Q: A branch from a tree in my backyard fell in my neighbors yard last night during a severe thunderstorm, tearing down her
Tearing down her electric lines. She came to me today demanding that I help her with the “expenses” of having it repaired and get the tree cut back away from her house. Am I responsible? I told her I thought that her first call should be to the electric company for repairs (I’ve never had to pay for outages) and to her homeowner insurance? She said she would be contacting her attorney and suing me for damages and loss of use of her house (she works from home)
A: My guess is that your question is whether you are liable for the damages. Like most things in law, the answer is "it depends". Has your neighbor complained to you about the tree or the branches? In order to establish that you were unreasonable or breaching a duty of care to the neighbor, she would have had to put you on notice that the tree was causing a hazard. This may not stop her from suing however. If she does put a call into your homeowner's insurance. They will at least have a duty to defend you. Good luck.
Tim Akpinar and Dimitrios Makridis agree with this answer
A: Make a note of when the utility restores service (and internet service, if applicable). But on the restoration of service, electric utilities do not generally charge for that, as you correctly mention. Good luck
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