A tree has come down. Whatever else is going on, the first fifteen minutes are about people, not property — and the most common serious injuries after an Auckland storm happen to homeowners trying to help before anyone with the right gear arrives. Make the scene safe, record it, and then call for emergency tree removal rather than reaching for a chainsaw.
First five minutes
- Get everyone out of the affected part of the building and away from the tree.
- Assume any nearby line is live. Stay 10 metres back and call the network operator or 111.
- Do not climb on it, cut it, or try to prop anything up.
- Photograph from safe ground before anything is moved.
- Then ring your insurer, and ring an arborist.
On this page
The first hour, step by step
1. Move people, not the tree
Everyone out of the affected part of the building, and well away from the tree, the limbs and anything it is resting on. Keep children and pets indoors. A tree that has partly failed is not stable — it can settle, roll or drop further without warning, and a limb held under tension can release at any moment.
If the tree is on the house, treat the rooms beneath and adjacent to it as out of bounds until someone competent has looked at it.
2. Check for power lines — properly
Look up, and look along the fall line. If there is any line involved, or you cannot be certain there is not, stay at least 10 metres away and keep everyone else back too. Call your electricity network operator or 111 before doing anything else.
Electricity arcs across gaps. You do not need to touch a line to be killed by one, and green wood, wet ground and puddles all conduct. This is the single most dangerous element of storm damage and it is consistently underestimated.
3. Check for other services
A root plate levering out of the ground takes whatever was underneath it with it — water mains, gas connections, drainage, telecommunications. If you can smell gas, get everyone out and call the emergency gas number immediately. If water is escaping, find the toby if you can do it safely.
4. Photograph before anything moves
From safe ground, take wide shots showing the whole scene, then closer shots of specific damage. Include the base of the tree, the failure point, and any structure affected. Photograph the underside of the failure if visible — decayed wood versus clean fracture matters if liability is ever in question.
These photographs are far more useful than anything taken afterwards, and they cannot be recreated once the tree is gone.
5. Contact your insurer
Ring as early as you safely can. Get a claim number, ask what they need, and ask specifically whether they require an assessor to view it before removal. Most insurers accept that making a site safe cannot wait — but tell them that is what is happening.
6. Ring an arborist — do not email
Emergency work is triaged by risk, and a phone call lets us assess severity properly. Have ready: the address, what the tree has landed on, whether power lines are involved, whether access is blocked, and rough size.
7. Make the area secure
If you can do it from safe ground, cordon the area so nobody wanders into it — particularly if the tree is near a footpath or a shared driveway. If a public footpath or road is blocked, notify Auckland Council or emergency services.
8. Don't let consent hold up a genuinely urgent job
Auckland Council allows a tree to be removed without resource consent if it has fallen on a house, has just fallen or split, or may cause an injury. If the tree is protected, you need written advice from a professional arborist explaining why it had to come out urgently and describing its condition, plus photographs showing the urgency, and the documents go to the council within seven days. Your step 4 photographs do double duty here. Leaning or lifting trees that are not yet an injury risk go through the normal rules in our council consent guide.
Two situations you must never approach
A tree that has come over but not reached the ground — caught in another tree, on a fence, on a roof — is holding an enormous amount of stored energy in a completely unpredictable configuration. It can release in any direction, including backwards and sideways, and it can do so while you are standing beside it. Hung-up trees cause a disproportionate share of serious tree-work injuries. Do not cut it, pull it, or drive a vehicle under it.
A fallen tree is a system of compressed and stretched wood. A trunk resting on two points has tension underneath and compression on top; a bent sapling pinned under a limb is a loaded spring. Cutting into that without knowing where the forces are causes the wood to spring, pinch the saw, or roll the trunk onto whoever is holding it. This is the leading mechanism of chainsaw injury in storm clean-up.
The same applies to partly uprooted trees. A lifted root plate that looks stable can slam back into the ground with enormous force when the stem is cut, and the crown can sweep sideways as it goes.
What does a tree look like after lightning hits it?
A lightning-struck tree usually shows a strip of bark blown off down the trunk, sometimes running in a spiral, often with bark and splinters scattered at the base. Heavier strikes leave deep vertical cracks or split the stem or a major limb outright. Some damage is internal and invisible, so the crown may wilt, brown or die back over the following weeks even when the trunk looks only scarred.
A split trunk, or a deep crack running well into the stem, has lost structural strength and will decay from there, so a tree like that near a house, driveway or fence should come down. A tree with only a narrow bark strip can survive, but it is worth a professional look and a watch over the next season. Our list of warning signs that a tree may fail covers what to look for afterwards.
How insurance usually works
The general pattern in New Zealand, though policies differ and yours is the one that counts:
| Situation | Usually covered? |
|---|---|
| Tree damaged your house — removal as part of the repair | Usually yes |
| Tree damaged a fence, garage or outbuilding | Usually yes |
| Tree fell on your car (comprehensive motor policy) | Usually yes |
| Tree blocking access, no structural damage | Sometimes, often limited |
| Tree fell in the garden, damaged nothing | Usually not |
| Removing a live tree you are worried about | No — maintenance, not insurance |
| Tree that failed because it was already dead or decayed | May be declined as lack of maintenance |
That last row matters. Insurers can decline where a failure is attributable to a tree that was visibly dead or defective and left untreated, so knowing the warning signs and acting on them is not just a safety matter.
