l'avril boréal

[skdadl]

Neighbours are a couple with young children, so ... no such luck.

No one appears to be around over there right now, and it's more of a problem for them than for me. It may be their fence -- I don't know. How does one discover these things? At what point do I talk to insurance peeps, and so forth?

[k'in]

Most municipalities consider a fence that borders two properties to be owned 50/50.  In most cases you can actually force a neighbour to pay for the new construction of half of a basic fence even if they don't want a fence.  In this case, the fence already exists, so normally you and your neighbours would split the repair cost 50/50.  I.E. here's the link for the bylaw for Oshawa:

http://www.oshawa.ca/documents/LineFence77-97.pdf

8.  The cost of reconstruction or maintenance of a division fence shall be borne equally by the owner and the adjoining owner.

Talk to the neighbours.  Maybe they're handy or know a handy-person who can fix it. 

Sorry this happened to you.  I had a section of fence damaged a couple of years ago.  I missed the excitement, but apparently there was a cop on the trail of a crackhead who ultimately tried to steeplechase the fence.  Dude actually broke the 2 X 4 top rail.  Ouch, it was a pain having to go get some lumber & lattice and fix it, but not nearly as painful as I imagine the force it took to break the 2 X 4 left the guy a eunuch.

[Toedancer]

Neighbours are a couple with young children, so ... no such luck.

No one appears to be around over there right now, and it's more of a problem for them than for me. It may be their fence -- I don't know. How does one discover these things? At what point do I talk to insurance peeps, and so forth?

Call your home insurance people now and get some answers.
Now if it was a tree on your property that fell into theirs, then you'd be responsible, IF you knew or should have known the tree was in bad shape and could become a fallover in a storm. Always keep receipts from tree work.

[Toedancer]

Most municipalities consider a fence that borders two properties to be owned 50/50.  In most cases you can actually force a neighbour to pay for the new construction of half of a basic fence even if they don't want a fence.  In this case, the fence already exists, so normally you and your neighbours would split the repair cost 50/50.

Is that right? Gosh what if the house was sitting empty? or a business?

[k'in]

Wouldn't matter.  It is shared by the owners no matter if the property is occupied.

You are right though about trees...not always so clear cut, and if a tree on your property damages a neigbour's property you are on the hook. 

I'd  be wary about calling the insurance company about a (strictly) fence issue.  It's doubtful the cost of the repair would exceed the deductible(s).  Also, I've heard stories that even if you call to inquire about something that happened and don't follow through with a claim your rates can go up as your risk profile goes up.

[Toedancer]

 
 Also, I've heard stories that even if you call to inquire about something that happened and don't follow through with a claim your rates can go up as your risk profile goes up.

Jeebs, good to know, thanks k'in. I don't know why I'm surprised.

[skdadl]

 trees...not always so clear cut

As it were. 

Thanks for the advice about the insurance ppl. I don't think this would be so hard to fix, actually -- it's a tall fence, slats marching along very solidly, but they're all sagging  together in formation, so I'm guessing it's just a question of checking the posts and pushing the thing back up and fastening it somehow.

About your fence-jumper (the eunuch): lol. Years ago we apparently had one too, guy pursued by cops along a line of gardens separated by metal-mesh fences, not the sort of thing you'd think a guy would want to land on. We were told that shots were fired, even. In our back garden. R and I slept through whole thing.

[Boom Boom]

It's snowing here today - sigh.

We got about three inches of snow this morning, but it's melting away. I'm looking out for the hundreds of birds I have in my backyard right now. 

[Herr Magoo]

You are right though about trees...not always so clear cut, and if a tree on your property damages a neigbour's property you are on the hook.

What about when someone damages your tree?
 
We have a tree in our tiny little front yard, mature enough, maybe 35 feet tall.
 
A few years ago we woke to an awful crash and ran downstairs to see that some drunk woman driving up the street that's perpendicular to ours sort of didn't manage to turn her car  -- because she was DRUNK -- and ran right into our tree. 
 
To this day it's scarred.  And we had bits and pieces of broken plastic from headlights and other junk all over our yard and garden.
 
Looking back, why didn't I think to ask police for contact information and try to settle out of court with her?  I bet I could have got a few hundred bucks out of it, plus the opportunity to ask whether our tree just bolted out into traffic, or what?
 
Without that tree, she'd have easily taken out the little wrought iron rail and damaged the house.

[k'in]

Like I said, with trees things aren't always clear cut...

You would probably look to the liability coverage of this person's automobile coverage for compensation.

The other thing with trees is that the city owns trees on a good chunk of front yards...at my place they own the first 22 feet from the road (or is it curb?).  So was it really your tree, or the city's?

[skdadl]

That was true in most of the Annex too. When our tree (forget what it was) looked in danger of dying, city replaced it with a locust, which I quite liked.

Fence is back up. No one came to talk to me, although someone must have gone into garden b/c there's a plank leaning against fence from my side -- kind of odd, since the wind is unlikely to blow it this way. Anyway, someone is obviously thinking about how to fix this, and as I say, it's more of a problem for them, since fence landed on kids' playground equipment, etc. Kids now jumping on trampoline. In this weather! Kids are ... kids.

I very seldom get headaches but I have one now. Could this be air-pressure related or something? I really wish the wind would stop already.

[Toedancer]

Having ignored the front most of day and using stage right from kitchen door to park/shops etc., I just went out to front porch to get the mail, there is a huge tree branch on front lawn, as big as a 4 year old maple, it blewed in from across the street.

[lagatta]

There is a front balcony just outside my office, and I had a sweater drying on a table. I knew that heavy gusts of wind and rain were predicted, but I was right there. Suddenly, the sky turned dark and there was an extremely heavy rain in gale-force winds. I rushed out to retrieve my damp sweater - and there was no sweater (I did put a weight on it, of course). Fortunately I found the sweater clinging to the wrought iron below (sweater is a cashmere v-neck pullover, Parisian-roof-grey - I bought it for $4 at a charity shop but am very fond of it). The items I had weighted the sweater down with had been swept two storeys down to the ground.

Sunny sky right now. Cat sleeping in sun, despite the wind outside.

[Toedancer]

For you Lagatta. Yes I love ToolGirl.

For all of us, vodka to dry clean clothes

Mag also has a website.

[lagatta]

Toe, I'm sure I'd love Tool Girl (great name) but I can't view YouTubes on my clunker. Hope I'll have time to go somewhere I can do so tomorrow!