A tree fell on my car! Who is gonna pay?

atnjkn312000

Happened to Me 3 yrs ago. Landlord's living but diseased Elm tree fell on my car in no more than average wind. Car was old, had Liability ins but no Comprehensive. I had been telling landlord that the tree was diseased and dangerous for 8 years, and had several witnesses to my telling him. I had no option to park elswhere because he assigned parking to tenants. Landlord was out of the country and his grown son could or would do nothing. Neighbors cut up the tree and got it off the car after several of us took Photos. The car was able to move under it's own power but too badly damaged to drive safely. I borrowed a car from a friend to get to work in. 2 weeks later when the landlord returned I found his card in my door one day when I arrived from work. It had his Property owner's Ins man's phone # on it. I called the office and they said to bring it to them so they could asses the damage. I told him it was undriveable safely. He took the details of make and model and promised to come look at it the next afternoon. We met at 3pm the next afternoon (friday), I told him the whole story, emphasizing the negligence of the landlord for leaving the tree standing. I gave him copies of the pictures of the tree on the car. He examined the remains of the diseased tree which still stood. He agreed with me that the car was a total loss. He asked me if I had looked up the value of the car. I said yes I had values from 3 sources on the internet, NADA, KBB,and Edmunds. He said they used Edmunds and he would recommend to his board of examiners that I be compensated for my loss the Edmunds value. That was Ok with me for that was the highest of the 3. 10am monday he called me at work and had two options to offer. One was a check for $925.00 and they would take the wreck. The second was a check for $865.00 and I kept the wreck. I had paid $800.00 for the car 3 yrs previous and had $600 worth of rims and tires on it. I took the second option and he brought me the check by noon. It took another week or so but I found another car the same make and model a year older and in better mechanical shape, with less mileage only 350 milles away. Considering the car was 25 years old I thought that was pretty fortunate. I paid $795.00 for the replacement. Yes the wheels and tires fit. and I saved many other parts off the wreck before I junked it. So U see, these things can work out fairly.
Where I live a landlord has the responsability to provide a reasonably safe environment for his tenants. Since a very dead tree (you said) demonstrates a hazard you should have little or no trouble proving negligence on the landlord's part whether or not you notified him that it was dead. It is his responsability to ensure safe conditions if the laws there are anything like ours. Check with local laws about landlord-tenant laws and responsabilities. Good Luck. As a VietNam vetran I commend your husband for his service to our country, and you for the sacrifice of your separation from him during his deployment. Check to see if the branch of the military he belongs to has any legal help you make make use of. Contact the Legal dept. at his base or National guard location. If I can be of any more help feel free to email me. atnjkn312000@yahoo.com.

Kay

hopefully it was a ficus :)

No but seriously I think that the landlords insurance guy should pay for it.

everlastingbutterflies

if you don't have insurance, YOU will have to pay.... no one else is liable.

Scotty Doesnt Know

The comprehensive insurance on your vehicle will cover an incident like that. The landlord's insurance will cover anything that he is liable for, but a tree falling is typically considered an "act of God" and is NOT covered by the landowner's insurance. If you dropped your coverage, then you haven't transferred the risk to anyone, and you may wind up eating the cost of repairing or replacing the vehicle.

aye

you

Bunny Rabbit

To tell you the truth, if you have no insurance for the car, YOU have to pay for it. Well, at least thts wat i think. Not 100 % sure. Thts just wat i think.

reenzz

Unless the landlord was well aware of the rotted tree...(you need proof of this)...then I'm afraid it's your problem and your bill.

Mark H

Legally, you probably have no leg to stand on.

The insurance company is not responsible because you let it expire. The landlord is also not responsible. Even though you cancel your car insurance, you should always keep storage insurance on it just for situations like this.

The landlord might be a nice guy and have his insurance take care of it, but is not obligated to. If you are nice to him he may help you. If you get upset with him, then he probably won't help you.

Basically, all you have right now is the hopes the landlord will be nice.

cheyenne

That is a claim that your auto insurance would have handled, your landlord is not responsible to pay for your car, if he does he would be a very generous man.

serve to victory

Unfortunately, you are probably going to have to pay for the damage since you do not have any insurance.

josie1980

In Michingan you are responsible unless you reported before the accident that the tree was precarious.

Sarah_Beara â„¢

You need insurance 0_o

ohdear

You have no insurance, you have to pay.

trouble_sum81

Since you have n insurance I would assume the insurance will nt pay, and landlords are greedy little fuc*s so I doubt he will either. I am sorry to hear of this.
A few years back a tree in my grandmothers neighbor's yard fell on her house and she DID have insurance... well neither of the insurance companies paid because it was an "act of god"
I think this one will come out of your pocket.
sorry!

some dude

depends on whose tree it was.

talismb

So...your driving a car with NO insurance??? Or is it just parked somewhere? If the former...your probably breaking the law...but it would SEEM like the landlord is going to pay, but if he doesn't your pretty much up a creek with out the proverbial paddle...

stingray41042

Don't listen to the other answers on here. Whoevers property the tree was on is responsible for the damage. doesn't matter if you had insurance on your vehicle or not. It would help if there were any complaints about the tree to be cut down. Check with your landlord to see if anyone had mentioned this to him. Find out who this guys property insurance is through and file a claim with them. Good Luck!

Tab

maybe you could call get cash now or go to www.nationwide.com
even though you don't have insurance on it nation may cover some of the money so that way you don't have a lot of pressure/stress on you

Pepperdine University

gawd

Alison

uhm talk to that rude guy again and clown him

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