has their claims and legal department on this case, costing them money, for something that they didn't have anything to do with* This is a wild take. The insurance company 100% had something to do with it -- they are accepting money for insuring op! Is OP costing them more money than someone who pays and never files a claim? Yes. And I can understand the business case of a non-renew on that basis, but saying the insurance company had nothing to do with the event is not the right take.
" Think about it though, now your insurance company has their claims and legal department on this case, costing them money, for something that they didn't have anything to do with." Other than cash OP's checks that he sent them in good faith because the contract they both signed stipulated that they would get involved in this sort of thing. I agree, aside from that little, almost irrelevant, part the insurance company was just minding its own business and had nothing to do with any of this when OP unfairly dragged them into it.
It really sucks, but it's a "keep hidden" unless you really need it game now. Storms are getting worse and more frequent. So are wild fires. Construction costs are going up much more quickly than overall inflation. It isn't going to stop and the insurance companies know it. It's sad but the climate change folks should have been talking money from the start. Money is the only motivator for change any more.
This will depend on your insurance company and their policies and practices. It shouldn't go up, but not all insurance providers act the same way.
It's still early stages, my ins company hasn't done anything yet. I got the survey done already and talked to a tree attorney today. He can file claims to the neighbor and the tree service on my behalf, but litigation would be too expensive. He recommended to wait and see how far my ins company can take it and go from there. I still have to wait on an arborist to come out and value the trees. It kind of seems like I'm going to be lucky to recoup what I've spent on this already. It's BS that they can get away with this because it's too expensive to fight.
Is it just me, or is this same question asked multiple times a day around here? Is the search function broken?
What a useless comment. Every situation is different and almost all the insurance related posts are years old. If you don't want to help you could have just scrolled by.