Tree removal insurance: what home insurance covers when a tree comes down

Every storm season the same call comes in, and it is never really about the tree. It is about the roof the tree is lying on, the Colorbond fence it flattened, the car parked under it, and one question: will tree removal insurance pay for this? The honest answer is that it depends on three things: what the tree hit, what your policy says, and the order you do things in over the next few hours. Get the order wrong, by having the tree cut up and carted off before the insurer has seen it, and a claim that should have been simple turns into an argument you are having with a photo of an empty lawn. This guide explains what most home policies cover when a tree comes down, what they usually do not, how to make the claim in the right order, why the arborist's insurance and your own policy are two different things, and what happens when the tree belongs to the neighbour.

Api Mariner is a qualified arborist who has cleared storm-fallen trees off roofs, fences and cars across Melbourne's west, the inner suburbs and Geelong for more than 16 years, and has dealt with the assessors, the neighbours and the paperwork that come with them. One thing needs saying plainly before anything else: this is general information about how home insurance usually works in Australia. It is not advice about your policy. The only document that decides your claim is your own product disclosure statement, and the only person who can confirm your cover is your insurer.

Tree removal insurance: what most home policies cover

Start with the good news. Moneysmart, ASIC's consumer money site, says most home insurance and contents insurance policies cover storms, and that storm cover includes damage caused by lightning, cyclones, strong winds, rainwater, hail and snow ^[1]. A gum that comes down in a wind event and lands on the house is, for most policies, a storm claim: the wind is the insured event, the tree is the thing it moved, and the roof is the insured property it damaged.

The words doing the work in that paragraph are most and usually. Moneysmart's own advice is that if you are not sure what cover you have, ask your insurer or read the policy's product disclosure statement, the PDS ^[1]. The PDS is where a policy says how it treats the tree itself, the debris, the fence and any cap on removal costs, and two policies from two insurers can read quite differently on all four. There is no separate tree removal insurance policy you can buy for a house; the cover, where it exists, lives inside the storm section of the home policy. Storm cover is close to universal; what a policy pays toward getting the tree off the house and out of the garden is not, and that is the gap most people fall into.

Storms are also where nearly all of these claims come from. VICSES responds to around 20,000 requests for assistance from storms in a typical year, roughly 80 per cent of everything it is called to, and it lists tree branches, cars parked under trees and falling overhanging limbs among the most common causes of the damage ^[2]. That is the backdrop every insurer is working against in a bad week. It is why the claims process has an order to it, and why the people who follow the order get paid faster.

What is usually covered, and what usually is not

The simplest way to think about what your policy covers and what it does not is to ask what the tree hit. Home insurance is built around damage to the things it insures: the building, the fence, the shed, the contents. A tree is not one of those things. It is the cause of the damage, the same way hail or a lightning strike is, so the policy is interested in the tree only to the extent that it is sitting on something insured. That single idea explains almost every yes and no in the list below.

The sore point in that list is the tree that hit nothing. It is the same wind, the same tree and the same clean-up bill, but because nothing insured was damaged there is often no claim to make, and the cost of cutting it up and carting it away sits with the homeowner. Some policies include a small allowance for removing a fallen tree that caused no damage and some do not; that is a PDS question, and it is worth knowing the answer before the storm rather than after.

The healthy tree in the second-last row is the one people most want insurance to pay for and the one it never will. A tree you have decided to remove because it is too big for the block, dropping limbs, lifting the paving or simply in the way is a planned job, and it is priced the same way any removal is; if you want to know how tree removal is priced, the short version is that the tree is only half the job and what is around it is the other half. The one thing insurance does for that tree is give you a reason to deal with it before it becomes a claim.

Making a claim after a tree falls: the right order

Making a claim after a tree falls is mostly a matter of sequence, and it is where tree removal insurance either does its job or does not. Every step below is something the Insurance Council of Australia, VICSES or Energy Safe Victoria tells homeowners to do after a storm. The only thing Api adds is the order, because the order is what people get wrong when a tree is on the roof and the rain has not stopped.

The safety step is not a formality. Energy Safe Victoria says to keep at least eight to ten metres from any fallen powerline, because you do not have to touch a line to receive a shock and even a broken line can still conduct ^[4]. VICSES says the same, adds that every fallen line should be assumed live, takes storm calls on 132 500, and sends anything life-threatening to 000 ^[2]. A tree that has brought a service line down with it is not a job for anyone until the line has been made dead, and a crew that starts cutting before that has been confirmed is not a crew you want on the property.

The photographs are the claim. The Insurance Council of Australia's advice after a severe storm is to document the damage with photos and videos before the clean-up starts, because that is what supports the claim, and to contact the insurer as soon as possible and let them know if the roof has been damaged ^[3]. The same advice settles the panic about paperwork: insurers keep electronic records, and your name, address and date of birth are all they need to find your policy ^[3]. VICSES says it in fewer words: call your insurance company to organise any insurance matters, and take photos of the damage ^[2].

