A tree came down on the Central Coast - now who pays?
After every East Coast Low we spend a fortnight lifting trunks off roofs and having the same conversation on every driveway. The answers are not the ones people expect: it is usually your insurer even when it is the neighbour’s tree, the debris removal is usually capped, and a tree that falls and hits nothing is usually not a claim at all. Here is how it actually works, and what we send the assessor to get it paid.
The neighbour’s tree, your insurer
This is the one that starts arguments across fences from Umina to Budgewoi. A tree that fails in a storm is generally treated as an act of nature. That means your own home and contents policy covers damage to your building regardless of whose land the tree grew on. Your neighbour is not automatically liable simply because the trunk was rooted on their side of the boundary.
Your neighbour becomes liable only where they were negligent - meaning the tree was a known hazard, they were told about it, and they did nothing. The whole thing turns on that word “told”. If you emailed them a photo of a cracked union six months ago with an arborist’s note attached, your insurer has a subrogation path and may pursue them for the excess and the repair. If you only ever mentioned it across the fence on a Sunday, you almost certainly do not have that path, and your excess is yours. This is the single strongest argument for putting tree concerns in writing on the Coast, and it costs nothing. Our boundary and overhang guide covers the rest of the neighbour conversation, including the mediation pathway and the Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006.
What the policy actually covers - and the trap
Most policies cover removal of the tree to the extent required to repair the insured damage. Lifting the trunk off the roof so the roofer can get to work: covered. Many policies then cap debris removal at a set figure, commonly somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000, and on a mature spotted gum across a Terrigal roof that cap is not generous.
What is generally not covered: the rest of the tree still standing in your yard after the failed limb came off, the stump, the garden tidy-up, and - the big one - a tree that fell and hit nothing. Landing harmlessly on the lawn is the classic uncovered event. No damage to insured property means no claim, and the $2,400 to clear seven tonnes of angophora off your back lawn is entirely yours. We have this conversation on a lot of Coast lawns and it is never a good one. Read the debris-removal limit in your PDS before you assume the whole job is a claim, not after.
The evidence an assessor wants
Photograph everything before anything moves. Several angles, wide and close. Two shots matter more than the rest: the root plate, and the failure point on the trunk or limb. That failure surface is the evidence. Clean, pale timber with fresh splintering says a healthy tree that the storm overloaded, which is exactly what your policy covers. Dark, punky, hollow or fungal-stained timber says a tree that was failing long before the wind arrived, and that is where an assessor starts asking what you knew and when.
Get the Bureau of Meteorology record for the event, or the SES job number if you called them out - both are free and both date-stamp the weather against your damage. Keep the make-safe invoice separate from the full removal invoice. And if the tree was previously reported to a neighbour, a landlord or a strata committee, dig out that email now rather than in week six. We photograph the failure point on every storm job we attend and send the images with the invoice, because we know the assessor will ask and it is easier to shoot it while the crane is still on the street.
Make-safe versus full removal
A make-safe is the emergency work needed to stop the damage getting worse and make the place safe to occupy: cutting the trunk off the roof, taking down a hanging limb over the driveway, clearing an exit path, tarping an open roof. Most insurers authorise make-safe immediately and pay it without waiting for an assessor, because leaving a split limb hanging over a bedroom overnight is a worse outcome for them than for you.
What they will not authorise as make-safe is a full removal, a stump grind and a garden tidy-up bundled into one line item. Try it and the whole invoice goes into the slow queue. We invoice make-safe separately, describe it in the words the assessor uses, and quote the remaining removal work as its own job for you to submit or self-fund. That separation is the single fastest way to get the urgent part of a Central Coast storm claim paid. The detail on how we work a live storm site is on our emergency and storm removal page.
Do you need a permit to clear a storm-damaged tree?
For the emergency work, no. Central Coast Council’s Tree & Vegetation DCP exempts dead and clearly dangerous trees, and nobody expects you to lodge a Private Tree Works application at 11pm with a leader across your roof. Make the site safe first. That exemption is the reason we photograph the failure point before we cut - the photos are what retrospectively demonstrate the tree was genuinely dangerous, and they serve the assessor and the Council file at the same time.
