How to best prepare incase a tree falls on your home, garage, or car

Before bad weather moves in there are important steps homeowners need to take to protect themselves from downed trees.

No matter who owns the tree you can file a claim with your insurance company.

In most cases, an insurance company isn't going to spend time trying to figure out where a tree or branch originated. But it is also important to protect yourself and your property before a tree comes down.

When severe weather strikes there's often damage from downed trees.

On July 17, 2024, an uprooted tree crashed right on top of the Smart family's roof in Chester County. It gave everyone a real scare.

"My granddaughter was in the room and she said all she heard was a big boom," said Patricia Smart of West Caln Township.

This is very important even before storms hit: have an arborist evaluate your trees to make sure they're healthy and not posing a risk.

"Quite frankly it's like any other type of property maintenance, whether you're going to have a sidewalk or a driveway or a light post, you're going to want to make sure that you have somebody on-site on a regular basis to take a look at all those things," said David Langsam of Injury Law Partners.

If a storm does wreak havoc take immediate action, including snapping some photos.

"If there's a tree that comes down and causes property damage obviously you're going to typically go through the process of submitting a claim to your homeowner's insurance company," Langsam said.

Most homeowner insurance policies do cover tree-inflicted damage to structures like homes, garages, and decks.

If a tree falls on a car, auto insurance policies will often pay for the damage. But if there's no damage, you'll have to pay out-of-pocket for the clean-up or removal of the tree itself, unless you have an insurance rider or additional coverage.

Sometimes it isn't clear who owns the tree maybe it's the city or township's responsibility or maybe the base or a branch covers two property lines.

"One of the things you can do if there's ever a question about property ownership, a tree or otherwise, is to hire a qualified surveyor to come out and evaluate what they see in the field," said Langsam. "Do research based on what may be in the record of deeds office and then give you some insight."

If you are concerned about a neighbor's tree make sure you let your neighbor know about that concern in writing and then try to work with your neighbor to get it checked out.

If the neighbor refuses, it might be worth it in the long run for you to hire an arborist yourself to get it inspected.

And if you do hire an arborist make sure that person is licensed and check the business' background.