Maintaining Church Property: Proper Tree Safety - Trimming And Removal
As church insurance agents we have received numerous phone calls related to tree safety issues from small churches to large church organizations.
Damage caused by one or more of a churches trees falling, can create a huge cost for the church and insurance company.
Trees have fallen on houses, cars, motorhomes, and motorcycles belonging to one of their neighbors or onto a church members vehicle.
While we love older trees, however they will require additional maintenance to ensure the safety of persons and property.
California in particular has been hit with decades of droughts, and when storms hit california in recent years, thousands of trees have fallen.
The damage falling trees cause, is increasing the overall liability churches face an only amplifies the need of proper tree safety.
In 2019, 51 people in the US died from trees falling due to bad weather.
11 Tree Safety Steps Churches Can Take To Prevent Falling Trees
Integrity Now Insurance Brokers encourages all its customers — especially our churches — to implement an annual tree safety maintenance and removal program.
Here are some tree safety tips to keep in mind:
- Hire a licensed and insured tree arborist, to evaluate all of your trees on your property on an annual bases.
- Verify your tree service professional is a certified arborist.
- Obtain copies of your contractors Insurance coverage prior to hiring.
- Require to be listed as an additional insured on their General Liability Insurance.
- Require a waiver of subrogation rights in your favor on their workers’ compensation insurance policy.
- High risk exposure, request an umbrella policy.
- Never attempt to trim or cut down a tree on your own.
- Never hire any outside contractor, who is uninsured and not licensed in their specific trade.
- Contact your utility company to shut off power lines that could be damaged from a falling tree your church is having cut down.
- Ensure your tree service professionals use proper personal protective equipment, including goggles, a helmet, and hand and foot protection.
- After a severe weather events at your church, walk your church property and look for fallen trees and trees with hanging limbs.
- Ensure church members and your neighbors are safely away from noted tree hazards identified after a storm.
- If you need to remove a dead tree, do so very carefully.
- Inspect all buildings to ensure tree limbs do not come in contact with church buildings. These points of contact can damage the structure or lead to flooding issues.
Church liability Insurance: Needed Protection From Falling Trees
Even churches who follow the most riguous tree safety maintenance program, can face large catastrophic liability claim. If it important to have the needed church insurance in place to financially protect the organization.
No one knows the exact liability coverage limits a church should or should not carry. As church insurance brokers, we do our best to advise our clients on the proper level of insurance they should obtain.
Unfortunately, this could mean your church experiences a catastrophic loss which could end up being under insured for.
If a church board of directors decides to obtain the minimum liability limits and they receive a lawsuit for $3,00,000, this church could have a substantial financial liability exposure.
This uninsured amount will be the responsibility of the church to cover on their own.
Obtaining an umbrella policy, is one of the most cost effective ways to financially protect a church from a catastrophic loss. Most church insurance providers, will provide up to $5,000,000 in additional liability protection.
Hire A Church Insurance Agency To Help With Your Tree Safety Program
Integrity Now Insurance Brokers loves working with our church clients. We are here to help them with all of their insurance and risk management needs.
It with articles such as these, that we are able to further help our church clients take proactive measures to reduce their church liability. It is always better to implement measure such as creating a tree safety program, to try and prevent a loss than to have a loss that impacts peoples lives.
One of our church insurance specialist is here to help you obtain the needed insurance coverage and protection your church should have in place.
Request a complete church insurance policy review today so we can ensure you church building insurance is up to par. Recent rising inflation has left many churches under insured on their church properties. we can quickly evaluate all of your properties and identify any critical issues that should be fixed promptly.
