After a storm, the most common question is not how big the damage is, but whose insurer will pay for it: the neighbour's pine tree is lying on the roof, the fence is smashed, the roof of the car is dented. The answer has two layers: an insurance layer (what your own home insurance pays, regardless of who is at fault) and a liability layer (whether the neighbour is liable and, if so, to whom). Mixing up the two causes most of the wrong moves – failing to report the claim, needlessly souring good relations with the neighbours. This article takes the two layers separately and then connects them.
- The first route is your own home insurance: cover for storm and for ‘falling foreign objects’ typically extends to your own building, fence and outbuildings – but the insurer pays only for what is an insured event under your contract, and the fence, garden structures or the car are separate questions.
- Under Section 6:519 of the Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.), the neighbour is liable only if the damage is attributable to their fault: a rotten, diseased tree previously reported as dangerous – yes; a healthy tree brought down in an exceptional storm – typically not.
- If the neighbour is liable, your own insurer can recover what it paid out from them under Section 6:468 of the Ptk. – this is a matter for the neighbour's personal liability cover, not yours; so document the condition of the tree and the storm.
The first layer: your own home insurance
In Hungarian policy conditions, storm and ‘falling foreign objects’ are separate insured events; in the basic package of the Certified Consumer-Friendly Home Insurance of the MNB (Hungary's central bank and financial supervisor), both are compulsory elements, and they also feature in most basic packages on the market. By a foreign object, policy conditions typically mean something that is not the property of the insured person – the neighbour's tree, an electricity pole, an advertising board. So if the neighbour's tree falls on your house, you report the claim to your own insurer, under your own policy conditions, and you do not have to wait until liability has been clarified with the neighbour. The article on storm damage describes the boundaries of the cover – roof, roller shutters, garden structures – in detail.
Three things decide what your own insurer pays. The first is what is insured: the main building generally is, whereas the fence, outbuildings, garden shed or pergola are covered only if the contract includes them as ancillary structures – for a family house, this is the most common gap. The second is the deductible and the limit: for storm damage many policy conditions apply a separate deductible, and there may be a limit for garden structures. The third is loss prevention: if your own tree, which has been dangerous for a long time, falls on your own house, the insurer may examine whether the maintenance obligation was met. The car is not a matter for home insurance: a tree falling on it is a matter for casco (comprehensive motor insurance) or, failing that, for the person liable.
The second layer: is the neighbour liable?
Under Section 6:519 of the Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.), anyone who unlawfully causes damage to another is obliged to compensate for it, but is relieved of liability if they prove that their conduct was not blameworthy. The owner of the tree – on private land the owner of the property, on public land typically the local authority or the road authority – is liable if the damage can be traced back to their own failure: a rotten, diseased, half-dead or visibly leaning tree that has not been looked after for years, or one you had previously drawn their attention to, even in writing. The neighbour-law rule in Section 5:23 of the Ptk. supports this as well: an owner must refrain from any conduct that would jeopardise the neighbours' exercise of their rights. If, however, a healthy, well-maintained tree is uprooted by a storm of exceptional force, the damage is not attributable to the owner's fault – in that case the neighbour owes nothing, and everyone is left with their own insurance.
In practice, the question of liability is decided not by you or the neighbour but – if there is one – by the neighbour's personal liability insurer and, ultimately, by the courts. Personal liability cover exists precisely for this: the neighbour notifies their own insurer that a claim has been made against them, the insurer examines whether they were at fault and, if it finds that they were, pays in the neighbour's place. If the neighbour has no such cover, they have to pay for the damage out of their own assets – and this is equally true the other way round: your tree on the neighbour's house is a matter for your liability cover.
How the two connect: the recovery claim
If your own insurer has paid for the damage and the neighbour's liability can be established, then under Section 6:468 of the Ptk. the insurer is ‘entitled to a recovery claim against the party who caused the damage, up to the amount of the damage it has compensated’. The insurer handles this with the neighbour or the neighbour's liability insurer; all you need to do is state, when you report the claim, whose tree it was, and pass on what you know about the tree's condition. The deductible and the part above the limit, which your own insurer did not pay, can be claimed directly from the liable neighbour – or from their liability insurer – if the neighbour was at fault. As a broker, I see that most cases turn on whether the condition of the tree can be proven after the event; that is why documentation is not a matter of courtesy but a matter of money.
The right order of steps on the day of the damage
Safety first: if there is a downed power line, an unstable roof or a smell of gas, contact the authorities. Then mitigate the damage – following the steps to take after a storm, put up a temporary covering, but where possible do not cut up the tree or have it taken away before the inspection, except to the extent that safety and damage mitigation require. Take time-stamped photos: the whole tree, its stump and roots (rot, hollowness, fungal growth), the point where it broke, the damaged parts of the building, and where on the neighbour's plot it fell from. Note down the time of the storm; the meteorological data will matter later on the question of whether it was an ‘exceptional storm’ – in either direction. If you previously asked in writing for the tree to be looked after or felled, dig out that request. The primary route for reporting is your own insurer's claims line; inform the neighbour factually that you have reported the claim, and ask them to notify their own liability insurer as well – not as an accusation, but because this protects them too.
What not to do: do not accept or ask for a cash ‘settlement’ before the inspection, because the insurer assesses the damage in its own procedure; do not sign a statement for the neighbour's insurer acknowledging any substantive points without understanding what you are acknowledging; and do not wait for liability to be clarified before reporting the claim yourself – under Section 6:453 of the Ptk., a delay has consequences if it makes it impossible to establish a material circumstance, and a tree that has been taken away is exactly that. In a dispute, the forum is the insurer's complaints procedure, then the Financial Arbitration Board (PBT) or the courts; I do not represent you in claims matters, but if a case gets stuck, I help where I can.
What should you do now, before a storm?
Check on your own policy whether the fence, the outbuildings and the garden structures are insured, and how high the deductible for storm damage is. Walk round your own trees: looking after or felling a tree that is visibly diseased, dry or leaning also protects your own liability cover. If your neighbour's tree worries you, tell them in writing, objectively – this is the most effective form of loss prevention and, if something does go wrong, it is evidence of fault.
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Sources
- Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.) Section 6:519 (general rule of liability), Section 5:23 (neighbour law), Section 6:468 (the insurer's recovery claim), Section 6:453 (reporting a claim)
- Kúria (Supreme Court of Hungary) Gfv.VI.30.304/2024/8. – on the insurer's recovery claim
- MNB (Hungarian central bank / supervisor): Certified Consumer-Friendly Home Insurance – basic package (storm, falling foreign objects)
- Biztosítás.hu: Damage caused by a fallen tree – whose responsibility is it?
- Piac&Profit – Dr Gergely Szabó, attorney-at-law: Will anyone compensate for damage caused by a tree blown down in a storm?
- Financial Arbitration Board (PBT, MNB)
