Neighbor's Saguaro just blew down into my driveway. Who's responsible? (Cave Creek: insurance, attorney)

[Rick Lee]

Just came home once the wind and rain let up a little and found a large Saguaro from neighbor's yard laying across a good chunk of my driveway. It's blocking enough of it that we have to park diagonally in the garage. I have no idea how to handle this. All I have are some tie down straps and work gloves. I assume one of us is gonna have to call a pro for this. Who's on the hook for it? Him, me or do we split it?

[wit-nit]

Legally if it fell on your side by an act of God then you are liable for the removal. It wasn't the neighbors fault. But in a friendly way you might approach the neighbor and work out a settlement.
If the Saguaro did not split and is in fairly good condition then call a Cactus removal service and they can replant it and then charge the neighbor. If not then they will probably charge you to haul it away.
Here's one in your area:A Great Southwest Saguaro & Tree, LLC, Cave Creek AZ 85331

[observer53]

Originally Posted by nitram

Legally if it fell on your side by an act of God then you are liable for the removal. It wasn't the neighbors fault. But in a friendly way you might approach the neighbor and work out a settlement.
If the Saguaro did not split and is in fairly good condition then call a Cactus removal service and they can replant it and then charge the neighbor. If not then they will probably charge you to haul it away.
Here's one in your area:A Great Southwest Saguaro & Tree, LLC, Cave Creek AZ 85331

Fault isn't really the issue, but the saguaro is/was the neighbor's property, so hopefully he will cooperate on this, I'd call the company nitram suggested, whatever the outcome for the cactus.

[Geiger]

In Florida, an act of God means the neighbor is not responsible for the costs unless you have previously documented that the tree or cactus was a possible hazard requesting its removal. I learned this policy the hard way when we had a hurricane, and our neighbor's two oak trees were snapped smashing our pool screen enclosure and landing at the bottom of our swimming pool. It would have been a nice neighborly thing for him to offer to pay for the damages, or at least half of the damages. Since he knew the policy, he paid nothing. This ending up costing us $10,000. out of pocket since it did not meet our deductible based on a percentage for a hurricane. Perhaps Arizona has different requirements, but our insurance agent recently confirmed this policy for our neighborhood. I would first talk with your neighbor hoping he offers to pay for the damages or at least half of them.

[jimj]

If talking with your neighbor yields no results I'd take my straps and gloves, loop said straps around said cactus and pull it over to the neighbors property (of course not causing any further damage) and leave it there. Easy peasy.

[Ponderosa]

If you research online a bit the findings are overwhelmingly this: it is your problem not the neighbor's. Seems a little odd I will admit, but I did not find a single site that said otherwise. I wish I had known that earlier. Maybe I would have left some large trees I had that I was afraid would fall on the neighbors house if a big enough wind came along.

NOTE: Your insurance may pay for cleanup if it exceeds your deductible.

[AZgarden]

What ?? This doesn't seem right to me. If the Saguaro was on His property that He owned, didn't he also own the Saguaro? So shouldn't he clean it up, contact his insurance co and get it paid for that way?

[Burning Madolf]

Technically, I would imagine this falls under act of God and where it lands is key. I know for sure that if any of my trees fell in my neighbors yard, I would be out there first thing this morning moving it off his land.

[Rick Lee]

This is the scene in my driveway. I know it's not the end of the world. And, upon closer inspection, I probably could saw this up and put it in the garbage over a few weeks.



The property line is pretty much where the shadow ends near the base of the cactus. Neighbor is my buddy, I'm sure this will be fine. I'm just curious how to go about this. And is there any chance this cactus is salvageable?

[pbenjamin]

In the great monsoon storm of '08 we had a 70+ year old pine tree topple over taking out part of the back of our house, crushing the fence between our neighbor's yard and ours, and doing damage to their property as well. Our insurance would not pay for damage (or tree removal) beyond the property line. Ironically, our neighbor was an attorney for Allstate.