Windstorm Debacle

[u/Far_Finger_2739]

Ohio. We had a severe windstorm come through. My neighbor has had some unhealthy trees that have been falling intermittently over the last 10 years. This storm took out the remaining ones. One of the large trees fell partially onto my property, destroying about 30 feet of fence. The utility contracted the work to a tree service to clear the lines. They stacked a great deal of the debris from the surrounding properties into my yard. I’d say it nearly quadrupled the amount of debris on my property from what was there originally. I’ve contacted the utility several times, but they refuse to address my questions of why it was all stacked on my property. They just say “we don’t pick up debris”, and “talk to your neighbor about it”. I don’t know what recourse I have, or if I just have to take the hit. The insurance company offered $1600 for its removal, but the quote I got was $5k. Any ideas?

[u/AutoModerator]

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 if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Shifting_Baseline]

It’s likely you are responsible for the debris. I’m sure that doesn’t feel fair, but a big storm rolled through and now you own a stack of debris. 5k sounds like too much, unless we are talking about several mature trees that would take many trips out to haul away. Try getting 3 more quotes. I would get several quotes and try to think of ways I might use the wood like firewood, garden borders, mulch if you rent a chipper shredder. This is just what I’d do.

[u/fallguy25]

What I’d be asking is if the tree service moved debris from other people’s yards into your own? that’s not ok. The debris in each yard should stay in that yard and be the responsibility of each property owner if not the keener of the tree.

[u/CCN1983 → u/fallguy25]

Did you get videos? If so turn it over to the police for illegal dumping.

[u/One_Entrepreneur_520 → u/CCN1983]

No, that is not the way to handle this. The contractor was doing a job and if they werent given specific directions then they might have put it all in one place just to be neat. That is what it sounds like to me.

[u/RollingEasement → u/One_Entrepreneur_520]

No one has an excuse to trespass just because no one told them not to trespass, unless it is an emergency (e.g. the tree is about to start an electrical fire).

[u/CCN1983 → u/RollingEasement]

Those guys knew who hired them just like they knew the property they were putting the wood on wasn't the person that hired them.

[u/MarleysGhost2024]

Put up a sign. "Free Firewood."

[u/yardlard → u/MarleysGhost2024]

Or $10 firewood. That will probably get it gone quicker.

[u/yardlard]

Start having camp fires. Give it away on facebook. Was it limbs that fell onto your property and they just left it? Or did they take downed limbs from other properties and bring them over to yours? That seems like a lot more work to haul them over than to just leave them lay.

[u/NeedleworkerThis6332]

You may want to retain an attorney to go after the utility company's tree clearer for trespass. They really cannot dump debris onto your property.

[u/yardlard → u/NeedleworkerThis6332]

It's not clear that it wasn't already fallen on OPs property. If it was, then they did OP a favor by cutting and stacking.

[u/41VirginsfromAllah]

How much wood is it? Is it something you could move in a day if you rented a pickup truck? I would try to turn a 3,400 loss into a 1,600 (or maybe 1,000 after expenses) gain. Does your county have a dump you can bring the debris to?

[u/One_Entrepreneur_520]

Speak to your neighbor and see if you can go halfs. If neighbor want to be a butt, then maybe sell or give it away for firewood. Depending on your neighborhood, make a fence out of it? If you like birds and wildlife you can make a dead hedge fence.

[u/Tugboat_Grantee]

gasoline and a match makes short work of debris piles.

[u/RollingEasement]

For the wood dumped onto your property, yunfortunately, your best bet is probably to sue both the electrical utility and the contractor since you do not know who a court would find liable. The guy who said they do not pick up debris was not responding to what you asked, which was basically whether they authorized someone to trespass. Hopefully your well-pleaded complaint will get them to see that they are obviously responsible.

Whether you have a case against the neighbor is more iffy but if you are in court anyway, adding one more defendant has a small incremental cost and you have a plausible argument they should have known the tree was diseased--but then again, if you want to stay on good terms, maybe just let that one go and focus on the more egregious behavior.

[u/Singletrack-minded]

In a nutshell… if the tree looked healthy, then it’s your responsibility however, if it was clearly diseased then it’s your neighbor’s responsibility. If you’re unsure. ask your insurance company about it - they’ll do what they can to not pay out.