[CrazySingleMum]

I live in a rental property that has several trees near it that are overgrown and badly need pruning, and in the recent storms (North NSW) I've been very worried that one of them will fall, probably on the house.

A few weeks ago, the REA sent round a tree person to quote on lopping them, apparently the owner has decided not to proceed with this.

My question is .... will insurance cover damage to the house from these trees if the owner knew they should have been attended to?? If they wouldn't, I'm hoping that this information will make the owner lop the trees.

[SUSIE25]

We had an inssue with trees a few years back. Large forked shape tree, half fell on the corner of our house during a big storm. About $2K damage. Other half of fork tree still there. insurance said they will cover damage if it falls again but nothing prior. Well we didnt want to be under it in case it happened anyway so we got the rest taken down. But how silly. Would have cost more after the fact. This was AAMI.



This post has been edited by SUSIE25: 23/02/2013, 11:18 AM

[Bacongirl]

Whose insurance are you claiming on? Your contents insurance or are you hopeful the landlord has building insurance?

Your own contents insurance should cover you for your contents, but they will chase the landlord to recover their costs.

If you are hoping the LL's. insurance will cover you, this might be a grey area. As his insurance would only cover the builidng, not your contents. And that's only if he actually has insurance.

[Aquarium]

Did the firm who quoted for the lopping of the trees, give an opinion on whether the trees were a danger to the house?

The insurance policy may exclude damage to the house if the owner was aware of the danger posed by the poorly maintained trees and didn't address it.

Either way as poppygirl says he's unlikely to be insuring your contents. For you to claim on his liability insurance you need to sue him and that wouldn't be easy.

[CrazySingleMum]

Ah, no I realise my contents wouldn't be insured by the house insurance but since the tree would fall on the kitchen, not much of mine would be damaged.

The tree lopper did say the trees were likely to fall and damage the house.

I guess I'm hoping that if the owner knows their insurance wouldn't cover house damage if the trees were known to be dangerous, that might make them sort the trees out.

I'm worried about trees falling into my house!