Where owners get caught is the second stage. Once the emergency has passed, the rest of the tree is just a tree again. If it is still standing, still alive and over the regulated size - roughly 5m in height or 3m in canopy spread on private land - taking it out is a normal Private Tree Works application with a normal 10 to 28 day wait, storm or no storm. “It was in a storm last month” is not an exemption. And if the answer is a remedial prune rather than a removal, the cuts have to meet AS 4373, because a crew that storm-tops a damaged gum back to stubs hands you a canopy of epicormic regrowth that fails in the next low - which is a fresh claim, and one your insurer may well decline as poor maintenance rather than storm damage.
2026 costs, and a worked example
Ex-GST bands for the Coast. After-hours make-safe callout: $600 to $1,600 depending on the hour, the access and how much has to come off in the dark. Removing a mature tree already lying on a roof, sectioned and lowered rather than dropped: $2,500 to $6,500. Crane lift where there is genuinely no other way in: add $2,500 to $5,000 for the crane day. A tree that has fallen in the yard with no structure involved: $900 to $2,400. Stump grinding: $180 to $600.
Worked example from a real shape of job at Wamberal after a June low. A 20m angophora dropped a co-dominant leader across the back half of a tile roof at 11pm. Make-safe at 6am: leader cut into three, lowered off the roof with a rope and a ground crew, roof tarped over the two broken battens. Separate invoice, $1,250, paid by the insurer within a week without an assessor attending. The remaining tree still had a second compromised union, which was not storm damage and not covered, so that was quoted separately as a $3,400 full removal and the owner paid it themselves. Stump ground to 300mm, $380. Failure-point photos went in with both invoices. Total insured portion $1,250, owner portion $3,780. Everyone knew which was which on day one, which is the whole point.
Storm weeks are the one time we prioritise by risk rather than order of call. A limb over a bedroom goes ahead of a trunk lying flat on a lawn, every time, and if you ring us with the trunk on the lawn we will tell you honestly where you sit in the queue rather than pretend you are next.
FAQs - liability, cover, evidence, make-safe, cost
The neighbour’s tree fell on my house - whose insurance pays?
Usually yours. A storm failure is generally an act of nature, so your own policy covers your building regardless of whose land the tree grew on. The neighbour is liable only if negligent - the tree was a known hazard, they were told in writing, and they did nothing. Written notice is what gives your insurer a path against them; a chat over the fence does not.
Is removing the fallen tree covered?
Only partly. Most policies cover removal to the extent needed to repair the insured damage and cap debris removal, commonly $1,000 to $5,000. The rest of the tree still standing, the stump, and a tree that fell and hit nothing are generally not covered. Landing harmlessly on the lawn is the classic uncovered event.
What evidence does the assessor want?
Photos before anything moves, including the root plate and the failure point - that surface shows whether the tree was healthy and the storm caused it, or it was rotten and the storm was the excuse. Plus the BOM record or SES job number, separate make-safe and removal invoices, and any earlier written report of the hazard.
What is a make-safe and is it paid up front?
The emergency work to stop further damage and make the site safe - trunk off the roof, hanging limb down, exit path cleared, roof tarped. Most insurers authorise and pay it immediately without an assessor. They will not accept a full removal and stump grind bundled in as make-safe, so we invoice it separately.
What does storm tree work cost in 2026?
After-hours make-safe $600 to $1,600. Mature tree off a roof, sectioned and lowered, $2,500 to $6,500. Crane day adds $2,500 to $5,000. Tree down in the yard with no structure hit, $900 to $2,400. Stump grinding $180 to $600.
Tree down, or one you already know is going to come down?
If it is on the house, we make it safe first and sort the paperwork after, with the failure-point photos your assessor will want. If it has not happened yet, get it in writing now - a dated assessment is the cheapest insurance on the Coast, and our warning signs page tells you what to look for. AQF Level 3 arborists, fully insured, working the full Central Coast from Killcare and Umina through Gosford and Erina to Wyong and the Lake Macquarie boundary.