Who should pay for a tree falling on the power line? Everybody or the tree owner?

[jruz]

Fawk all of you, my power went out again last night. :flipoff:
Woke up at 3AM with all the lights out. It was still out when I left for work so I had to get the generator going so my wife and daughter could keep warm. The outtage was caused by a tree that fell on the line. They cannot just leave the house because the car has a broken window and I can't cover it with duct tape & plastic because its too cold for duct tape to stick. To top it off we ran out of eggnog!

(ok, maybe I made up the part about the eggnog) :redneck:

IMHO - PSE needs to put the goddamn wires underground!!!!

 

[Hip]

ok what if a 100 years ago someone built a house with some big 200 year old trees on it.
20 years later the pud comes by and puts up power lines in the way of your 200 year old trees.

now a nother hundred years go by and you are now the owner. who is responsible for the nearness of the 80 year old power lines to the existing trees on your property. the property and trees were there first.

now who is responsible?

i have been trying to get a huge tree on my property removed and no one wants to take it on as it has to be dropped a small section at a time and is huge.

the city says its not immenient danger so they wont remove it.

the tree company said they wont touch it till the city takes of the top 100 feet or so, so it can be dropped without hitting the power lines on both sides and or houses around it.

i have been trying to get it removed as a responcible homeowner but its difficult.

 

[jruz]

Chances are those 300 year old suckers are pretty well rooted, just don't let 'em get sick... :corn:

 

[Not Jobless]

Actually one of my parents trees fell on the neighbors house. My parents insurance company said the neighbors insurance has to cover it unless it was an obvious and noted problem with the tree beforehand (e.g. it was rotten and pointed out by the neighbor but not taken down).

That's exactly the way it works when trees blow over which were caused by "Acts of God" or nature.

 

[angelfly]

Ok i have the scoop on this we had the exact same situation on top of we had one of our trees hit a neighbors house( deamed by our neighbors to be out fault not the winds) but according to the law and insurance basis if they find no such neglect in your propert i.e. rotten out center lots of termite holes some problem with the tree the the owner could have prevented maybe digging out around it there are a few other things but if you can go out and show with proof that u did no such things like that. That the tree was perfectly healty and there was no owner neglect then they have no case proven fact our **** just got dropped. Call ur insurance company or the police department or the state law office. I hope that helps some those power guys are just super stressed after working 40hr shifts and out trying to get back all those *****y people that reamed them out for the windstorm like they caused it

 

[Hip]

Chances are those 300 year old suckers are pretty well rooted, just don't let 'em get sick... :corn:

yeah except the other 300 yr older trees surrounding it have been removed and its roots are over an underground spring. im very worried about it as it would flatten whatever it hits when it goes.:rolleyes:

 

[angelfly]

cut it now

 

[Wandering]

Overhead lines run in easements, if you read you’re county’s regulations on easements you will see that the companies that use the utilities easements have a wide latitude to do whatever they want to do to within the easement to protect their equipment including keeping it clear this includes anything that may encroach on the easement or pose an unreasonable risk to the utility, this means cutting or remove trees as they see fit. If they don’t remove trees or maintain the easement in a manner to protect their infrastructure that’s on them. You as a land owner do not receive any compensation for the loss of access or full usage of your property and if they want to park a 60,000 pound truck in your flower garden so they service their lines that they use to profit millions by selling you a government subsidized commodity, all you can do is take them coffee and donuts so they may not chose to turnaround on your front porch. In most cases you will find that utility companies compromise maintenance to increase profit and would rather wait until something breaks to do work. Maintenance, which is part of overhead decreases profit, on the other hand power outages are covered be contingencies and insurance and when it becomes a recognized “Disaster Area” then your tax dollars are used to pay the utility company to fix infrastructure that they failed to protect.

Yes they will use this as an excuse to raise your rates, not because they have to but because they can.

As far as the linemen go they make a killing during these events.

 

[jruz]

As far as the linemen go they make a killing during these events.

I was thinking the same thing as I was stuck alongside some utility trucks with Montana plates last Saturday (waiting for the avalanche control on Snoqualmie Pass to complete).

