What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Ohio.
An out-of-state relative owns property in Ohio. In January, after a week of rain and a storm that involved high winds, a large, tall tree from her property uprooted and landed on a neighbor's garage. The garage did not collapse but showed cracks in its concrete-block structure. The tree was laying at about a forty-five degree angle to the ground.
I called in a tree service, and was told that because of the cracks in the foundation of the garage, there was no assurance that the garage would continue to hold up the tree. If the garage collapsed, the tree could do additional damage not only to the first neighbor's property but also to a second neighbor's property; plus it also posed a safety hazard to persons.
With this is mind I called the relative and got permission to have the tree removed. I paid for the removal which cost $1,500.
Afterwards I was told by three insurance agents, two urban forestry experts and one tree service expert that the responsibility for the removal of the tree actually rested with the owner of the garage, the neighbor.
Since his insurance company has refused to reimburse me for any of the cost of the tree removal, I want to try to get the garage-owner to pay for the removal even if that means going to small-claims court; however, one thing has stymied me. I cannot find any legal basis for the opinions that the garage-owner is responsible.
The local jurisdiction has no laws covering this, and an internet search of the Ohio Revised Code has not turned up any laws governing this. Perhaps this is founded in common law.
Does anyone have any ideas how I could justify my claim to be reimbursed?
An out-of-state relative owns property in Ohio. In January, after a week of rain and a storm that involved high winds, a large, tall tree from her property uprooted and landed on a neighbor's garage. The garage did not collapse but showed cracks in its concrete-block structure. The tree was laying at about a forty-five degree angle to the ground.
I called in a tree service, and was told that because of the cracks in the foundation of the garage, there was no assurance that the garage would continue to hold up the tree. If the garage collapsed, the tree could do additional damage not only to the first neighbor's property but also to a second neighbor's property; plus it also posed a safety hazard to persons.
With this is mind I called the relative and got permission to have the tree removed. I paid for the removal which cost $1,500.
Afterwards I was told by three insurance agents, two urban forestry experts and one tree service expert that the responsibility for the removal of the tree actually rested with the owner of the garage, the neighbor.
Since his insurance company has refused to reimburse me for any of the cost of the tree removal, I want to try to get the garage-owner to pay for the removal even if that means going to small-claims court; however, one thing has stymied me. I cannot find any legal basis for the opinions that the garage-owner is responsible.
The local jurisdiction has no laws covering this, and an internet search of the Ohio Revised Code has not turned up any laws governing this. Perhaps this is founded in common law.
Does anyone have any ideas how I could justify my claim to be reimbursed?