Berlin – Benjamin F. (43) narrowly escaped death in June. An eight-meter branch crashed onto his car in his residential area. The property owner, Deutsche Wohnen, refuses to pay for the damage caused to the vehicle.
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This is what happened: As he was unloading his groceries from his car, a large black poplar branch slammed into the open passenger door. It was completely destroyed. Benjamin F. was trapped in his Opel Astra Caravan. Only the fire department was able to free him. What was particularly bad was that his two little sons (5 and 10) had to witness the accident.
“One turn and I would have been mud,” the craftsman looks back in shock. He suffered a severe bruise. The door, body, fenders and paintwork on the Opel had to be renewed. Costs according to F.: 8000 euros! Now the next shock for the family. The housing association’s insurance doesn’t want to pay.
The passenger door of the Opel Astra Caravan was crushed by the branch
Photo: Simon Schulz
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Background: The tree stands on the site of a Deutsche Wohnen development in Berlin-Neukölln. F. received news from the insurance company in August. “Deutsche Wohnen has written to us saying that it is not paying. According to the motto: bad luck. I was speechless,” says the Berliner.
Reason: According to Deutsche Wohnen, the tree was checked according to regulations.
BILD asked Deutsche Wohnen. Their spokesman Christoph Metzner explains: “The insurance company has confirmed that our tree inspections on site were carried out correctly. The branch break was not predictable or avoidable. That’s why the insurance doesn’t pay.”
The tree should have been checked correctly
Foto: spreepicture
The case law of past court rulings states that a natural branch break, for which there were no previous special signs, is fundamentally one of the natural risks to life. F. to BILD: “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
His fully comprehensive vehicle insuranceInsurance F. does not want to claim because otherwise he would be upgraded from 30 to 70 percent of the contributions. “It costs more than repairs,” he says.
