Almost every month, as a lawyer, I receive questions from citizens whose cars were damaged by dead trees or branches falling on them. At the same time, citizens are almost always interested in the same questions: Where to go? Who is to blame for what happened and how to identify this culprit? How to properly compensate for damage to a car?
Unfortunately, the incidents in question occur regularly and almost daily throughout Russia. This is not due to the fact that we have a large number of perennial trees growing in our cities, but to the fact that these trees are poorly looked after by the municipal services vested with such powers.
In this article, I will try to answer the questions mentioned above, talk about the procedure for necessary actions after such an incident and give examples from my judicial practice in similar cases, so that you can imagine your prospects in a legal dispute, the timing of consideration of such cases and the procedure for compensation damage.
There are a large number of beautifully designed articles on this topic on the Internet. However, the vast majority of them are modified text copies of the same publications, written not by lawyers, but by freelancers with the goal not of informing citizens, but of filling their website with texts for promotion on the Internet. They are of little use.
Who is to blame for a tree falling on a car, and who will pay for the damage?
The issue of compensation for damage to a car damaged by a fallen tree is of interest to many motorists.
Considering that such situations arise quite often, it is necessary to know the procedure. But in this incident one can find the culprit. The entire territory of settlements has its own owners. Land may be owned by local municipal authorities, private owners, commercial and other organizations.
The fall of trees or individual branches indicates the unsatisfactory fulfillment of their duties by land owners to care for green spaces. The owner is obliged to monitor the condition of the trees, regularly remove emergency objects, so as not to cause the danger of individual branches or entire trunks falling, including onto the roadway.
It will not be difficult for the driver to find out on his own who owns this site. To do this, just visit the Rosreestr website. The resource contains a cadastral map, from which it is easy to determine the owner of a land plot and the boundaries of the territory belonging to him.
Most of the land holdings are on the balance sheet of the municipality, so local authorities must be responsible. The likelihood of local municipal authorities being at fault is especially high if a tree falls on a car parked in the yard. In the municipality, the improvement of the territory is carried out by a special service, whose responsibilities include the maintenance of green spaces and landscaping of the territory.
First steps when a tree falls on a car
Many motorists insure their vehicles by purchasing a CASCO policy. This agreement allows you to repair the car at the expense of the insurance company. But the car owner needs to know that the situation when a tree falls on the car is not always included in the number of insured events provided for by the contract.
Sometimes the policy specifies certain mandatory actions of the client in a given situation. Therefore, before contacting the insurer, you must first familiarize yourself with the contents of the contract so that the necessary actions are completed before calling the insurance company.
If it turns out that the CASCO policy only covers damage to the car during an accident, it will not be possible to restore the car using insurance. In this situation, compensation can only be received from the owner of the land plot. But the likelihood of success largely depends on the correctness of the car owner’s actions.
What to do if a tree falls on your car
Who to call if a tree fell on your car
Learn more about what to do if a tree falls on your car. The organization you need to contact depends on whether the car was moving or standing at the time the damage occurred:
- if the car was moving, the incident can be classified as a traffic accident. In this situation, you should call the traffic police and call representatives of this service to record the damage to the car;
- If a damaged car is identified in the parking lot, the traffic police will not help the owner, since the specified incident does not apply to the traffic police. In this case, you must call your local police department.
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To call a police representative, just call the short number 112. In addition to the police officers, you must notify:
- communal organization responsible for the maintenance of the specified territory;
- a commercial company if the damage occurred in the area assigned to it;
- the insurer, if there is a CASCO policy covering these insured events.
The organizations that need to be notified depend on the location of the incident.
How to properly record an unpleasant incident
The police, who arrived in response to a call received from the owner of the car, draw up an incident report, indicating the following information:
- dates, times and places of events;
- the full circumstances of what happened;
- the reasons that caused the injuries;
- the owner of the territory where the incident occurred;
- a detailed description of the vehicle defects caused by the specified situation.
The car owner should not succumb to the persuasion of police or utility workers that the damage received is insignificant and there is no need to document the incident.
If registration is not carried out in a timely manner, in the future the owner of the car will not be able to prove the owner of the territory’s involvement in the damage received, with subsequent payment of compensation.
It is very important that in the document drawn up, the police representative indicates the territorial affiliation of the fallen tree. In the future, this will help bring the perpetrators to justice.
It is necessary to check that the weather conditions specified in the report correspond to the actual ones. Often local authorities, citing natural disasters (hurricanes, strong winds, etc.), seek in court to justify their own inaction in caring for the assigned territory.
When it makes no sense to file a lawsuit
- Once you receive the official weather information from your city weather service on the day of the incident, pay attention to the wind information. If the wind is stormy, then the fact that a tree falls in such weather is considered force majeure. Neither the owner of the territory where everything happened, nor the district engineering services are to blame for what happened.
- If the driver violated traffic rules, for example, by parking the car in a place that was not intended for this, it also makes no sense to file a claim or wait for insurance compensation.
Documenting
In addition to the specified act drawn up by the police, the car owner needs to worry about preparing the following evidence:
- certificates from the weather service about weather conditions at the time of the incident;
Sample certificate of weather conditions - witness testimony - employees of shops or cafes located nearby, random eyewitnesses can help. The victim needs to exchange phone numbers with possible witnesses and find out their other contact information;
- filming with video cameras - perhaps there are cameras nearby that recorded the moment when the tree fell on the car. In this case, you should contact the owners of establishments that have these funds to use these materials as evidence;
- photographs - the owner of the car needs to record the circumstances of the incident by taking a photo of the damaged car and the branch that fell on it.
