Brenda Laface is fuming red in the face.
During one of the wind storms last week, a cherry blossom tree along a thoroughfare connecting 203rd Street to Hammond Road crashed into her backyard, crushing her fence.
Laface called the Maple Ridge operations department, expecting the city to clean up the mess.
The tree was, after all, on city property, and Laface had complained about it in the past.
“Last October we had a huge wind storm and trees were down all over Maple Ridge,” said Laface.
“I phoned the city and I said there’s a dead tree and it needs to come down before the next wind storm because it is going to end up either on my roof or my backyard or, worse yet, on the power lines.”
That phone call took place on Oct. 5, and on Oct. 13 a city worker came out, assessed the tree and cut off a damaged portion
“Someone came and cut down the standing dead part and left the tree. A branch that was growing out of the stump, out of a rotten stump. Why they left it, I don’t know,” said Laface.
Now she is being told that it is city policy not to clean up trees that fall into people’s backyards.
“I need the city to come and deal with it. It was their tree. It should have been cut down before,” said Laface.
Russ Carmichael, director of engineering operations for the City of Maple Ridge, said once a tree lands on private property, it is up to the property owner to deal with it because of the insurance that’s involved.
“We do not have authority to go on private property except for life safety issues,” Carmichael said.
Typically, a home owner should contact their insurance company, which would deal with the insurance company for the city. Homeowners can also file a claim in writing to the city for the damages and liability would be determined by the facts of the case.
This could take as little as a month or as long as two, depending on how straightforward the case is.
“We advise people to get somebody, get your insurance company involved right away to mitigate the damage,” said Carmichael.
“Then this would be part of the claim, the cost of repairing the fence or removing the tree and that sort of thing,” he continued.
In the case of the last wind storm on March 10, there were 87 incidents that city workers had to assess, many that involved trees. They are still reviewing 14 of those cases.
Carmichael said the city is aware of the conditions of the trees along that walkway.
“In this case, clearly the homeowner was correct in that the tree may come down and it did. We did do an assessment when we were asked and the assessment deemed that it was healthy. Unfortunately, the wind was strong enough to bring it down.”
Laface’s deductible is $1,000, and by making a claim she will lose her claim free discount.
“I’m not making the claim with my insurance company. I’m not paying $1000 for that to happen. Because it’s the city’s responsibilty, in my view,” said Laface.