EVANSVILLE — So your tree fell on your neighbor’s house, or his tree fell on yours. You stockpiled your refrigerator with food in anticipation of a winter storm — and lost it all when the power went out.
Sometimes homeowner’s insurance will cover you, a veteran agent said Monday. Sometimes it won’t. Sometimes — if you’ve got the stomach for it — you can fight.
Start with what the insurance biz calls an “act of God” — an event beyond human control, that can’t be prevented. Like a vicious winter storm, a hurricane, flood or an earthquake.
“If your tree falls on (a neighbor’s) property, their insurance will pay for it because it’s an act of God,” said State Farm agent Bob Davis. “If their tree falls on your property, you or your insurance will have to pay for it.”
Davis stressed that these are typical but not automatic outcomes.
Let’s say you know or suspect your neighbor’s old tree — the monster that caved in your car or turned your roof from an innie into an outie — was already dead and he knew it.