On cost: storm work is dearer than planned work because it is urgent, often after dark, and competing with every other call in the region. The emergency tree removal cost section of our price guide explains what drives the premium. Making the site safe first and leaving the timber, branches and clean-up for a normal working day can bring the total down, and your insurer may prefer that split anyway.
Practical tips: keep every photograph, keep the written scope and invoice from whoever does the work, get the claim number before authorising non-urgent work, and do not throw out the damaged material until the claim is settled if an assessor might want to see it.
Who is responsible if a tree falls on a neighbour's house in NZ?
Usually each owner claims on their own insurance. A healthy tree brought down by an exceptional storm is generally treated as an act of nature, and owning the tree does not by itself make you liable for the damage it does. Liability shifts towards the tree's owner when they knew, or should reasonably have known, it was hazardous and did nothing. Check your own policy either way.
The short version is that liability generally depends on knowledge, not ownership. The same applies in reverse: if your tree lands on a neighbour's house, their insurer normally deals with their house and yours deals with yours.
It changes where the tree's owner knew, or reasonably should have known, that it was hazardous — it was visibly dead, obviously decayed, had a cracked union or included bark at a major fork, or concerns had been raised with them — and they did nothing. Then negligence becomes arguable.
If you are worried about a neighbour's tree, raise it with them in writing and keep a copy. A polite email costs nothing and completely changes the position if the tree later comes down on your house. A verbal mention over the fence two years ago is worth very little.
Where a neighbour refuses to deal with a genuinely dangerous tree, the Property Law Act 2007 allows an application to the District Court for an order to remove or trim a tree causing damage or danger. More in our guide to neighbours' trees.
Why response times stretch after a big storm
When a serious front crosses Auckland, every arborist in the region takes a fortnight of calls in a day. We cannot get to everyone at once, so we triage:
- Priority one: life safety — trees on occupied buildings, anything involving power lines, trees blocking sole access where someone may need to get out.
- Priority two: active property damage and trees threatening imminent further damage.
- Priority three: fallen trees that damaged nothing, blocked back gardens, general clean-up.
If your situation changes — the tree moves, the root plate shifts, something becomes unsafe — ring back and say so. We will re-triage. And if you are priority three, being patient genuinely helps someone with a tree through their roof.
When a heavy rain or strong wind warning is out, that is the time to move cars from under big trees and bring in anything loose. MetService warnings and Auckland Emergency Management are the places to watch during an event.
Preventing it next time
After every major blow we remove trees that had been telling us for months. Storm damage is far more predictable than it feels.
- Clear deadwood before winter. Dead limbs are the first thing to come down, and removing them while the tree is standing is cheap.
- Watch the wet season. Saturated ground is why most windthrow happens in rain-driven wind rather than the strongest dry gusts.
- Check after neighbouring removals. Trees newly exposed to wind they never grew to resist are vulnerable for several seasons.
- Get large trees near buildings looked at periodically, especially if there has been construction inside the root zone.
- Deal with the leaners before, not after. A tree with a new lean and lifting soil is already failing.
Tree down now? Ring rather than emailing. For non-urgent concerns, our assessment is free.
General guidance only. Insurance cover depends entirely on your policy — check with your insurer. See our disclaimer.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do if a tree falls on my house in Auckland?
Get everyone out of the affected part of the building and stay clear. If any power line is involved, treat every line and every wet surface near it as live, keep at least 10 metres away and call the network operator or emergency services immediately. Once people are safe, photograph the damage from a safe distance, contact your insurer, and call an arborist for an emergency removal. Do not climb on the tree or the roof to assess it yourself.
Does insurance cover storm tree removal in New Zealand?
Usually, where the tree has damaged an insured structure. Most New Zealand home policies cover removal of a fallen tree as part of repairing the damage it caused to a house, fence, garage or vehicle. Cover for removing a tree that fell without damaging anything is much less common. Policies differ significantly, so ring your insurer before authorising non-urgent work.
Who is responsible if my neighbour's tree falls on my property?
Liability generally depends on whether the tree owner knew or should reasonably have known the tree was hazardous. A healthy tree brought down by an exceptional storm is usually treated as an act of nature, and each party claims on their own insurance. A tree that was visibly dead or dangerous and had been raised with the owner beforehand is a different situation — which is why raising concerns in writing matters.
Can I cut my neighbour's storm-damaged tree without their permission?
Only the parts that have come onto your property, and only as far as needed to make it safe or clear your side. You cannot go onto their land, and the material belongs to them. Check first that the tree is not protected, and talk to the neighbour and both insurers before anything that is not urgent. Our neighbours' trees guide covers the boundary rules.
My neighbour wants me to cut down my tree. Do I have to?
Not just because they ask. There is no general duty to remove a healthy tree for a neighbour. A court can order a tree removed or trimmed under the Property Law Act 2007, but only where that is fair and reasonable, needed to deal with a real risk or an undue interference such as lost light, and refusing would cause the neighbour greater hardship than the order would cause you.