The permission step is where most claims are won or lost. The Insurance Council's wording is exact: speak to your insurer before you attempt or authorise any building work, including emergency repairs, and ask for the insurer's permission in writing, because unauthorised work may not be covered by your policy ^[3]. Cutting a tree off a roof is work. Having it chipped and taken away is work. Doing either before the insurer has agreed can leave you paying for it, and it also destroys the evidence the assessor was coming to look at.

If the damage has left you unable to live in the house or cover the immediate costs, say so. The Insurance Council notes that a policyholder in urgent financial need can ask the insurer to fast-track the claim and make an advance payment within five business days of showing that need ^[3]. Most people do not know to ask, and the insurer will not always offer.

Your arborist's insurance is not your insurance

Two different policies are involved in every insured tree job, and they do two different jobs. Your home policy pays for what the storm did to your property. The arborist's public liability policy pays for what the crew does while they are fixing it. If a limb is lowered badly and goes through the neighbour's carport, that is the arborist's insurer's problem, not your storm claim's, and if the arborist has no insurer, it may become yours.

Your policy pays for what the storm did. The arborist's policy pays for what the crew does. If the crew has none, the gap is yours.

Consumer Affairs Victoria puts it on its checklist for any home job: ask to see a certificate of currency for public liability insurance, which protects you or third parties against any damage the workers may cause ^[5]. The same checklist tells you to ask for the tradesperson's full name, a physical address rather than a post office box, and the registered business name ^[5]. Those three details are how you find them again if something goes wrong, and a crew that hesitates over any of them is telling you something.

The reason this matters more in tree work than in most trades is the danger of the work itself. WorkSafe Victoria reported a coroner's finding that 31 people died in Victoria from tree felling or related activity between January 2012 and September 2018, and that 13 of those deaths were at work ^[6]. Safe Work Australia's guide to tree work says plainly that tree trimming and removal should not be done from ladders, and that contact with any powerline, whether it carries 230 volts or 400,000, can kill without the line ever being touched ^[7]. A storm-damaged tree adds split timber, hung-up limbs and a roof that may not hold weight to all of that. It is the worst possible job to hand to someone without cover.

Arborists in Australia do not need a licence, which surprises most people. The hipages arborist guide says they should nonetheless carry public liability insurance and personal insurance, hold a Certificate II or III in Horticulture (Arboriculture), and belong to a recognised body such as Arboriculture Australia ^[8]. The Certificate III is the trade-level qualification, and it explicitly covers tree dismantling and removal as high-risk work, either at height or supporting someone who is ^[9]. Api holds his qualification, carries his insurance, and hands over the certificate of currency the moment anyone asks, because on an insured job the insurer often asks too.

The neighbour's tree

A good share of storm calls involve a tree that was never yours: the neighbour's gum through your fence, or your pittosporum across their driveway. The insurance answer here is simpler than people expect and less satisfying. In most cases your own home policy is still the first call when a neighbour's tree damages your property in a storm, because the event is the storm, and the insurer decides afterwards whether there is anyone to recover the cost from. A healthy tree that a storm brought down is usually nobody's fault. A tree the owner had been told was dangerous and did nothing about is a different conversation, and one where a written record of what was said and when does a lot of the work.

What the council will not do is referee it. Brimbank's published position is a fair example: trees on private property are the owner's to look after, the council does not maintain them, and disputes about a neighbour's tree are treated as civil matters ^[10]. The state's answer to those civil matters is the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria, which names overhanging branches, dropped foliage and root damage as the classic tree disputes and offers free, voluntary and confidential mediation on 1300 372 888 so neighbours can sort it out without legal action ^[11]. Api's experience is that a phone call to that number resolves more fence disputes than any letter does.

Where the tree is still standing and merely overhanging, the practical fix is usually a prune rather than a removal, and it is one the two households can share the cost of. A tree that overhangs a fence can be cut back from your side without anyone setting foot on the neighbour's property, and both properties are left clean and undamaged when the work is done by a crew that has done it many times before.

Quick to respond with quote, able to get to the job promptly, site was left clean and undamaged with the tree over hanging a fence. Would highly recommend them.

The door-knocker after the storm

The morning after a big blow, utes appear in the street. Some are genuine crews clearing a backlog. Some are not, and the tell is the offer: a cheap price if you book today, and the line that they will bill your insurer directly so you do not have to worry about it.

Consumer Affairs Victoria's checklist is blunt on the first half: be wary of people who knock on your door or telephone unexpectedly offering cheap deals on jobs around your home ^[5]. The second half is worse than it sounds. Someone who offers to bill your insurer is asking you to authorise work the insurer has not approved, at a price you have not seen in writing, against a policy they have never read. The Insurance Council's advice is that work authorised without the insurer's permission may not be covered ^[3], which means the bill they promised to send to the insurer can come straight back to you, with the evidence of the damage already through the chipper.

