Cracked leader fails...

[fattyphatcakes]

I gave a bid to takedown this tree back in march. One large leader had a very large crack and was actually being supported by anther limb. The homeowner didn't do anything. Got a call this past saturday because it failed that morning, hit her house and the neighbors'. Damage wasn't as bad as I had imaged it would be. Now I'll be cleaning up the mess. I hope that she does something about the rest of it before long, unfortunately her insurance company won't help with the remainder of the tree.

laters

 

[treeseer]

her insurance company won't help with the remainder of the tree.

That's hard to believe; it's so rotted. Mos tpolicies would cover the whole tree.

 

[fattyphatcakes]

Yeah, I don't understand insurance companies. From what I saw there were just a few holes in the roof that could be fixed, and no real damage to the siding, yet they will replace the roof and siding, but won't help with the rest of the tree, which is declining and has other areas of decay. If they had any common sence they would patch the roof, forget the siding and td the tree.


One more pic.

 

[R Schra]

I gave a bid to takedown this tree back in march. One large leader had a very large crack and was actually being supported by anther limb. The homeowner didn't do anything.


unfortunately her insurance company won't help with the remainder of the tree.

laters

I think they are lucky that the insurance will pay the damage as that failure was know for sometime already. I assume when an insurance investigator looks into this and finds out that this crack was known by the owner and he didnt take action they decline the payment for reperations. (you have to do what it take to prevent damage is often stated in the policy)

 

[jamie]

minging

on a site we are working on there is a big ash, at the base it forks off and has a bad case of included bark, boss said when he priced it the crotch was moving apart, i climbed it and started cutting. turns out the tree was not meant to be removed it belonged to the hotel neighbouring the site but all our maps said it was to come. we stopped cutting but by this point i had spiked all the way up and started removing a few branches....was going to tell the owner not to park any cars under it. the other stem had a hollow section about 25 foot up and about 10 foot high....

i'd remove it, he wants to keep it.

best thing was his forester mate cut some trees for him, had a husky pro with air cooling......wow i want one

jamie

 

[treeseer]

I assume when an insurance investigator looks into this

Schra, that is quite an assumption; investigation rarely occurs here; most will send out an adjuster for a quick look at most.

If the neighbors in the blue house knew how bad that lead was hanging over their fence and utility pole, and toward their house and garage, they or their ins co could demand in a certified letter that something be done about it. then, when the rest fails, it would be on your client's ins co to pay damages.

This will often spur ins co's to pay for removal. So if a little birdie was to show that hole to the neighbor....

 

[treeseer]

Dan you may be right; most of my ins work has been after storms, and that is different. If a branch from a tree hits a structure during a storm, removing the whole tree can be claimed. These homeowners need to look hard at their policy and get aggressive on the claim.

fatty, back in March when you gane the takedown bid, did you also estimate pruning back those sprawling leads? By the looks of the house these folks are not rich, so maybe they couldn't afford removal but could have paid for a reduction, which may have prevented the damage.

 

[R Schra]

Schra, that is quite an assumption; investigation rarely occurs here; most will send out an adjuster for a quick look at most.

If the neighbors in the blue house knew how bad that lead was hanging over their fence and utility pole, and toward their house and garage, they or their ins co could demand in a certified letter that something be done about it. then, when the rest fails, it would be on your client's ins co to pay damages.

This will often spur ins co's to pay for removal. So if a little birdie was to show that hole to the neighbor....

I agree, some if if's in place here. I can imagine that a neighbour sees a treecompany show up and look at a nieghbours tree and IF sometime later that tree failes and in the meantime nothing is done something CAN go out hand. Especially when someone isnt good insured or there are arguments between neighbours. I also think that its in all interrest to get shut about this. No one is served with trouble with an insurance about paying out the damage....

btw, with 'quite an assumtion' do you mean a 'well thought' assumtion or 'over the top and not in place' assumtion.... (i'm dutch you know, sometimes i miss the point.)

 

[treeseer]

btw, with 'quite an assumtion' do you mean a 'well thought' assumtion or 'over the top and not in place' assumtion....

mor elike an "assuming a lot" kind of assumption, since investigations are rare here. not quite over the top, but close.

 

[notahacker]

Some people wait too long. I find that when I give educated advice to take a tree down because it is hazardous, most neglect to take action. Just because they have not seen or experienced the potential of a failed tree, they think were blowing wind! I try to tell folks to be proactive and not reactive. Am I alone on this one?

 

[Ekka]

When are people going to take responsibility for the vegetation on their property? I get sick of hearing "well if it fails insurance will cover it".

What a load of BS that is IMO, if the failure was unpredictable and caused by storms etc then fair enough ... but where it is pure neglegence or ignorance is it any different to some-one not repairing their roof and trying to claim flood damage?

What erks me more is that responsible owners or dwellings with no vegetation are subsidising these forested properties for payouts, insurance companies should ask more questions about vegetation especially large trees within striking distance of the house and if necessary load the premium for cover or have an arborist report to validate health of tree.

Just recently I went to a claim where the owner was trying one on insurance for an uprooted tree ... ended up it was dead for years and decayed out at the base that bad that it fell over ... there was a fruiting body the size of a frizzby sticking out of it ... what a load of BS.

So, do we all wait for storms to get our work? I hope not. Is it the insurance companies job to pay for hazard reduction? I hope not.

With the bulk of the insurance jobs I've been involved with seldom do they want to pay for removal of the remaining tree, they only pay for the removal of debri and failed parts. I've even seen an exclusion for further damage resulting from a remaining tree following a claim ... the customer had to pay out of his own pocket to get the remaining $3000 gum tree gone ... and fair enough too. You want trees, you look after them and shouldn't expect insurance companies to.

 

[treeseer]

responsible owners or dwellings with no vegetation

Ekka you don't mean that having trees is irresponsible do you? I didn't thinks so. Not every responsible landowner wants their palms slain. I do agree about subsidizing--over here folks build on barrier islands and get new houses built after each storm--ludicrous.

You want trees, you look after them and shouldn't expect insurance companies to.

Absolutely true. And arborists should be presenting all reasonable ways of looking after them, including the reduction of sprawling branches from a defect. Removal is easier to do, and more buck for the effort. But people need to know about the less profitable service , in case they only have a few hundred$ to spend on their tree instead of a few thousand$

 

[Ekka]

I think you misinterpreted me Treeseer.

By responsible owners I meant people with trees that looked after them and maintained them. People who get arborists in to work on their trees to keep them safe and healthy which includes from the roots up.

So I agree with you all the way and it would be good work especially through the winter period when things quieten down a bit.

Oh yeah, that includes palms ... we do maintain a lot of them (sadly)

I'll have to post some pics of what customers have tried to claim on insurance ...

 

[treeseer]

I'll have to post some pics of what customers have tried to claim on insurance ...

Hey Ekka, we understand each other. re claims, it is downright comical, the way people try to evade their responsibility and get ins $ for problems they created.

 

[fattyphatcakes]

Well, I finished the clean up job and spoke with the homeowner again. She spoke with her ins. co. about the tree, they will give her a percentage of the money that would have gone towards the siding (which is unnecessary) to put towards the removal of the tree.

One more pic.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've done two jobs where we refused to work under them w/o doing a removal and that got the insurance company to pay and partial pay on the second one.

As for people putting it off, I looked art an American elm with one flagging limb/stem on Satrday. The flagging was high enough up I could do scribing and remove one or two stems. I called on Teusday and they saaid they did not know what they were going to do yet. I was going to do it on Saturday coming up.

Lucky for me though, I forgot that that is Moving day for the New House I woulda been in some deep kimchi!