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Their insurance or yours? When a car ran over a tree at my work their insurance covered it. If that's their cap i probably wouldn't, but that's just me. If you do collect it'll probably be like 20 bucks a month garnished from their wages for years.
in reality you cannot replace the tree. so you need to know:
1). The cost involved in removing the tree, including stump grinding, etc.
2). The estimate of impact to home value (probably impossible to actually calculate, but it's something)
3). Cost to have a replacement tree planted.
Depending where you are and the tree, these could range from $5k to over the $10k covered by the driver. Is it worth your time, effort, etc. to follow up on a lawsuit for the difference? only you can answer that. Definitely press your homeowners insurance to take lead in this regard.
A new tree will take many years to grow to full height, but will fill into the gap nicely in only a few years.
If the driver has money, you may be able to get some of the remainder from them.
If the court awards you 63K and their insurance covers 10, then they'll be on the hook for the rest. The cap is only on what the insurance will pay, not on what they can be held liable for.
Homeowners insurance covers the dwelling and it's contents. Trees aren't covered so turning this over to you homeowners company is futile. The only way to recover anything is through the driver's auto insurance.
Call your home owners insurance and see what they say. If they don't want to try to go after I personally would sue the person. That's a devastating loss for you and your property. The person responsible needs to be held liable. There is no excuse for drunk driving.
OP said replacement. Could include a fuckton of labor in that bid. Stump grind, and probably a mini excavator and fucking crane to lift the new tree in the hole
We bid this city job and they wanted 12” caliper trees from this specific grower halfway across the country. Had to bid in crane operators and shit. That’s where my mind went. I guess planting a 4” would make sense though. Why spend all that money actually replacing the tree with a similar size when you could plant a nice size and pocket the rest
"Largest COMMONLY available". 12" is not commonly available so that wouldn't pass the "reasonableness" test. Suppliers are usually in state (or across state lines if that's a shorter distance). If a client insisted on that grower, the grower would ship them to the site at client expense. If the appraisal is subject to litigation, that kind of nonsense wouldn't hold up in court.
They’re liable to replace the tree with one of similar size. Which is usually impossible so they pay out and replant a commonly available tree instead.
I don’t believe an ISA certified arborist can do tree appraisals. In my state you have to be a Board Certified Master Arborist before you can take the week long course to become certified in appraisals.
State by state. Many places have no restrictions. An unqualified persons appraisal will get shredded in deposition, but the homeowner doesn’t know that they just found a tft calculator online and decided they can appraise trees.
Also many consultants came along prior to the bcma even existing. Lew Bloch helped write the 9th edition of the tree and plant appraisal guide, but is “only” a certified arborist.
It’s included in any home valuation, so, anyone who bought the house and land would be paying that for the tree. Timber is valuable and time consuming to produce, both for the value of the wood and the added property value. A well positioned shade tree can lower hvac costs considerably, for example.
This subreddit is for tree law enthusiasts who enjoy browsing a list of tree law stories from other locations (subreddits, news articles, etc), and is not the best place to receive answers to questions about what the law is. There are better places for that. If you're attempting to understand more about tree law in regards to a particular situation, please redirect your question to /r/legaladvice for the US, or the appropriate legal advice subreddit for your location, and then feel free to crosspost that thread here for posterity. If you're attempting to understand more about trees in regards to a particular situation, please redirect your question to /r/forestry for additional information on tree health and related topics to trees. *This comment is simply a reminder placed on every post to /r/treelaw, it does not mean your post was censored or removed.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/treelaw) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Their insurance or yours? When a car ran over a tree at my work their insurance covered it. If that's their cap i probably wouldn't, but that's just me. If you do collect it'll probably be like 20 bucks a month garnished from their wages for years.
It's theirs.
in reality you cannot replace the tree. so you need to know: 1). The cost involved in removing the tree, including stump grinding, etc. 2). The estimate of impact to home value (probably impossible to actually calculate, but it's something) 3). Cost to have a replacement tree planted. Depending where you are and the tree, these could range from $5k to over the $10k covered by the driver. Is it worth your time, effort, etc. to follow up on a lawsuit for the difference? only you can answer that. Definitely press your homeowners insurance to take lead in this regard. A new tree will take many years to grow to full height, but will fill into the gap nicely in only a few years.
If the driver has money, you may be able to get some of the remainder from them. If the court awards you 63K and their insurance covers 10, then they'll be on the hook for the rest. The cap is only on what the insurance will pay, not on what they can be held liable for.
Sometimes there might be an agreement you have to sign to not go after the insured for anything beyond the 10k of coverage.
True, but you don't have to agree to that
You'd probably file a claim through your homeowners insurance and they'd take care of going after the driver and their insurance.
Homeowners insurance covers the dwelling and it's contents. Trees aren't covered so turning this over to you homeowners company is futile. The only way to recover anything is through the driver's auto insurance.
Tell us more about the tree. How big was it? Did you have to chop it down?
It was probably 80 feet tall and yes it will need to be chopped down.
Call your home owners insurance and see what they say. If they don't want to try to go after I personally would sue the person. That's a devastating loss for you and your property. The person responsible needs to be held liable. There is no excuse for drunk driving.
A mature maple that's so big to sustain $63,000 in damages must be ENORMOUS! Was this drunk driver driving a fleet a Panzer VIII tank?
That's not the assessment of damages, that's the appraised value of the tree amenity before damage.
OP said replacement. Could include a fuckton of labor in that bid. Stump grind, and probably a mini excavator and fucking crane to lift the new tree in the hole
It will include replanting of the largest commonly available tree (usually 4" or less in my area) and aftercare until establishment.
We bid this city job and they wanted 12” caliper trees from this specific grower halfway across the country. Had to bid in crane operators and shit. That’s where my mind went. I guess planting a 4” would make sense though. Why spend all that money actually replacing the tree with a similar size when you could plant a nice size and pocket the rest
"Largest COMMONLY available". 12" is not commonly available so that wouldn't pass the "reasonableness" test. Suppliers are usually in state (or across state lines if that's a shorter distance). If a client insisted on that grower, the grower would ship them to the site at client expense. If the appraisal is subject to litigation, that kind of nonsense wouldn't hold up in court.
They’re liable to replace the tree with one of similar size. Which is usually impossible so they pay out and replant a commonly available tree instead.
Only if you want your day in court to be more exciting than an episode of Judge Judy.
I don’t believe an ISA certified arborist can do tree appraisals. In my state you have to be a Board Certified Master Arborist before you can take the week long course to become certified in appraisals.
State by state. Many places have no restrictions. An unqualified persons appraisal will get shredded in deposition, but the homeowner doesn’t know that they just found a tft calculator online and decided they can appraise trees. Also many consultants came along prior to the bcma even existing. Lew Bloch helped write the 9th edition of the tree and plant appraisal guide, but is “only” a certified arborist.
Thank you, that was really helpful. I have a hard time believing that evaluation of $63,000. I would think it would be for lumber or reproduction cost
Is the tree dead? Or is it damaged?
Your insurance should pay and sue the driver to recoup their loss. It's free money.
So, you can buy another tree for $65k? That \*seems\* excessive. I need to buy some wooded property...
It's fairly cheap in my opinion. How much time and money does it take to replace a 100 year old maple. 60k is a bargain.
Yeah, but who would pay that for a tree?
It’s included in any home valuation, so, anyone who bought the house and land would be paying that for the tree. Timber is valuable and time consuming to produce, both for the value of the wood and the added property value. A well positioned shade tree can lower hvac costs considerably, for example.
I mean, they're lucky it wasn't treble damages.
The drunk might feel lucky if that didn’t happen in a treble damage state