insurance claim question

[tiggger1]

Can anyone tell me if this is normal? my neighbor lost a huge 40 foot oak tree in the bad storm we had on Sat. It hit a fence, a van, a truck, a large peice of equiptment, a office trailer and made a huge mess...( none of it is hers) the office trailer has a small dent, The fence needs to be replaced, the van is totalled and we are not sure of the damage of the truck or the other peice of equiptment. She called her insurance company on Sat to let them know and was told to call back and speak to someone on Mon... She just spent an hour on the phone with them and they are telling her that she has a $500 deductable and her rates will rise.. What she is more concerned about is that they wont send someone out to look at it until at least 48 hours and she was told not to touch anything until they come out..here neighbors own a business! They need to get their equiptment out and the 40 foot tree is blocking their entrance. She feels horrible because they are definetly going to loose work because of this ( they are a landscaping company) but her insurance company says that the 48 hour hold is normal practice......also can she stop the owners of the business from removing the debree? She is on good terms with them and doesnt want to mess that up..

Any ideas?

 

[mickeyboat]

Will the insurance company allow her to take pictures of the damage so some sort of clean up can start immediately?

A town water main broke in front of our home (it has happened several times), and there was no way we could have not started clean up for 48 hours. We took lots of pictures of the damage and showed them to the adjuster. It seemd to do the trick.

Denae

 

[ericamanda01]

I would also take a ton of pictures and video. Perhaps the insurance company is overwelmed with claims due to the storm. But I wouldn't force them to keep the equipment there. She could end up with them suing her for lost wages because of it.

 

[Skatermom23]

I would also take a ton of pictures and video. Perhaps the insurance company is overwelmed with claims due to the storm. But I wouldn't force them to keep the equipment there. She could end up with them suing her for lost wages because of it.

Agreed. I would call them and ask if photos will be okay. I can't imagine once they explain that they own a business etc.. that it wouldn't be okay to begin clean up. It isn't like they don't deal with this every day.

 

[tiggger1]

they took a ton of pictures on Sat because the police office told her too because there was some other trucks and equiptment that had damage that wasnt caused by the tree...( like dents or scrapes from backing into something ) She was also told that because the fence doenst belong to the same people who own the landscaping company( they are only leasing the property) she will have 2 claims against her house....

 

[tiggger1]

Agreed. I would call them and ask if photos will be okay. I can't imagine once they explain that they own a business etc.. that it wouldn't be okay to begin clean up. It isn't like they don't deal with this every day.

that is what I told her but they told her it was standard practice to have to wait 48 hours for someone to call her "TO SET UP AN APPOINTMENT TO SEE THE DAMAGE"

 

[VirtuallyMe]

Wow I'm impressed that the neighbors have a claim for an "act of God" damage to their property.

From Hurricane Rita where we had 12 trees down in our back yard- 8 of which were our own- the other four were gifts from the neighbors two each side- and we were told we could not claim anything from them.

One neighbor did offer to pay for half of our fence damage since it was the only fence she had for the property as well. The other side had no fence damage because their trees landed on our garage and camper (damaging both)- he made no offers and we found that because it was a storm we had to claim on our own insurance.

I would tell the neighbor to take lots and lots of pictures and I would hope that those with damage have done so as well to make their own claims if necessary.

and if I was the neighbor with the landscaping company and a tree was blocking my drive and I needed it out of there= it would already be cut and moved- because we would have gone out there with chainsaws and cut it to get our equipment out.

3 of the trees we lost in the hurricane fell back into a thankfully empty lot- all we were required to do for their clean up was cut them at the property line- leaving the majority of the tree in the vacant lot behind us- and us with the large holes and the equally large stumps

My neighbors did not help remove their trees from our property and were not required to do so either- I'm not sure of the laws where you are from but I know for us unless the tree was noted to be diseased or rotted or had some other sort of problem then it was up to the people who had the property to make their repairs and do the clean up...

 

[VioltePrincess]

this is covered under the liability portion of the homeowner's policy because it's damage to her neighbor's property. the neighbor is NOT required to wait for the adjuster to get himself into gear to do emergency repairs -- in fact, there's a portion of the policy that is devoted to reimbursement for emergency repairs.

 

[DVC-Don]

Chances are it will not be covered under her homeowners policy unless negligence on her part can be proven. Unless she knew prior to the storm that the tree was rotted or some such thing any claims by other parties would be denied. She may have coverage for about $500 for removal of the tree, that's it. The amount can vary by state.

 

[tiggger1]

well when my neighbor came back from her sons doctors appointment, they were out their cutting the tree apart. She called her insurance company and told them and they said fine, just make sure you take pictures of the damage(she did on Sat). Then someone from the business came over and talked to my neighbor...and told her that their insurance has already come over and took pictures... and will give her copies of the pictures to give to the insurance.. not sure what else while happen but at least the business is being nice about it...

 

[LMCT88]

Hope everything works out for her. We were fortunate didn't have any trees fall. We actually cut a tree down a few years ago, that was dead at the top because we were told if it fell (even if act of god), that if it was dead we were responsible, (as we knew it was), because we are responsible for the up keep of our property. I have found it is good to also check to see what State Laws are required as well as town laws for certain things are. (Thats another issue we had with a swimming pool). So now I look at both laws as sometimes are town has no clue, what the state says on certain projects, I found out when you do certain things you need to be in compliance with both.

 

[kksmom]

As a previous poster mentioned, unless she is someone legally negligent (dead or rotten tree that should have been cut down) her company will not pay (nor owe) anything to the property owners. Liability coverage will only pay if she is liable, and a healthy tree falling as a result of a storm is not a negligent loss. So she should have no worries about rates rising. The only way she would have to pay her deductible is if it were her own property that was damaged.

Now I don't feel so guilty for slacking at work (insurance office) today . . . I just discussed an insurance issue!!