The listed evidence will help you win your case in court. A request from the weather service will help prove that the fall of a dry or rotten tree on a car was not caused by natural causes, but by unsatisfactory and emergency conditions. If you have to pay a fee to make this request, you must do so. This will be cheaper than restoring a damaged car yourself.
Sometimes local authorities refer to the fact that the car was left in the wrong place. But damage caused to green spaces while the car is parked is subject to compensation by the owner of the territory, regardless of the legality of placing the car in the specified place. The car owner resolves these issues with representatives of the traffic police, if necessary paying a fine for violating traffic rules.
After the necessary evidence and documents have been collected, the victim must contact the culprit with a pre-trial claim. The legislation does not provide for the mandatory nature of this procedure in this situation. But a peaceful solution to the problem, if successful, saves time and avoids additional costs.
The likelihood of a pre-trial resolution of the issue especially increases if the territory is assigned to a commercial organization. But if municipal authorities are responsible for the maintenance of the site, in most cases a court cannot be avoided.
When going to court, it would be helpful to have the help of a qualified auto lawyer. This situation requires the involvement of professionals, since the issue of litigation is associated with numerous subtleties and complexities that are not easy for an unprepared person to understand.
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How to estimate losses
Before applying for compensation, you should determine the amount of the required amount. To do this, you need to contact expert appraisers who will calculate the cost of parts that are subject to mandatory replacement, the cost of work by auto repair workers in accordance with the average prices and tariffs for similar restoration work in the region.
What is needed is the conclusion of the appraisal examination; it will not be possible to get by only with the estimates of the service station - the defendant will most likely challenge the stated prices. If the car is insured under CASCO, the damage will be assessed by the insurer's experts.
The alleged defendant has the right to be present when the expert examines the damaged vehicle, so you need to notify him of the upcoming examination at least three days in advance, explaining the possibility of presence.
What else is included in the losses?
You should know that not only the direct costs of restoring the car (in other words, the cost of restoration repairs), but also lost income are subject to reimbursement.
For example , if you prove that the owner of the car is a source of income (taxi), then you can try to recover lost income for the period of restoration work. To do this, you need to calculate the average earnings for the last 6 months, divide by 180 days and multiply by the number of days during which it was impossible to use transport. You can do the calculation yourself; the participation of an expert is not required. Documents with information about average earnings and the traveling nature of the work should be prepared in advance.
Several copies of the expert's report, calculations and other documents should be made to attach to the claim or statement of claim. Until all this evidence is collected, the car does not need to be repaired.
Independent examination of a tree falling on a car
Another important action on the part of the car owner is to contact independent experts to confirm the actual state of the green space at the time of the fall.
Many expert companies provide biological examination services that allow you to confirm the emergency nature of the tree trunk, which caused damage to the car when it fell. It is very important to conduct the examination promptly. Often, property owners immediately after an incident removed a tree that fell on a car, including uprooting the stump. This made it much more difficult to gather evidence of the utility company's guilt.
Simultaneously with the biological examination, it is necessary to organize another one - a technical one. This will record the nature of the damage caused to the car. As a result, the owner will receive a report with a complete list of defects received and will be able to fully assess the damage caused.
It is necessary to make at least three copies of each of the expert reports received and notarize them. These documents will be required to be submitted to the judicial organization when filing a claim and directly to the defendant.
When can you expect compensation?
If the applicant presents in court the necessary and sufficient evidence of the defendant’s guilt, confirming the emergency condition of the tree or individual branches that fell on the car, a decision will be made to pay compensation.
The amount of payments is determined based on the results of an independent examination assessing the degree of damage to the car. The time frame for receiving compensation by the car owner depends on the circumstances of the particular case, the duration of the proceedings, and the conscientiousness of the defendant. Based on case law, it rarely takes less than four months for a case in court to resolve a case where a tree fell on a car. To receive the payment ordered by the court, you will have to wait at least two more months after the completion of the proceedings.
The money is transferred to the plaintiff to the account number provided by him. If the payment must be made by the municipality, the possibility of payment depends on the officials receiving a court decision and the availability of money in the local budget.
During litigation with a commercial organization, the enforcement documentation received in the court office is submitted to the bank where the current account of this company is located. If there is money in the account, compensation will be transferred according to the provided writ of execution.
If the defendant is an individual, the court order is transferred to the bailiff service. In this situation, the possibility of obtaining compensation depends on the financial condition of the debtor. It is possible that payment will have to wait for years.
Based on the results of judicial practice, it should be noted that obtaining compensation for damage caused by a tree falling on a car depends on the sufficiency of the evidence presented by the applicant to the court. It is important to collect the necessary documents in a timely manner and enlist the help of experienced lawyers. Even if the case is successfully considered in court, you should not expect a quick resolution of the issue.
If your CASCO insurance is incomplete
When a force majeure clause is included in the contract, and your car was not in the paid parking lot from ten in the evening to seven in the morning when the tree fell on it, then the insurer may well refuse to pay you for the damage. Unless, of course, the contract provides for another option. When you sign CASCO insurance, always keep in mind such nuances and do not hesitate to ask about everything.
