Who Pays

[holdensupporter2005]

I was driving home today from work. I live in a large rural city. As I was driving along a major road through town a fairly large branch from a big gumtree fell on my New VE Commodore :cry:
It fell on the sunroof, luckily it didn't smash. Dinted and scratched the front passenger side quater panel, roof & bonnet & bumper. I have full comprehensive insurance, but does this mean I have to fork out to pay my excess to get this fixed or is it the council / VicRoads / or the owner of the property that the tree is outside?

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

You pay unfortunately. It wasn't a malicious act, so nobody can be held accountable. This is what insurance is for. You can try talking to the council, but I think I know what the outcome will be.

 

[Ed]

yeah you will be paying mate, as naaf said, this is why you have the insurance... your 1000 dollar excess will be cheaper than forking out for the repairs. Sorry to hear mate.

 

[timbo888]

i'll go out on a limb (boom tish) and say you will probably have to pay up. not sure how you would go claiming against council - might be like the broken rims due to pothole argument

 

[holdensupporter2005]

Thought that might be so spoken to the police and he didn't like my chances with the council & insurance company pretty much have told me the same thing.
My excess is only $600 but even so seems so unfair that it wasn't even my fault.
Only had the car 3 weeks and already have had windscreen replaced (through windscreen insurance) due to a car coming the other way and throwing up a large rock that cracked the front window. Now this !!!

 

[Drawnnite]

also worth checking with some panel beaters to see what they can do it for outside of insurance.
incase it is less than your excess would be.

EDIT: probably not worth that way with your excess at $600

 

[mpower]

go the council, you might be surprised - I think this falls under the same thing as when someone is mowing and a rock hits your car or a pothole destroys your rim - mileage can vary.

 

[uniacidz]

Think you paying for the excess.

Outside any malicious or accidental act.

 

[Trevhead62]

Bummer about your car. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Make a claim on your insurance and then submit a written complaint against the council for the damage to your car. Stress the fact that the public (you) could have been injured and that they are responsible for maintaining the safety of the public. Through their negligence of not pruning back dangerous tree limbs, luckily only your vehicle was damaged. Demand that they (the city council) pay your insurance excess bill. Like I said, nothing ventured nothing gained. What have you got to lose? Hint, take photos of the offending tree and branch, your cars damage and keep records of all phone calls, correspondance etc etc.

 

[holdensupporter2005]

take photos of the offending tree and branch, your cars damage and keep records of all phone calls, correspondance etc etc.

Yeah, stopped just near the tree when it happened and took 100's of photos of the car & the tree and branch. They say bad luck comes in 3's so hopefully nothing more bad will happen to me.