Neighbours fallen tree has trapped me and my neighbour in our homes

[FinanceHo]

The drive we share is completely blocked by this behemoth tree-

neighbour has said they rent and the clear up is nothing to do with them

i I can’t get to work

any advice

I’m fairly certain if I got a friend the drag the tree off into the main road it would get shifted fairly soon.

anyone had similar

Do you own a saw?

How would a picture of a tree across your drive identify where you live?

This just isn’t true. High winds and storms can bring down perfectly healthy trees. And in those cases it isn’t the tree owner’s responsibility to pay for damage to other people’s property.

Do angels have cameras ?
maybe they could lift it up to heaven ?

"You’re not allowed to obstruct someone’s access to the public highway."

No doubt the CPS will prosecute the fallen tree to the full extent of the law lol!

This is madness! Have they told the landlord? They’re either cunts or incompetent. Get the tree moved (put it on their front it on their land as much as you can) and if the landlord, the letting agent or the tenants complain say “well what the fuck else did you expect me to do?”

When I wrote that OP said she had asked the tenants

"I asked- they refused but told me the letting agency and they won’t confirm if it’s one of their properties following a call today"

I was commenting on the letting agents lack of co-operation in not confirming if it was one of their properties.
As letting agents they should also have been able to advise OP whose responsibility it is.

But I take your point on whose ultimate responsibility it is...and that OP should contact her buildings insurance, unless OP can prove the tree was already unsound or likely to come down due to prexisting damage etc.

We had a branch of a big willow tree down, these things weigh an absolute ton, plus with all the branches attached, it is not easy to just drag them out of the way. It took our farmer neighbour with his tractor to shift it, and that was just a branch, albeit a large one.

Frankly I would be nagging and nagging the neighbour until they got onto the landlord.

We had a lilac come down in our garden a few years ago. It was a smallish tree, about 3m tall but absolutely impossible to move ourselves, we got a tree surgeon to deal with it. Then kept the foot snd burnt it in our firepit a few yearslater once it was seasoned

The OP should do the following:

1. contact the council. If there's any of the tree on the pavement or road and it's blocking her access they should do something about it. They will also be able to advise her who is responsible and will probably have recommended tree surgeons that may or may not be cheaper than contacting them direct. They might also be able to direct her to any financial help that might be available for low income households in her situation.
2. she should contact her home insurance or, if she's a tenant, she should contact her letting agency / landlord to let them know. Her landlord should have landlord insurance to cover the building and garden which should cover this.

I'm glad she got a lift to work but just wanted to say I'm surprised an 'act of god' applies to this, it seems very unfair to have deal with this as a low income household

Op we are assuming you own your house

Is that correct?

It’s shocking how many people think that someone else must pay for any misfortune they encounter. Ten pages in and we still have comments about how the ‘landlord is responsible’. No s/he isn’t. Storm damage is classed as force majeure. Unless negligence was involved, NO ONE is responsible. That’s why it’s strongly advisable to have your own insurance, to cover accidents like this that damage your property.

It’s the same as if your semi-detached neighbour’s house goes on fire and damages your own. You claim on your own home insurance for damage to your own property. Or, if the flat above you has a burst pipe and floods your property below, ruining all your belongings. You claim on your own contents insurance.

These things are accidents. They are no one’s fault. Expecting to be compensated by someone else when it’s not due to any fault or negligence is totally unreasonable and the law recognises this.

Except that it's the landlord's tree/potential-firewood.......

This is true, however, the tree has also fallen on their own property, which they are responsible for. It would be incredibly petty of the LL to pay only for what's on their property to be removed when the difference between doing that and removing the whole tree is likely to be a few quid.

A decent LL/person would either pay for the whole thing or reach out to OP directly to come to an arrangement to pay the difference.

Agree with many others, the first thing I would do is contact my house insurers.

They might at least pay reasonable expenses for you until it gets moved (taxis to work for example) and reclaim from your neighbour/landlord.

Has the neighbour confirmed that they called the letting company? That’s what’s unclear from your posts so far.

You then say you called all the letting companies - are you saying the neighbour gave you the wrong one? I’m confused.

Too right!

quite right. I've had this issue on another thread here. Why do people not know this? A photo can identify where the photo was taken, when it was taken and who took it on google. Why are people so neglient here? Asking the poster to give this information? Totally thick as blinkin' mince.

Go out the back door and get a bus to work?

If it’s an Act of God he has no obligation here, so why would he do that ? And would his insurance even pay out if there was no liability on his part ?

The rules round trees are ridiculous
a tree feel into neighbours garden from the garden behind
the person who’s tree it was tried to claim on there insurance it was rejected
the neighbour who’s shed and fence had been flattened had to claim on there own insurance and were told it was there responsible for clearing anything on there land yet the wood still belonged to tree owner
I suspect this will be the case with OP’s car if she wants to claim
the only hope is if you can PROVE it’s was neglected then the tree owner is 100% liable

If OP has home insurance they will be the ones paying for the removal/repairs if this is declared an Act of God. The landlord has no liability unless he was negligent. If the tree was heathy and the wind brought it down it’s not his fault.

This is what happened to us three years ago. Tree came through our back fence in high winds, flattened a greenhouse and demolished part of a low wall. The tree was healthy and both ourselves and the neighbour who owned the tree had to claim on our own home insurance policies for the damage to our respective properties. Regarding the wood - our insurance advised that normally permission to dispose of it is assumed as given when tree owner agrees to proceed with removal and repairs. We wanted to keep some logs for our wood burner so had to get separate permission for that as technically they still belonged to the neighbour.

I live in an area with lots of tree fall when stormy. Reaching out to neighbours on Facebook is a good call. Remember you dont need the whole tree gone just enough to get your car out. With a big tree thats easily a few hundred kilos of wood.
Sliced into rounds it’s a nice trailer/ big car load.

I would reach out again to letting agents to see if they’d be happy to greenlight it. My drive cuts through a big estate and there is a great whopping branch ( easily a third of tree it’s split off at top of trunk) I’ll be chainsawing it and lobbing it in the barn to keep me cosy in two years!

Oh. Okay. I'll be ashamed of myself now then. Please throw rotten tomatoes at me.

If that was possible, I'm sure the OP would have done it, so she must live in a mid terrace or even a back to back.

Plus I think people are underestimating how much trees weigh. Even a smallish section weighs many kilos so a fallen 'behemoth of a tree' could weigh tonnes. Moving it needs machinery and/or a chainsaw to cut it into liftable sections.

OP can you take AL for today, so you at least don't lose any money?

Trees and the Law: What You Need to Know | RHS Advice anything useful here?