Tree Fell on Your House: What to Do First

The first move is not to call a tree service

Call 911 first if anyone is hurt, if you smell gas, or if a power line is touching the house or lying in the yard; a tree service cannot make a live wire safe, and no one should walk near it. The common belief is that the tree company is the first call because they are the ones who cut wood. That belief is wrong when a line or an injury is in the picture. Fire, medical, or utility crews come first because they control the hazards that make cutting impossible.

Once you know no one is hurt and no line is down, the next call is to your insurance company to open a claim. They will assign a claim number and tell you what they need for documentation. You can call a tree service at the same time, but the claim number is what makes the removal a covered event instead of an out-of-pocket job.

• Get people and pets out of the rooms under the tree.
• Call 911 if anyone is hurt, if you smell gas, or if a line is down.
• Call your insurer and get a claim number.
• Do not go back inside to grab things until the structure is checked.

What you can safely do before anyone arrives

Stay out of the house if the tree is still on it, and do not go back in for belongings until someone has looked at the structure from the outside and told you it is safe to enter. The tree is a load on the roof, and the roof was not built to carry it. A trunk that looks stable can shift when a limb is cut or when the wind picks up again.

From outside, take photos and video of the tree, the roof, the siding, and anything inside that you can see through a window. Photograph the tree from several angles so the insurer can see how it is resting on the house. Do not move debris or cut anything yet. The adjuster needs to see the tree in place, and cutting before the adjuster sees it can complicate the claim.

If water is coming in, you can put buckets under drips and move furniture away from the wet area, but only if you can do it without going under the tree or onto a damaged floor. If the ceiling is sagging or bulging, get out and stay out. That is a sign the structure is carrying more load than it should.

Does insurance pay for the tree removal?

Homeowners policies usually pay to remove a tree that has hit the house, and they usually pay for the damage the tree caused, but the removal coverage is often capped at a few thousand dollars and the cap depends on your policy. Whether the tree itself is covered depends on where it stood and what it hit. A tree that fell from your yard onto your house is treated differently from a tree that fell from a neighbor's yard, and a tree that fell in the yard without hitting anything is often not covered at all.

Ask your adjuster three questions: what is the removal limit, does the limit apply per tree or per event, and will the removal be paid to you or directly to the crew. Get the answers in writing if you can. The answers decide whether you are choosing a crew on price or on what the policy will reimburse.

Keep every receipt. If you pay for anything out of pocket before the claim is settled, that receipt is how you get it back.

What the removal itself involves

A tree resting on a roof is removed in pieces, not in one cut, because the trunk is under tension and the roof is carrying weight. The crew starts at the top and takes the canopy down in sections small enough to control, then works down the trunk. Each piece has to be rigged and lowered rather than dropped, because a dropped section can punch through the roof or bounce into the yard.

What makes one job harder than another: whether the tree is still green and heavy or already dead and brittle, how steep the roof is, whether the trunk is resting on the ridge or hanging over an eave, and whether a line is anywhere near the canopy. A tree on a low, flat roof is a different job from a leaning trunk hung up in a neighboring tree above a steep pitch. The crew has to read the load before any cut is made, and that reading is what the price reflects.

Ask how the pieces will be lowered, where the rigging will be anchored, and whether the roof will need to be protected before the first cut. Ask who is responsible if the roof is damaged further during removal. Those answers tell you more about the job than any number quoted over the phone.

A tree on a roof is a load problem before it is a cutting problem, and the order you do things in is what keeps the house from getting worse.

What to ask before you agree to the work

Ask for the scope in writing: what is being removed, what is being left, and whether the stump is included. Ask whether the price covers hauling the wood away or leaving it on site, because those are different jobs and different numbers. Ask what happens if the tree cannot be removed safely in one visit and whether the price changes if it takes two.

Ask how the crew will protect the roof and the siding during the work, and ask what they will do if the tree shifts. Ask for the certificate of insurance for the job, and read it. If the crew cannot produce it, that is your answer.

Do not sign anything that assigns your claim benefits to the crew unless you understand what that means. You can pay the crew directly and let the insurer reimburse you, which keeps you in control of the claim.

If you are in Savannah and a tree is on your house, call us at the number on this page. We will tell you what we see and what the job involves.