Lesson Learned

[HarleyDog]

Again, I have been reminded that sometimes life is not fair. For over 3months We have been renovating our detached garage into a awesome man cave. I have about a weeks left of work until completion and I am excited as heck. Then on Wednesday, my step son calls me at work to tell me the neighbors tree fell on my shed. I'm thinking no big deal as long as nobody was hurt. I come home from work later that evening (it was dark) to find this tree has split my shed in half. It was a huge friggin tree. I go to bed and plan on inspecting closer at daylight and to work from home so I can contact neighbors insurance company.

Morning comes and I do my inspection and I notice a large branch which appeared to be laying on the roof of the man cave. I walk inside and water is pouring through the ceiling (it was raining). I climb into the attic to get a closer look to find a huge tree truck snapped off laying in there. I inspect further and low and behold there was about a 2ft hole and 3 other holes ranging Bowling ball size to softball size. Brand new insulation, ceiling lights and new electrical wiring all getting doused with water.

I contact neighbors insurance company and they basically told me that would be for my insurance to cover. I'm pissed now. I called my insurance provider and they explained if a neighbors tree falls onto my property during a storm than it's our responsibility to cover the damages. I just wrapped over 12K into renovating this building and now I'm sick inside. I wanted to just puke as this was a very cruel joke life was playing on me.

My insurance company is going to cover the claim, I just have to cover the deductible. When I asked HTF is the neighbor not liable, I was informed in cases like these caused by a storm the only way the neighbor would be responsible is if I had proof that I informed him of the dangerous tree and my concerns. WTF? My neighbor is a dick and I don't speak to him, ever! Plus, it's not like I would just walk onto his property and inspect his friggen trees? The tree was noticeably dead and should have been taken care of by the neighbor.

Long story short, I'm only going to be out of the deductible, but I'm sure my rates will go up all because of someone else's neglect. My completion of the man cave is going to be set back several months and now I have a ton of more shit on my plate to take care of while my neighbor will be sitting on his back porch watching me repair all these things while sipping on lemonade and not giving a damn. Lazy bastard didn't even apologize.

If you have neighbors with trees you are concerned could fall and do damage to your property, I strongly suggest you write a letter, notarize it and send registered mail to your neighbor just as a precaution. He's damn lucky the Bengals didn't make the playoffs this year, or someone may have got hurt. What a dick!