Storm Season and the Tree Over the Driveway

Northern California's big winter storms arrive with soaked ground and strong wind at the same time, and that combination brings trees down. Tall eucalyptus, old oaks, redwood limbs and the mature street trees in older neighborhoods all take their turn. Most of the time the only victim is a fence. Sometimes it is the car parked underneath.

The first hour

1. Look up and around before you approach. Treat any downed line as live, keep well away, and call 911 and the utility.
2. Photograph before anything moves: the tree where it lies, the stump or break point, any rot or hollow visible at the base, the car from every side, and the street sign or house number.
3. Do not drive a car with a crushed roof, cracked windshield or broken windows. Cover open glass against rain if you can do it safely.
4. Call your insurer and ask how they want removal handled. Whether the cost of cutting a tree off the car is part of the claim varies by insurance company.
5. Write down what you know about the tree: whose property it stood on, and whether anyone had warned the owner it was dying.

Whose insurance pays

For the car, start with your own policy. The California Department of Insurance has said comprehensive vehicle insurance can cover winter storm damage, and a falling tree is the classic comprehensive loss. You pay your comprehensive deductible and the insurer pays the rest, up to the car's value. Liability-only coverage pays nothing toward your own car, whatever fell on it.

A homeowners policy is a different contract. The Department notes that home policies can cover damage from fallen trees, but that coverage is about the house and other structures. The car in the driveway is still an auto-policy matter, even when the tree was on your own lot.

If the tree belonged to a neighbor or a landlord, their insurance comes in only if they were negligent. A healthy tree blown over in a hard storm is usually treated as nobody's fault. A tree that was visibly dead, leaning or rotten, especially one the owner had been told about, is a different story. In that case your insurer may pursue the owner after paying you, and if it recovers, you may get your deductible back.

When the tree belonged to a city, county or the state

Street trees and trees along public roads raise government-claim rules. Under Government Code section 835, a public entity can be liable for injury caused by a dangerous condition of its property if an employee's negligence created the condition, or if the entity knew or should have known about it in time to protect against it. A dead tree the city had been warned about fits that description; a healthy one felled by a freak gust usually does not.

The deadline is the part people miss. Section 911.2 requires a claim for injury to a person or to personal property, which includes your car, to be presented no later than six months after it happens. Your insurer may pursue the agency itself after paying your claim, but if you want to recover your deductible or any uninsured loss on your own, that six-month clock is yours to watch. Prior complaints about the tree, photos of rot and the exact location all strengthen the claim.

Parking smarter when a storm is coming

• When a wind advisory is posted, move the car out from under large trees and especially away from dead limbs.
• Use the garage, even if it means clearing it for one night.
• Report a dangerous public tree to the city or county before the storm season. It may get fixed, and if it does not, the report shows they were told.
• Talk to a neighbor about an obviously failing tree in writing rather than over the fence.

Comprehensive is what pays when a tree comes down, and it is the coverage people drop first to save money. If you are not sure you still carry it, you can check your coverage here before the next storm.