If you reported it then you should need do nothing unless the insurance company contacts you for the deductible payment, if any.

Call the power company.

take pictures and notes. you called. now wait.

Not sure insurance pays to cut down trees.

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Our neighbor said they called to report it, but CMP said it was not their priority at the time. We then called our agent and was told they would report that to CMP on our behalf. We're so new to this, so trying to figure out how to do things the right way. Thanks.

We did. Will do.

Me neither. In our policy, they cover up to $1k in damages to other's property. We'll definitely follow up tomorrow.

I think the condition of the tree matters as well. We had a healthy living tree take out the neighbors garage. Insurance paid, said if it was dead, they wouldn't have covered it

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r/treelaw

Really? I wouldn't think of that. How much did your insurance company pay if you wouldn't mind me asking?

CMP will take care of it but you will have to be patient and persistent. They might have to be reminded of it.

Why haven't you had the tree cut down before it can damage anything? Google is a useful tool. Use it. If it falls on the line, the power company will take care of it. If it falls on someone else's property you will be responsible. Take care of it before it falls! 🤦🏼‍♀️

No!!!!! Call a tree service. The power company will only take care of it after it comes down on the line.

It's because this is our first time we encountered this issue. We were told to call insurance company first so we did. And it's unfortunate that it occurred right before Christmas eve and we were told by CMP our issue wasn't their priority.

This is important. Tree law gets tricky, but some general guidelines:

• If a healthy tree falls and does damage to your own property, your insurance will possibly cover the damages.
  • If the healthy tree damages your neighbor's property, you may not be legally responsible and they will need to make their own insurance claim.
• If the tree was obviously dead, unhealthy, or damaged previously, then the insurance company may say you were negligent in not maintaining/removing the tree and they will not cover the damage.
  • If this tree does damage to your neighbor's property, then you may be held financially responsible.

I would call a tree service ASAP. Ideally you just want the trees taken down with no damage to anything. They could be fine for days, weeks, years... But those things are coming down. It's worth it to pay a little bit up front to avoid hassle, preserve your relationship with the neighbors, avoid further damage. Etc. Etc.

You have done very well.

In recognizing the risk of damage and calling for help, ya done good.

In this complicated situation where the power company is still in emergency mode getting other people's power back on you can go to the next level and call around for tree companies to come out. They are probably quite busy too so call a few and if they can't come out soon, maybe call your fire department. They may be willing to take a look and if it is a serious risk they may have more sway in getting an expert involved or even trying to stabilize the tree to prevent damage.

Keep asking for help is all most people can do in a situation like this. Cutting trees is risky, cutting unstable trees is dangerous. This is a situation where there aren't many people who can really deal with it so if it does fall, at least you can know you did what you could.

Forgot to mention that in some cases trees between your property markers and the a street are owned by the town so if that is the case call your town office and public works may take a look at it and even stabilize it or cut it down.

Seriously, I live on wooded lot. I spent over a grand having trees taken down safely just a couple of months ago. Have it taken down immediately. If it falls on the line, then you're the asshole who didn't pay for preventive maintenance. There are many companies in Maine you can call. Don't wait. You took pictures and told your insurance already. Insurance is for after an accident, they don't want to cover things that can be prevented. You have given them proof to deny a claim if the tree falls on your neighbors property. They'll want to know why you knew there was an issue and didn't have it taken care of. Google tree service. They take it down safely in a short time. They can also let you know what other trees on the property may be a problem. You wouldn't send a picture or call your insurance company if you had a leaking pipe. You would call a plumber to take care of it. You are in Maine. Get a tree guy.

Thank you so much! We will definitely look into that tomorrow as well.

Will make some calls for sure tomorrow. Thank you.

reddit is a great place to get free advice from professionals of all types

Its honestly a great starting point for legal questions and all types of advice

e: obviously not all the advice is good. but much is solid and some is excellent.

I don't believe this is a case where insurance is going to cover anything for you, but also as an FYI, it's not a great idea to put small claims in to your insurance if you can avoid it.

Filing a claim gets you rated as someone who is more likely to file a claim again and your annual rate will go up for that risk (and when you try to get quotes from another company, they will also take those claims into account). Home insurance is great for major and catastrophic damages, but not for smaller expenses.

This was years ago. Honestly forget.

You seem to know quite a bit about tree law, we should go into business with me as i am an expert in bird law. They go hand in hand.

If we can get a maritime law expert to join us we'll have the Mainest situations covered!

My neighbor had this problem. He was over 80 years old and he told me once the tree falls on your neighbors property it is now their problem and no longer yours. He even got the police involved and this is what they told him.

Thank you. We just followed up with our agent and were told exact same thing that it would be neighbors problem if it falls onto theirs. Anyway, we called tree removal company to get it removed hopefully by tomorrow. We just wanted to get this done.

Tree guy here (Kings Pine Tree Service), insurance will most definitely pay in certain situations. If you’d like a quote or to have someone come take a look let me know.

Which the about to fall down part makes it fuzzy. Now it's a known hazard that you have time to deal with it might not stay being an act of god

Just pay to have the tree removed. Even if it just took out your neighbor's fence you could be looking at more than the insurance would cover. Not to mention if its in danger of hitting a garage, car, etc. Could be very costly.

We decided to have the tree partially removed and laid flat on our property for $650 as the tree guy suggested. It's off our neighbor's property now. Everyones happy i hope. Thank you all again for advice!! Good lesson learned for us as home owner.

No, you’ll still need a meth and crank lawyer(s)

Nothing like skirting homeowners responsibilities onto third party companies and eventually tax payers.

I just hope an untrained person doesn’t tries to cut trees near a power line.

Yeah, professional tree services don’t exist in Maine.

Not trying to say they don’t. Chill I just was hoping somebody wasn’t going to make a fatal mistake. I know too many untrained who own a chainsaw who take risks too often.

Sorry I think you missed doesn’t?

“I just hope an untrained person tries to cut trees near a power line” and thought you were being snarky. My apologies.

/thread. These are all the answers right here.

On a related note, here’s a YouTube video of a similar situation and the various scenarios and who is responsible is explained.

Apologies. Edited.