A Tree Fell on My House. What Do I Do Now?
If a tree has come down on your house right now and anyone is hurt or a power line is involved, call 911 and the utility first. Everything below assumes the immediate emergency is handled.
The first hour
- Get everyone out of the affected part of the house. A tree resting on a roof is still applying load, and structures can shift. If the tree is on the roof over a bedroom, nobody sleeps in that room.
- Treat every wire as live. If any part of the tree is touching a line, stay well back and call the utility. Do not touch the tree, a fence, a gutter, or anything else in contact with it. This is the one that kills people.
- Do not start cutting. A tree under load is storing energy. When you cut it, it moves, often fast and not in the direction you expected. Most serious homeowner chainsaw injuries happen exactly here.
- Photograph everything before anything moves. Wide shots showing the whole scene, close-ups of the damage, the tree base, the room from inside. Your adjuster will want it and you cannot recreate it later.
- Call a tree service and your insurer. In that order if the tree is an ongoing hazard.
What about insurance?
Coverage varies by policy and insurer, and we are not able to advise on yours. Broadly, though, homeowners policies tend to work like this:
- Tree hits a covered structure (house, garage, shed, fence) — damage to the structure is usually covered, and removal of the tree from the structure often is too, frequently up to a stated limit.
- Tree falls in the yard and hits nothing — removal is often not covered, or only if it blocks a driveway or an accessibility ramp.
- Tree hits your car — usually handled under the comprehensive portion of your auto policy, not homeowners.
- Neighbor’s tree hits your house — typically your own policy responds, which surprises people. Their liability may come into play if the tree was demonstrably dead or hazardous and they had been notified.
That last point is worth acting on: if you are worried about a neighbor’s dead tree, put your concern in writing. A dated note establishes that they were on notice, which matters a great deal later.
What we can provide for your claim
Adjusters generally want documentation of the work. We can supply photographs before and during removal, a written description of the scope, and an itemized invoice. Tell us at the outset that this is an insurance job so we document it properly as we go.
Emergency versus scheduled
Not everything after a storm is an emergency, and treating it as one costs more. It is genuinely urgent when a tree is on a structure, blocking access, hung up over an area people use, involved with utilities, or partially uprooted and capable of moving further. A dead limb on the lawn can wait for a scheduled visit.
After it is cleared
Walk the rest of the property. Storms tend to reveal which trees were already compromised, and the trees that survived this one may have been damaged in ways that show up in the next. Deadwood removal and canopy thinning on what is still standing is the cheapest storm preparation available. See tree health and hazard assessment.
Call us
(413) 522-2117 — storm and emergency response across Northfield, Greenfield, Gill, Bernardston, Montague and the surrounding towns, weekends included. More on emergency and storm damage removal.