If a tree falls on your home or vehicle, who pays?

Quick links to other pages on this site | Still can't find it? see Site Index AP/The Augusta Chronicle/Sara CaldwellTree damage to a car is considered an automobile insurance claim. This vehicle in Augusta took a beating in the ice storm that socked the Southeast earlier this month.

Opinion

If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it, then it probably didn't result in an insurance claim.

Different story if a tree falls on your house or car.

The most recent winter storm in South Carolina resulted in thousands of tree-related insurance claims and about $15 million in damage to homes, according to the industry-financed S.C. Insurance News Service. It's not clear how many vehicles were damaged by trees.

So what happens if a tree falls and smashes your home? Or shed? Or car?

Case of the car

Whether it's your tree, a neighbor's tree, or a tree in the park, if it falls on your vehicle, it's an auto insurance claim. The claim would be covered under the "comprehensive" part of the policy, because you didn't hit the tree, the tree hit your car.

"It's typically treated as an 'act of God,' " said Russ Dubisky, executive director of the Columbia-based Insurance News Service.

Your car could be sitting in your driveway and get crushed by a neighbor's falling tree, and the cost would still fall to your auto comprehensive coverage - if you have it - and you would have to pay the out-of-pocket insurance deductible, unless ...

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If a tree falls on your home or vehicle, who pays?