Insurance Claim Denial

[tsalk]

Our neighbor had an old tree in their backyard. We never noticed it before. Early in March, during a wind storm, it fell over. Not from the roots, but the trunk split, leaving a tall trunk still standing. The tree totalled both our cars.

According to my landlady, she called her homeowner's insurance company. She said the adjuster came out and took one look at the tree and said it was my neighbor's responsibility as it is obvious that the tree was not healthy. She said he called the neighbor and then their insurance company and told them all that it was on them to handle the claim. My landlady said that her ins. company said she wasn't responsible but never sent her a letter denying the claim. I asked her again today if she filed an "official claim" with her company and she said she absolutely did.

The neighbor's insurance company sent an adjuster out who said that it would be her recommendation that the insurance company pay the claim. The company then sent out an appraiser who looked at both vehicles and wrote up a report for the ins. company. The ins. company sent us a letter denying responsiblity. They said that because my landlady never notified the neighbors that the tree was a hazard and because it was an "Act of God" and they claimed the tree wasn't dead, it was healthy, which is a laugh in itself, they weren't paying the claim.

I believe that the neighbors were on constructive notice for the tree because two different sections were either taken down intentionally or fell down unintentionally. It is obviously a dead tree. Now that the trunk is split, you can see through the rest of the tree. We just laughed when we saw that the letter said the tree was healthy.

Now we have to file a small claims lawsuit against both my landlady and the neighbors. We were originally willing to settle just for the fair market value of the two cars, but now my claim will include the 3 days I couldn't work, the cost of the table the tree destroyed and the bumbo seat that was in the car that was destroyed by glass. I will also include the loss of use of my husbands car as we haven't replaced it yet. We had to replace my car right away so that we had at least one vehicle.

My question is that if the insurance companies denied the claim (both of them) what is the chance that they are going to settle once we file in court. I work for a church and one of the members is an attorney and he said he'd come to court and represent us, so my claim will also include attorney's fees. The nice thing is that my car was in my name and my husband's car is in his name, so we can file two separate lawsuits.

What should my next step be? I am constructing a letter that I plan to give to my attorney to send to the landlady and to the neighbor giving them 10 days to settle the claim before I file in court. I wonder if I shouldn't just file....I don't want to do the wrong thing and don't want to be *****y about this, but we feel we don't have much choice. We can't afford to replace a 2nd vehicle. We really thought since the adjuster told us she was going to recommend that they pay the claim that they would just settle it and be done.

Any thoughts?