Take a look at the trees when you buy a house
Friends of mine bought a house last winter, and they asked me over to look at the place when they went through it for the third time. We stood in the driveway, talking about how they wanted to add French doors between the kitchen and formal dining room and how Tom, the husband, would use one of the bedrooms to set up his vintage, tube powered stereo.
I looked up at the giant dying-if-not-dead ash tree that hung over the garage and back deck. “Gonna cost a lot to get that tree removed,” I said. "You might want to get a tree expert to take a look at it."
My friends looked at me questioningly and the realtor glared as if I’d just made a deal breaker. All the ash trees in Connecticut are dying from a boring insect; our house is surrounded by dead trees. I suggested that a tree expert be called in to give an cost estimate to remove the tree and that that cost be knocked off the purchase price of the house, in the same way that a bad roof or a failed septic system would be taken into consideration during negotiations. The realtor said she’d never heard of such thing. (She was really glaring now.)
Nothing happened with my suggestion, of course.
Last weekend we had a fierce wind storm with lots of driving rain. Tom called to tell me that one of the tree’s dead leaders had broken off and gone through the garage roof. Another took off most of the deck. No one was hurt, but the homeowners' bank balance suffered.
Posted by Jefferson Kolle | Categories: Quick Fixes & Tips, Yard & Garden | Permalink
(3) Comments
I had a same experience with a house I bought in 2001 in Kingsland, GA. Two very tall, very dead, shallow rooted trees stood in the backyard leaning toward the house. In my bid I stated that the trees had to be removed. My realtor told me that any repairs could only be requested on the house. I argued that they were selling the whole property not just the dwelling. In the end I got to use a $5,000 carpet fee as I saw fit and had several repairs done including removing the trees.
I wish we had asked about the trees when we purchased our house. When one ash tree uprooted and landed on our deck a couple yrs ago, causing minor damages, we had a tree expert come in and take down about 7 trees around the property. Then last Jan, another ash uprooted and smashed the roof peak and gable, damaging two roofs (split level ranch) and sending a limb through the ceiling into our kid's bath. No one was injured but it could have caused a fire. The tree company returned, tagged 13 more ash trees and with my husband taking down a few of the smaller ones, to keep costs down, the tree company took down the rest. Although our ins co covered the damage to the house, they wouldn't cover the cost to bring the other possible dangerous trees down. Thank goodness we have a wood burning stove!
I didn't have dead tree, just Sassafras. Five to be exact. Tall ones. Someone told me they were "junk" tree; not something you plant on purpose. Two were leaning at my neighbor's house and two aimed at mine. The fifth was guilty by association, and leaning toward the driveway.
They all dropped big pieces from high up with nothing more than moderate winds. Technically they were healthy, but looked a lot like an insurance headache.
So I was out looking at my trees one day (I have another 10 on the property, mostly oaks) when my neighbor says, "If you're thinking of taking those trees down I'll pay for half." He even found the service and took off work to see it done right. On the one hand he was looking out for himself but on the other we solved the problem together. AND, the neighborhood smelled great for several days.
Your friends sound too blinded by the hope of a new house. I've seen that; ignore something that might be a problem and focus on the good stuff. Luckily I have a good neighbor and we took care of the problem before his bedroom got a skylight.