A legitimate crew after a storm behaves differently. It asks whether you have rung the insurer. It makes safe first and leaves the rest until you have the go-ahead. It writes the quote so you can forward it, and it can produce its insurance without going back to the ute for it. The Consumer Affairs advice to get at least three quotes on the same detailed description, and to understand exactly what each one covers, applies in a storm as much as at any other time, even if the three quotes are a phone call each ^[5].

The tree you pay for yourself

Most of the trees Api removes were never a claim, and were never going to be. A healthy gum leaning over the house, a palm lifting the driveway, a tree growing hard against the wall: the homeowner pays for those, and the sensible ones pay before the storm rather than after. Preventive removal is not an insured event, because nothing insured has been damaged yet, and no policy pays you to stop a claim from happening. What a planned removal buys instead is a job done on a dry day, at a fixed written price, with the crew choosing where every limb lands rather than the wind choosing for them.

A planned removal also has one step a storm job does not: the council. Since 15 September 2025 every Victorian planning scheme has carried a canopy-tree clause, and a planning permit may be needed to remove, destroy or lop a canopy tree on a vacant residential lot or close to the street frontage or rear boundary of a lot with a house on it, with fast-tracked applications decided in about ten business days ^[13]. Consumer Affairs Victoria's checklist is clear that obtaining any permit is the homeowner's responsibility ^[5], which is why Api checks the council position on your title as part of quoting and tells you before the job is booked. Where a tree is being removed because it is genuinely dangerous, some councils ask for an arborist's or engineer's evidence of its condition before they grant the permit ^[14], and a written assessment from a qualified arborist is worth more to that application than a photo of a lean.

API came saw and removed a large tree growing up against the house. No damage to the house and all the stump removed. Prompt and efficient. Sorry it was too hot for coffee API. Thanks

The stump is the other place a claim and a planned job part ways. When an insurer pays to get a fallen tree off the house, the stump is often not part of what it pays for, and the industry's own pricing works the same way: stump removal is not usually included in the cost of tree removal, and getting both quoted together saves money because the arborist arrives with the gear for both ^[8]. There is a full guide to leaving a stump behind and why it costs more later; the short version is that a decaying stump is a magnet for ants, cockroaches and termites ^[15], and a gum stump resprouts. Api grinds stumps 300 to 400 mm below ground so the lawn goes straight back over the top, and it is cheaper on the same visit than as a second trip.

Lowering the odds of a claim at all

The cheapest tree claim is the one you never make, and most of the ways to avoid one are already in the storm advice. VICSES tells householders to trim back trees and branches away from the home and to park the car under cover or away from trees, and warns that heat, fire or a recent storm can leave a tree unstable and more likely to fall in the next one ^[2]. Energy Safe Victoria adds the powerline half: for a tree on your property you are responsible for keeping it clear of the service line that connects to your own house, and the clearing should happen before growth comes within one metre of that line in any direction ^[4]. Lines also sag in hot weather, so the gap you measured in winter is smaller in January than you think ^[16].

The last item on that list is the insurance itself. Moneysmart's advice is to review your cover regularly so you are not underinsured ^[1], and the tree version of that is to read the storm section of the PDS once, on a quiet evening, and know whether fences, debris removal and a fallen tree that hit nothing are in or out before you need to know. If a tree on the block worries you now, the question is not whether insurance will pay for it later but who to call for tree removal this month, while it is still a planned job.

What Api does when insurance is involved

When a storm has put a tree on a house, our tree and palm removal service starts with the same order this guide does. Api asks whether you have spoken to the insurer. He photographs the tree and the damage himself, from the ground and from the roof, so there is a second set of pictures. He makes the site safe, which usually means securing or removing the limb that is doing the damage and tarping what it exposed, and he leaves the rest until you have the insurer's go-ahead. The quote is written, describes the tree, the method, the chipping and the clean-up, lists the stump separately, and is in a form you can forward to the assessor. The certificate of currency comes with it.

He also tells you straight when a job is not a claim. A tree that fell and hit nothing, a healthy tree you have decided to remove, or a stump left from a storm removal last year are jobs the homeowner pays for, and Api prices them the same way he prices everything: a free quote on site, a fixed written price before anything is cut, and the removal, the chipping, the clean-up and the green waste included unless the quote says otherwise. He takes calls 7 days a week from 6am and prioritises hazards, and the crew that quotes is the crew that turns up, fully insured.

None of this replaces a conversation with your insurer, and it is not meant to. Tree removal insurance, in the end, is storm cover with a tree in it: what your policy pays is set by the PDS you signed up to, and only your insurer can confirm it. What Api can do is make sure the tree comes off the house safely, the evidence survives, the paperwork is in the form the insurer wants, and nothing is done in the wrong order. That is how you get a fallen tree cleared without putting your claim at risk.