Who should pay?
 

Hello, everyone...Saint_LB here. I have a question for you guys.

I recently left West Virginia, as some of you probably already know, and I found myself renting my wife's uncle's house in George County, Mississippi. We are only living here temporarily until we can find something closer to the Coast, but there's already been a situation.

I parked my boat, which I had just purchased a couple days prior to the incident, in my uncle's carport/shed behind his house. It was obviously where they had parked their vehicles in the past. The following day, a day that I was scheduled to go fishing but couldn't get anybody to wake-up besides me, an oak tree over 100 years old fell on the carport and broke the windshield on my boat. So far, nobody has stepped forward to pay. I hadn't taken the time to add my boat to my policy, so I had no coverage of my own.

I'd like to point-out that my uncle had already had to remove a branch due to damage from Katrina and, unbeknownst to me at the time, he knew that the possibility of the tree rotting and falling existed.

Should I feel like I'm just SOL, or do you believe that my uncle or his insurance should be responsible?

Note...I voted insurance company because that would be the best scenario for me.

It's a complicated answer.

1..Since you're renting, you ought to have renters insurance. Their coverage usually have good flexibility and affordability.

2..Your uncle's policy, if he has one, may be insufficient to cover this claim, either due to lack of coverage or deductible issues.

3..In the latter, your uncle should man up and handle this, in light of the known history of the tree.

4..You could take it off the rent and inform the uncle that it could have been much worse.


Thus in your poll...it's a multiple answer.

Hope this helps.

I'd check out the insurance of course. Your uncle should have no problem with that, but more than likely you are SOL... You should have never parked it under the tree. Words of wisdom from my all time favorite movie...

Stupid is as stupid does.

http://gstylemag.com/blog/wp-content...restgump21.jpg

Are you saying he ought to get paid with a box of chocolates?

Hmmm choclates!!

The only reason I say you is because I doubt that insurance will click in until the deductible.

Plus is it worth creating a family feud over??

Act of god?

There helping you out. I would suck it up. Like Strato said Act of God

I am paying rent...if anything, I'm helping him out because I really wanted to go rent on the coast right away while I was looking to buy there, but my wife told me that her uncle needed the money to pay his property taxes(don't get me wrong...the old coot is loaded, and he got that way by not paying for people's windshield when they get broken by his tree on his property...nah...I'm not bitter...:) ), so I felt like there couldn't be any harm in just staying there temporarily.

In regards to renter's insurance, I'm fairly certain that it wouldn't have covered the boat because that type of insurance usually only covers things inside the house...I think. I haven't rented in a long time, and I really thought that it would be far-fetched for something to happen in just a short period of time.

I do feel like you're right, ff...stupid is as stupid does. I was stupid for ever letting my wife talk me into staying out here in the sticks.

Im a country boy, LB, so I like the sticks.

Im sorry, but I also have to go with "Act of God." He might have had some clue the tree was not healthy, but so might have you.

I rented from my cousin once, and she gave me a rather generous break
on rent, so I usually absorbed whatever maintenance issues came up.

Just eat this one and keep the peace.

...and that's not stupid...