Liability concerning damage caused to house

[Krisp]

Well i have a friend that bought a single brick house not long ago in Huntingdale WA. Being a small yard, the house sits only 2 meters if that from the north wall. Their neighbour on that side has 3 large (3 meters tall) ficus's. For those that down know, ficus is a nasty tree to have in the ground near building foundations, due to the damage they will cause from the roots. There is already damage occuring with the pavers around that wall.

Now i know you can either ask the neighbour to remove the trees, go to the council and complain or thirdly poision them . Now my friends dont have balls when it comes to dealing with neighbours, especially when your new in the area.
My main question is that if they dont do anything and the roots destroy the foundations, who is actually liable? The neighbours insurance or theirs?

Food for thought, the neighbour is a bit of a scrooge. The last owners had a problem where the neighbour would access their back yard , to trim his trees from their side then demand payment. But its known that if someones plants encrotch on your property, you are legally allowed to trim the plants and throw the plant matter back over the fence.

[Reaper]

Generally speaking the owner of the trees must maintain them such that they don't cause damage to ajoining property. The first step is a quite word to the neighbour about getting rid of them. If that doesn't work then you may need to go the legal route via a letter from your friend's lawyer. You are able to trim the tree roots and branches that are over your property but you are not allowed to cut anything that is not over your property. Not sure about throwing the branches back over the fence.

Reaper

[ClairBear]

AFAIK you can throw trimmings and cuttings from neighbours plants, bushes and trees back onto their property. I generally don't as I don't mind chucking it in my green bin.

With the roots of the tree, your friend (and you could help) should dig down and find the roots and poison them on his side of the property if he doesn't want to make a fuss.

[CapriciousWL]

Check the roots. If they are headed for the house, remove them or place a barrier in their path.

Consider the size of the tree - if you remove the roots or poison it, will it become unstable and fall? If so, in what direction?

Check with local council as to the bylaws in the area, also with the insurance company. Some action will need to be taken, but if the neighbor is not the kind to take a subtle hint, take Reapers advice and go formal.

[vkberlina]

Usually any thing that happens on your property is covered on your insurance not your neighbours.
Personally I would dig a couple of metres down poison the hell out of the earth, fill the trench with sand, maybe with drip feed irrigation in it and regularly top up the poison.
Any barrier put in will mean the roots will continue to grow around the obstruction, you could also spray your side of the tree if its overhanging with a poison such as Ripper 480, plead dumb if it kills the hole tree and say you were just trying to stop it growning on your side

scott

[vicarious]

Get an arborist out and them them to do a report and considering they can get big it will be cheap insurance, as the council will require a report before they take action

[strgas]

neighbors tree he's liable for damaged cause by the roots to the neighboring property . check with local laws as it can get messy if law suits are brought into it , My brother had a problem with his pipes and from damage from tree roots from tree next door , had reports from engineers and builders and plumbers ended up taking neighbor to court for the damages and repairs to his house cost where over 45k and 12k in court costs neighbor had to pay all costs involved in this case .
Day after the court hearings where over the neighbor house was up for sale and moved away , cost of repairs was paid and a friendly new neighbor moved in whole process took 12 months from start to finish .
best advice dig up the roots and poison the ends of them

[detox_nath83]

^^^ thats mad..

yeh i agree, dig them up either cut em off flush at fence level, or drill in and poison them...

[Big_Simmo]

just poison it

[Jebadayah]

Given that people have given several different courses of action here, I would suggest his best bet is approach the neighbour first. If the guy won't cooperate, then talk to the council, find out what he is and isn't allowed to do before taking action.

[andrewmac]

You either need to take care of it yourself or at the very least prove that you have taken steps to advise your neighbour of the damage that the roots are doing to your property and your requests for them to take action. Your neighbour cant be held liable if they were not informed of the potential for damage.
Building insurance will not cover this at all. Most insurance companies will cover falling tree's or branches but not damaged caused as a result of tree roots.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

My first call would be to the local council, it's their council and they will know the laws and regulations regarding this on their own turf. They will advise on the best course of action.

Did your friend not check this out before buying the house?

[jules]

You either need to take care of it yourself or at the very least prove that you have taken steps to advise your neighbour of the damage that the roots are doing to your property and your requests for them to take action. Your neighbour cant be held liable if they were not informed of the potential for damage.
Building insurance will not cover this at all. Most insurance companies will cover falling tree's or branches but not damaged caused as a result of tree roots.

this ^^

msg length too short: how about clarkey's triple century today?

[Krisp]

Cheers all , the main reason for this thread was to give the idiot sum decent incentive to sort it out.