Tree Company Drops Tree on House, what Should I Do?

[Jdavidson015]

Not to mention the agreement we had was their own proposal, not ours. We never actually made any demands to them. Everything I was trying to find out was purely speculative and I was attempting to get your opinions on how I view the situation

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Who is your insurance company? I would look for a different company. File the claim and afterwards change companies.

We have liberty mutual for home and auto

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Also, everything I said we are planning on suing for is per recommendation of the lawyer, which ironically is what I was saying in the first place

 

[xrac]

Not to mention the agreement we had was their own proposal, not ours. We never actually made any demands to them. Everything I was trying to find out was purely speculative and I was attempting to get your opinions on how I view the situation ---------- We have liberty mutual for home and auto ---------- Also, everything I said we are planning on suing for is per recommendation of the lawyer, which ironically is what I was saying in the first place

The lawyer will want to get all he can get. Doesn't mean that he will win.

 

[Jdavidson015]

The lawyer will want to get all he can get. Doesn't mean that he will win.

True, but we are using someone my mother has known for like 20 years or something like that, don't think he'd sell us something he couldn't do

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So based upon this, what do you think our best course of action would be?

 

[Josh]

Again, after speaking with other people in the area who have had trees, wind etc. damage their roof, ins. Paid the full cost of the new roof, this again was confirmed by multiple roofing companies we spoke with.

...after an adjuster actually told you how claims are handled.

 

[xrac]

I know of a church that had a company install a new roof it was about $20,000. The company did it wrong and there were leaks after about 3-4 months it was determined that the roof would have to be torn off and redone. The company that did the work filed bankruptcy and disappeared. The church had to pay someone else to do it again. My point is this. Unless this tree company actually has insurance and/or assets. Even if you win there is no guarantee if and when you will be paid if ever. I am sure the lawyer is charging you. You can well wind up spending several hundred dollars and still have to fix the damage yourself.

 

[Jdavidson015]

...after an adjuster actually told you how claims are handled.

Sorry, but as far as I know, things vary through out the country. I take everything you all say into consideration, but I also have to take into consideration what people from my locale say is normally done around here. It's not that I don't trust your or them, I just want as much info as I can get. I hope I don't offend anyone by this assertion

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I know of a church that had a company install a new roof it was about $20,000. The company did it wrong and there were leaks after about 3-4 months it was determined that the roof would have to be torn off and redone. The company that did the work filed bankruptcy and disappeared. The church had to pay someone else to do it again. My point is this. Unless this tree company actually has insurance and/or assets. Even if you win there is no guarantee if and when you will be paid if ever. I am sure the lawyer is charging you. You can well wind up spending several hundred dollars and still have to fix the damage yourself.

That really sucks, thankfully this is a local guy, with local ties. He does have assets, and ins. (Supposedly his deductible is only $1000) and he is allegedly friends with my neighbor. Once this is resolved, I don't believe getting payment will be too big an issue. I would think he doesn't want this public which would mean settling as we ended up doing with an unnamed self storage company who illegally cut our lock and threw out a full storage unit of our belongings.

 

[Josh]

Sorry, but as far as I know, things vary through out the country. I take everything you all say into consideration, but I also have to take into consideration what people from my locale say is normally done around here. It's not that I don't trust your or them, I just want as much info as I can get. I hope I don't offend anyone by this assertion
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No one is offended, it's just that we've been over this at least a dozen times and you keep coming back thinking you understand what's going on. Yes, thinks can vary by state, but the gentleman that was speaking from the perspective of an adjuster manager from I believe at least several states. Things don't usually vary widely state to state, particularly from a claims perspective.

Your carrier would likely know the ins and outs as well as anyone else and filing with them would get them and their attorneys on it; attorneys that deal with this all day every day. The attorney that's a friend of a cousin of a whoever is not going to be as well credentialed to help in this situation.

From an outsiders perspective, it looks like you just got it in your head they owe you a new roof and you've harassed them to the point that they don't want to deal with it anymore and they're going to let the chips fall where they may.

The attorney is probably only going to add more cost to this and likely without much different of a result. For what the attorney will cost (if they'd even take the case), it's unlikely to be less than whatever premium increases you might see. Alternatively this is probably under the threshold for small claims court and you could self-represent there. You could explain your case to a judge (or sometimes arbitrator) and they'll make their decision. Courts don't generally give out free roofs, they generally do what would seem fair. If they damaged a part of your roof, they should fix that part. The entire integrity of the roof isn't in question here and no one reasonable will believe that.

My guess, as a non-attorney, if you go to court you're going to walk away with less than $2,000. Them cutting down trees that they weren't supposed to isn't really going to matter much unless we're talking about 100 year old cedars that have legitimate lumber value, not ornamental trees.

Have fun with whatever you do and I look forward to seeing the updates. I'd bet good money you don't end up getting anything near a free roof out of this, even a full side. At best, maybe ACV on half the roof.

 

[Jdavidson015]

[/QUOTE] Your carrier would likely know the ins and outs as well as anyone else and filing with them would get them and their attorneys on it; attorneys that deal with this all day every day. The attorney that's a friend of a cousin of a whoever is not going to be as well credentialed to help in this situation.[/QUOTE]
Yes, but as I said, our ins. Agent said filing brought them would cause our rates to increase (which we will not accept), even though we had nothing to do with this, and the tree company is the liable party. Our friend is a litigator, which to the best of my understanding is what this is going to become

[/QUOTE]From an outsiders perspective, it looks like you just got it in your head they owe you a new roof and you've harassed them to the point that they don't want to deal with it anymore and they're going to let the chips fall where they may.[/QUOTE]
Again, we never made any demands of the company, what I said here, never left this forum. The only thing we did demand was that we call our own roofers for the job and not use just whoever he wanted, who we may not know and may suck but be cheap for his own satisfaction. The proposal we agreed upon that I also referenced earlier was of their own doing, not ours, with the exception of the leak protection because as I stated, from what we found out, roofers will not warranty patch work and we should be covered atleast in that area because he damaged it causing the patch work to be necessary.


[/QUOTE] Them cutting down trees that they weren't supposed to isn't really going to matter much unless we're talking about 100 year old cedars that have legitimate lumber value, not ornamental trees. [/QUOTE]
From what I have found out, that have absolutely no bearing on the value of the tree, it goes by the cost to replace that tree, which is based upon the diameter of the trunk which is then converted to the cross-sectional area in (cm), and the type of tree which through some formula with different values for a whole ton of crap like health, growth etc. is how he value the of the tree is obtained

 

[Josh]

I stand by everything I said.

 

[Jdavidson015]

I stand by everything I said.

And you have every right to do so, I'm simply stating what I have found out about this stuff from hours upon hours of research