Neighbor's tree damages your roof, who pays?
If your neighbor's tree falls and damages your roof you have to pay for the repairs (labor and materials) and, the removal of the tree from your property.
Unless:
Exception #1. You have sent your neighbor a Registered letter informing them of the possibility/eventuality of falling limbs or an entire tree. If you don't send a letter informing them of your concerns you have to pay for everything. Yah, it's not fair but so far no legislator has done anything about it.
Exception #2. If the Local or U.S. Weather Bureau declares a Tropical Storm, or certain wind speeds, or worse. In other words, if the damage is considered an Act of Nature then you have to pay for everything, even if you sent them a warning letter.
Exception #3. If you have a considerate loving neighbor who knows the damage was ultimately their fault (for not keeping their tree(s) away from your property) and they offer to pay for the damages. I'm lucky because the absentee property-renter owner next door now hires people to cut and trim.
Remember: Many lots are owned by absentee owners (investors living elsewhere) and so they might not know how much their vegetation has grown. A letter and a photo of what's so might prompt them to hire someone to cut/trim. Be sure to mention the potential of a fire storm carrying the fire within feet of your buildings.
It works to take pictures of the tree/vegetation in question showing its present condition and the possibilities of it damaging your house.
Another concern is roots from a neighbor's tree burrowing under your concrete foundation slab or into your septic system.
Suggestion: If the county doesn't want to change the present law to protect us an eager campaigner, once elected, could promise to hire an individual to write such letters. Then, when an absentee owner's tree falls across the road taking down the utility wires (as happens monthly here in Hawaiian Beaches), the county could collect the costs of cleaning up the mess. As it is, the county pays the tree surgeons and don't always collect from the property owners. The job of "letter writer" would bring in way more money than the person's wages.
