RicodJour wrote:
On Jul 23, 11:06 am, "Art" wrote:
"RicodJour" wrote in message
On Jul 22, 11:22 pm, Terry wrote:
My mother had a car hit a pine in the front yard and she said that the
insurance paid her for it.
My home owners insurance has a 1k deductible with replacement cost.
Lightning hit a very old very tall pine tree at the edge of my yard a
couple of days ago. The tree was split from at least half way up to
the ground. I am pretty sure it killed the tree and it will have to
be removed. I was wondering how much I could get for the tree and if
homeowners insurance should pay to have it taken down?
Read your policy. Lightning hitting a tree would probably be
considered an act of god.
Many acts of God are covered by policies. That is why you buy insurance.
On the other hand, damaged caused by wars..... acts of humans, may not be
covered.

- Please note the word I used - probably. The OP would need to check
his own policy to make sure.
- What's a tall tree "worth"?
- The OP hasn't been damaged - yet - the tree has.
- If he "wins" the battle with the insurance company, it's a "ding" on
his record and he'll pay for it eventually.
- Depending on the OP's location, the $1000 deductible could easily
exceed the cost of taking the tree down.
- Pine trees are one of the easier trees to take down.
- The OP made no mention of getting quotes. He has no idea what it
will cost and he's already talking about insurance claims.

The OP should come to terms with the fact that he'd be shooting
himself in the foot by making a claim.

I disagree on almost each and every point other than pines being
relatively easy to take out/down...

He probably has been damaged economically if the tree was a good
specimen the loss of it can have a negative impact on the house value.

He is also out of pocket for cost of replacing it and/or removing it in
order to do so.

Insurance is, as you say earlier, carried for the purpose of being "made
whole" after an event which is covered. While this particular cost
might not be too much over the deductible, it makes little sense in the
scheme of things to pay premiums and then act as if one is self-insured.

It's best to talk w/ the insurance people first if there's any question
of whether it is or isn't a covered incident. Unless it is an actual
emergency that it is now imminently in danger of falling and doing
additional damage to the residence and/or other property or persons,
that's the sequence I would follow, too. If, otoh, there was a clear
and present danger, I would get the situation stabilized asap and deal
w/ the insurance later. Of course, if OP has time to come futz around
on usenet, that isn't an issue here. (Examples where it really is an
issue would be a damaged roof which needs immediate tarp'ing to prevent
further water damage from rain, etc. These costs are covered by
homeowners' policies because the insurance carriers understand they're
reducing the subsequent liability/exposure by reducing mitigating
further damage.

imo, ymmv, etc., ...

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