Who pays for tree damage caused by the storm? Is there a way to register your home for priority electric service?
Investigator Amy Davis is working to find answers to your storm related questions. We know a lot of you are dealing with clean-up from trees down in your neighborhood.
If a neighbor’s tree falls on your fence/car/garage/house who is responsible and who pays deductible?
Here’s your answer: If the tree was healthy before the storm and high winds caused the tree to fall over and damage your property, you cannot hold your neighbor liable.
This was an “act of God.” However, if the tree was diseased or in a dangerous condition before the disaster, you can hold them liable for damages. The neighbor was negligent in maintaining the tree. Home insurance generally covers this type of damage.
If your neighbor refuses to remove dead or dying branches you can call 3-1-1 for Houston’s service helpline.
The neighbor can be fined if they don’t do anything.
Is there a priority electricity list?
Every time our area experiences these mass power outages, we hear pleas from people who depend on electric medical devices to survive that their electricity be restored ASAP.
Donna Pruett said she heard “CenterPoint had a registration for people with disabilities to register and they would try to make those areas a priority.”
The Public Utility Commission has an application you can fill out to get chronic condition or critical care residential customer care status. This is mostly for customers who fall behind on their payments and it protects them from disconnection for a certain period of time.
The PUC says in an outage, “being on this list does not guarantee your power will be restored immediately, but emergency services workers can access this list to see who may need immediate attention.”
Here is the application if you or someone you know may need it.
Money back for ruined food during power outages
I have gotten a few questions about getting money back from the food you lost while your power was out. You may also be able to get money back for eating out and hotel rooms during the long power outage. Check out that information here.
If you have a question, email me at AskAmy@kprc.com.