Damage during recent storms

Hey all,

During the storms this weekend a branch from a tree on an IP fell and damaged a tenants car, he called up on Sunday morning to let us know that it's occurred and implied that we should pay the damage (which he believes will be around $750, without getting a quote).

A bit of background info, the tree is not in the best condition and a month ago a branch fell and damaged another of the tenants car (We still need to discuss who will pay to fix it), but since then we have gotten council approval to remove the tree and have been getting quotes from tree loppers (all in 4 weeks).

The tenant agreed not to park his cars underneath the tree in the mean time until it's fixed but to park them on a clear grassy area on the other side (corner block). Since then he has parked both his cars back in the driveway underneath the tree (Then the storm occurred and damaged the other car).

We want to know our rights as landlords and who may be liable to pay the excess since there is some voluntary assumption of risk here. He's out of work and as good faith we may be happy to pay for the lot or hopefully half the excess but still want to know what our rights are here, since we did start the process of removing the tree and it's not a 1 day job to get approvals and lop.

Anything similar happen to you folks out there?

 

Its hard to see how you'd be liable for the car damage given what you've said so far.

But yeah if you're feeling nice, maybe go halves.

 

On the other hand, your tenant can call his insurance company...

 

The tenant can make a claim on you as LL or on their own car insurance. If they claim against you as LL, you'd then pass the claim onto your insurer. If the tenant's car insurer makes a claim against you, you'd then pass the claim onto your insurer.

I can't see why you'd want to even think about paying anything other than your own insurer's excess.

 

The RentCover Report - East Coast Storms - are you covered?

Good article about it here.