Tree Removal

We have no county ordinance against removal of pine trees. Our HOA does. If you are denied the right to remove a 50' tall pine that is within 20 feet of your home and it falls on your home during a storm can you sue the HOA?

The tree is on my property. My insurance company wanted to come and see how close the trees were to my house before renewal. Arborist stated if the tree came down in a storm it would do severe damage to my home. It is a healthy pine but I fear living in my home because of it.

^^^ Especially given THIS part!

ugh. What a crash and inappropriate recommendation.

Christine,

Since the tree is on your property, it's a different issue. I would recommend including the letter from the arborist and any decision from the insurance company with the request to remove the tree. State that the height of the tree and the proximity to the house is jeopardizing receiving insurance coverage required by the lender. You might also consider requesting removing and replanting with a smaller tree.

If your Association has a committee that decides this issue, appeal a negative vote to the board and request that they get a legal opinion of liability if they refuse to let you remove the tree in opposition of expert opinions (your arborist).

If it were me, common sense would suggest that removing and replanting would be a fair compromise.

If you are still told no. Make sure everything is documented in writing (the request, the decision, the appeal (if any), supporting documents, etc.). Also request a copy of the minutes of any meeting the decision was discussed in. Then if the worst happens, it may be a different outcome if litigation is required.

Question, who brought the issue up to the insurance company? It's rare that they want a physical inspection of the property before issuing a policy.

Tim

So what? I'm not keen on chopping down 50-foot healthy trees because it makes a person nervous, either. And I've been through tornadoes and hurricanes.

And regarding Tim's question about the insurance company is important.

It appears, and I could be wrong, but it appears that you are shopping this decision out. Did you bring the question up to the insurance company?

Have they denied renewal?

For a healthy tree merely in proximity?

Christine:

It seems perhaps you have tried to use the opinions of others to get what you wanted.

On our property we have hundreds of trees many close to our buildings that might come down in a hurricane or heavy windstorm. Our insurance carrier has never suggested any be removed in the name of safety. Nor have they ever denied renewal as a result.

Does you carrier routinely visit single family homes to check for the location of trees on the insured property? They must have a lot of agents with lots of free time on their hands. Ours does not.

The arborist's opinion that IF this tree were to fall it would cause severe damage seems to me to be the case with ANY large tree. Not unusual or needing special treatment.

If a hurricane or tornado were to hit your area I would suspect even homes which have cleared every tree within falling distance would run the risk of severe damage.

Why worry about what might happen until it does happen.

A healthy 50' tree has been around for many years I would guess it might make a few more without any problems.

I am not even talking about this particular tree. The insurance company wanted to come to my property before renewal after we had a major storm in our area.

This is the only statement in our covenants:
Generally, tree removal is only approved if the tree is diseased, damaged, or a threat to a home and recommended by a Certified Arborist.

I will still have over 25 pines many over 50' on my property if this one is removed. I have one acre.

Forgive me if I am not using the proper english for what I am trying to say.

Just to be clear, Donna, this has never been about whether we think she should remove the tree or not, or whether we support or don't support her wanting to do it.

It has always been about the covenants and her adherence to them.

Actually, this has been about her wanting to know if she can sue the HOA if they deny her removing it, which backs into the fact that the covenants and the board's authority and her responsibility to comply.

I agree with you and Tim (I think Tim mentioned this earlier), that she may want to work with the BOD on a compromise (planting another tree, whatever), but so far, from what we know, the BOD has already denied the removal.

It (the BOD) sort of has final say here. And I do support the board's authority.

We can't help her there. The insurance company references are moot since they really don't have anything to say about this particular tree, and the arborists' statements are moot, since this is a healthy tree, and the only thing they are adding is that, yeah, a 50-foot tree, IF it falls in the direction of a home 20-feet away, will hit it.

If she can't work out a compromise with the BOD, then she has to accept the determination. And she will very likely NOT be able to sue them if for some reason a freak storm comes along and causes an otherwise healthy tree to damage her home. She can try, but given it is on her property, she agreed to be bound by the covenants, it is a healthy tree, etc etc etc. . . she will probably not prevail against the HOA.

Tim, she has already stated that the arborist only confirms that it is large enough to land on her house IF it were to fall, not that it is posing any threat or danger, because it is a healthy tree.

Plus, I just assumed she had already been denied.

Wonder how I got that impression?

Hmm... probably just jumped to the conclusion.

Christine, HAVE you already formally requested removal and HAVE you been denied?

I formally submitted my request today with the arborist statement. I have neither been denied or approved and will not hear for a few days. Thanks everyone for all of your thoughts and helpful suggestions.

Strange... this thread just showed up for me on the front forum page as having unread posts with the latest being "by ChrisF6 01/21/2016 5:36 AM". I clicked on the thread and there's no such post. Every post in this thread (prior to this one) is from 2010. Is there some hidden way for people to delete their posts here? I highly doubt a cosmic ray flipped a bit in the server's RAM that turned on the "new posts" bit for the thread.

That's certainly a possibility, although one I find unlikely because of the time of day and how quickly it was removed. I've seen spam posts sit for hours on some threads. It must have been a fortunate coincidence that an admin noticed spam so soon after it was posted at a very early off-peak hour. Could be.

The only problem is that the arborist recommended this almost 6 years ago.

Cf,

Old thread, over six years old.
Was reactivated for the posting of spam (which has been removed)