Tree falls on my moving vehicle?

Question

My husband went to work and a tree falls on my husbands vehicle. We dont have comprehensive coverage and the tree that fell didnt look diseased however it was covered with vains. Doesnt it choke the tree causing it to be weakend? Because it happened to my tree causing my tree to collapse. It wasnt windy nor did it storm that night. The tree's roots were ripped out of the ground and it looked like it broke near the bottom trunk. Who could I contact to examine the tree? What kind of tree damaged status would a homeowners insurance cover?

Answer 1

Nope, choke won't weaken  a tree.   Without comp, you are on the hook for this.

If it was someone else's homeowners policy, theoretically, two things have to happen:   1.  the tree has to be a hazard, in the opinion of a reasonably prudent person (like rotted out, etc), AND, 2.  you have to prove that the homeowner KNEW that the tree was hazardous, and didn't do anything about it.  

You can hire a tree specialist to ask them about it.  But it doesn't matter.  I've been doing insurance a long time, and I've NEVER seen a homeowners policy pay for the damage done by a tree.   It's almost impossible to prove knowledge.

Sorry.

Answer 2

Answer from a General Insurance Agent

I’m sorry this may not be what you want to hear.

The Home Owners Insurance would not cover this loss. There is no need to investigate the tree, your just wasting your time and money.

Home Owners insurance does not afford comprehensive coverage for your vehicle.

The Home Owner nor the Home Owners Insurance would be "Liable" to pay for this act of nature. Home owners Insurance will cover for certain losses for which the home owner is "Liable" but it is not possible to establish liability against yourself.

It's not a good idea to try and establish a liability case against yourself and to your own benefit. It would look suspiciously like fraud to your insurer and could likely get your Home owners insurance policy cancelled or non-renewed due to owners "maintenance issues".

You asked, "What kind of tree damage would it cover?". If lightning or another peril covered under your policy effected the tree to fall on your insured home and damage it, then the damage to your home would be covered, tree falls on your car,, then no, the car is not covered.

I know this may be frustrating, but on the brighter side you can be thankful that he was not injured.

Take care and Best wishes

Answer 3

Home owner's insurance typically includes your liability to someone else's vehicle, but for insurance on your own vehicle it has to be vehicle comprehensive.

One can almost imagine having both homeowner and vehicle comprehensive insurance and knowing that you could not collect from both, you would cancel one of those coverages.

If you and your spouse live separately, you can sue each other for damages resulting from problems with the other person's home.

That  implicitly makes each of you able to use the other's home owner public liability coverage.

If you share the same home you likely can not claim against public liability coverage.