Other than being forced away from family during the holidays, it seems like they would make some serious dough for that kind of thing...(minus a third for Uncle Sam :rolleyes: )

 

[MIG'DHORSE]

you say that until a tree from your yard rips through some lines. do you check every tree before a windstorm to make sure they are safe? safe, healthy trees fall under the power of nature too. the argument here is whether one should be punished for what can be called "acts of nature(or god)." Does one's personal property and responsibility extend to an event created by nature? who's fault is it if a healthy tree is torn down by hurricane force winds? should we send god and mother nature the bill? unless the property owner has been notified of the potential hazard of his trees prior to the damage caused, it is right to not charge him specifically. if you want your electricity back, then you, as well as the rest of your electricity-desiring community should also pay their share to have it repaired and restored.

 

[Rich1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chainsaw

Chainsaw
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see Chainsaw (disambiguation).
A chainsaw (also spelled chain saw) is a portable mechanical, motorized saw. It is most commonly used in logging activities such as felling, delimbing, and bucking; by tree surgeons to fell trees and remove branches and foliage; to fell snags and assist in cutting firebreaks in wildland fire suppression, and to harvest firewood. Chainsaws with specially designed blades have been developed as tools for use in chainsaw art.





http://images.google.com/imgres?img...mages?q=clear+cut&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off

 

[junkyard jim]

ok what if a 100 years ago someone built a house with some big 200 year old trees on it.
20 years later the pud comes by and puts up power lines in the way of your 200 year old trees.

now a nother hundred years go by and you are now the owner. who is responsible for the nearness of the 80 year old power lines to the existing trees on your property. the property and trees were there first.

now who is responsible?

i have been trying to get a huge tree on my property removed and no one wants to take it on as it has to be dropped a small section at a time and is huge.

the city says its not immenient danger so they wont remove it.

the tree company said they wont touch it till the city takes of the top 100 feet or so, so it can be dropped without hitting the power lines on both sides and or houses around it.

i have been trying to get it removed as a responcible homeowner but its difficult.

Contact your insurance company and let them know about the seriousness of this issue IN WRITING! They generally know who to contact to handle that stuff.
I told my old neighbor in Skyway to do that, but she didn't and her cedar tree dropped across the road, taking several cars, powerlines and a couple windows in my old house with it.

 

[Fullywrecked]

I say cut all the evil :evil: trees down. Then we wouldn't have to worry about this types of problems. The trees are trying to take us all out...........we need to get together and saw them all down. If anyone needs an extra saw I know people. :redneck:

Next time you see a logger.......thank him for helping save us all.

 

[Tankota]

<---- huge tree hugger. NEVER denied it. :clappy: :flipoff:

Here's some real tree huggin...or is it humpin?:clappy:

 

[Fullywrecked]

Tankota, They all found a nice knot hole and are just taking advantage of the tree.

 

[Travis1]

If a healthy tree falls it's usually not considered the property owners fault, more of an act of God.

If a tree has been known to the owner as unhealthy, but the owner did not remove it. Then it's the fault of the owner, and the owner or the owner's insurance becomes liable.

That's the way it works for property damage, It really should work that way for powerlines, but I doubt it does.

 

[Tankota]

Travis is correct,
Some people say that if their tree falls on the power lines, they are not responsible and everyone else should pay for it. Thats pretty much how it currently is (hence the higher rates in works right now...on the news this morning).

Lets take this situation one step further: :stirpot:
Would these same people still say "too bad, it's not my fault, nothing I could have done to prevent it", if the tree fell on a car driving by and killed someone?
This happened in pierce county and I believe one of those killed was a young father who left behind a wife and baby.
Could you still face this widow and say "I could have prevented this by taking down that tree but decided it wasn't worth it"? Or, "It wasn't my fault, it was the trees/natures fault".

Take this another step further: :stirpot: :stirpot:
What if the tree falls the other way and crashes through your own house and kills your family? Would you still throw up your arms and say "there was nothing I could have done to prevent this"?
Btw, this also happened during this storm. :booo:



PS Thanks to those of your with trees my wife got 220 hours of work in 2 weeks. That was a nice little christmas bonus paid by all of you :hi:
In addition a friend of ours is a electric co. foreman. He made close to $20,000 during the storm. Double time at $90/hour adds up real quick. He also wanted to say thank you to the tree owners :kiss: