Streetlife

It's not a question I have ever been asked by house insurance companies!

Hi,

Due to the large tree outside my house. on the pavement., I have had subsidence

on three separate occasions. The council finally removed this tree in 2012. 

However they replaced a new , smaller three one week later.

We also had a tree outside our house.  It was probably ancient, but it blocked out our light.  The Council originally agreed to remove it - but reneged.  We persisited, using a Local Councillor.  It was eventually removed, and the stump ground out.  But what a palavar to get it done, let alone finished.  There are 4 other London Plane trees nearby, shedding a huge amount of leaves, that tend to clog up the street drains.  The Councillor is aware, but we are still awaiting yet another volte face from the Council.  In the meantime, the insurance company have always had a question on the annual proposal form about "is there a tree within 5(?) metres or so of your property".  It's the potential damage that the roots could cause that needs to be addressed.

You need to be very careful indeed with insurance companies, as they can take the premiums for years, and then, if they can argue that you should have disclosed some 'material fact', they are entitled to refuse the claim - and no, you won't get your premiums back.  However, they, and brokers, are (understandably) paranoid, and there's a fine judgement to be made in what you disclose.  That means getting a clear understanding of what's 'material'.  We've recently had to insure a new house, and some companies wanted to know if there are any trees over 10m high within 7m of the house, and others wanted to know if there were any over 3m high within 5m.  One demanded a copy of the full structural survey we'd had done (we told them to whistle for that). We chose the best offer, but were required to get a survey done by a member of the Arboricultural Association (£250, and that was cheap) and will have to have the recommended work done within a month.  If we neglected this, and a tree did damage the house, we could end up with tens of thousands of pounds of essential work to be done, and cover deemed invalid.  Our tree expert (highly recommended) believes that surveyors are as paranoid as insurance underwriters - this is probably because they get most of their work from mortgage lenders who are equally risk-averse.  Trees can cause massive damage through subsidence or heave (even worse) and we've been advised to have a camera survey of our drains because of a nearby lime.  However, many experts believe this is very rare, and beautiful trees are often unnecessarily felled.  If you're interested, try these links:
one from the RHS and, and if you want detailed analysis, this:

In my own view, the trees we have growing on our streets are one of the things that make our part of London so pleasant to live in.  I started trying to identify the species a couple of years ago and haven't looked back.  There's a neat little "Collins Gem" book available for under a fiver on Amazon, and  a little book of fan-out identification "swatches" from the Woodland Trust.  I now know that within a quarter of a mile of my house in Walthamstow there are Limes, Hornbeams, various pear trees, various cherries, maples, sycamores, London Planes, Swedish Whitebeams, Silver Birches, Rowans, Horse Chestnuts, various Cypress trees and many more.  I smile at them like friends as I pass them.  The maples in the Town Square gardens are ablaze with autumn colour at the moment.