If a tree falls on your roof, check for downed power lines and injuries first, then get everyone out from under any sagging ceiling. Do not go up on the roof yourself. Photograph the damage from the ground, call for emergency tarping if the roof is open, and notify your insurer before you call a tree removal company. Following that order in the first 24 hours protects both your home and your claim.
I am Aaron Scott, licensed Michigan residential builder and owner of Roofing Army. Our crews work out of Oxford, Ferndale, Rochester Hills, Plymouth, and Jenison, and a Roofing Army project manager has walked more trees-on-roofs than we can count, most of them in the hours after a summer or early fall storm. This is the exact order we walk homeowners through on that first call.
What Should You Do in the First Hour After a Tree Hits Your Roof?
Stay inside only if it is safe to do so. If a power line is down anywhere near the tree, or the line is still touching the tree or the house, stay away from it entirely, treat it as live even if it looks dead, and call 911 and your utility. Never try to move a downed line or cut a limb that is resting on one.
Next, listen and look before you decide where to stand. Cracking sounds, a visibly sagging ceiling, or a section of roof that looks lower than the rest means real structural damage, and that part of the house should be evacuated until a roofer or structural professional has looked at it from underneath. If water is actively coming through a ceiling, cut power to any affected light fixture at the breaker and set buckets, but do not go into the attic to look around.
What you should not do is climb up to inspect the roof yourself. Impact damage is unpredictable: a limb can punch a hole you cannot see from the ground while leaving the shingles around it looking undisturbed, and a tree that looks fully off the roof may still be hung up on a branch that is loading weight onto the decking. That inspection is a job for a drone or a roofer with fall protection, not a homeowner on a ladder.
What Is the Tree-on-the-Roof Checklist?
- Confirm everyone is safe and away from downed lines. If a line is involved, call 911 and your utility before anything else.
- Check for structural red flags. Sagging, cracking, or a visibly deformed roofline means stay out of that part of the house.
- Photograph everything from the ground. The tree, the point of impact, any debris in the yard, and the elevation of the house. Do not get on the roof.
- Call for emergency tarping if the roof is open. Exposed decking cannot sit through the next rain. Our emergency tarping service gets a hole covered properly, with battens screwed through the tarp into the deck, not bricks and bungee cords.
- Notify your insurer the same day. You do not need a contractor's estimate to open a claim, just the date and a short description. Get the claim number and adjuster's name.
- Do not remove the tree yourself. A tree resting on a roof is under tension in ways that are not obvious. Hire a licensed tree service, and keep the invoice for your claim file.
- Schedule a free roof inspection. Once the tree is off and the hole is tarped, you need documented, roof-level photos before or alongside the adjuster's visit. Our storm damage inspection covers every slope with drone photos uploaded to your job portal.
- Start a claim folder. Photos, the tree removal invoice, the tarping receipt, and every name and date from your insurer.
Does Homeowners Insurance Cover a Tree Falling on Your Roof in Michigan?
Generally, yes. The Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services states plainly that damage to your home "from a storm or a fallen tree, as well as the resulting tree removal, is generally covered by a standard homeowners insurance policy, subject to any applicable deductibles and policy limits." That covers the roof damage itself and the cost to remove the tree from the structure, minus whatever your policy's deductible and limits are.
Where this gets more specific: if the tree did not actually hit anything, insurers typically do not pay to remove it just because it fell in the yard, and most policies cap the tree removal portion of a claim at a modest flat amount, commonly in the few-hundred to low-thousand dollar range, when there is no structural damage attached to it. Confirm your own policy's removal cap and deductible before you assume a number. If the claim is serious enough to involve roof repair or replacement, our guide on how to file a roof insurance claim in Michigan walks through what happens after you report it.
Who Pays If a Neighbor's Tree Falls on Your Roof?
In almost every case, it does not matter whose tree it was. You file the claim on your own homeowners policy, and your insurer pays for the damage to your home regardless of where the tree grew. The exception that can shift things is negligence: if the tree was visibly dead, diseased, or the subject of a documented complaint and the owner did nothing about it, your insurer may pursue your neighbor's liability coverage after the fact through subrogation, which can recover your deductible, but that is your insurer's process to run, not something you need to sort out with your neighbor before you file. Report the damage to your own carrier first either way.
How Much Does It Cost to Fix a Roof After a Tree Hits It?
It depends entirely on what the tree actually did, which is why we price it after a look, not over the phone. Across every repair we price in a given year, the typical small, contained fix runs $250 to $600, and the median repair that actually gets booked is $900, with a $250 minimum service charge; our full numbers are broken out in what roof repairs cost in Southeast Michigan. A tree strike rarely stays in the minimum range, though. A glancing limb that only cracked some shingles and dented a vent can be a few hundred dollars. A branch that punched through the decking means replacing sheets of OSB, new underlayment, ice and water shield, and matching shingles over a wider area, which pushes well past that small-repair band. And if the tree caused enough damage, or hit an older roof that was already near the end of its life, the honest answer may be that a full roof replacement makes more financial sense than patching one section indefinitely.
Across the calls we take in a typical year, 79 are specifically about a tree on the roof, 52 of those turn into an emergency tarping call, and 31 describe an actual hole in the decking rather than just a scare. Those calls spike twice a year, once after the July 3 wind storm that tore through Metro Detroit and Oakland County, and again after the September 2 storm that put an EF-2 tornado through Detroit and dropped trees everywhere from Milford to Macomb Township. If your call lands in that second wave, you are far from the only one.
What Happens After the Tarp Goes On?
Once the tree is removed and the roof is secure, the pace slows down. The adjuster typically schedules a visit within a week or two, and we attend that meeting whenever a homeowner wants us there, so the adjuster and our inspector are looking at the same drone photos and the same test squares. If the claim is approved for a repair, we give you a firm, written price before any work starts. If it is approved for a full replacement, we give five quotes at different price points, the same as any other roof we build, and we never take a deposit on either kind of job.
One more thing worth checking while the tree crew is out there: if a limb also took out a section of gutter, that work is handled by our referral partner, Ackerman Seamless Gutters, not by Roofing Army directly, so plan for a separate call on that piece.
Get the Roof Looked At Today
A tree on the roof is not a job to guess about or leave for later. We serve Oxford, Ferndale, Rochester Hills, Plymouth, Jenison, and the surrounding communities, including Berkley, Royal Oak, and Rochester, with free inspections and drone documentation uploaded straight to your job portal. Every price we charge is public in our job gallery. If a tree hit your roof this week, get the hole secured and get a real inspection before you decide anything else.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do first if a tree falls on my roof?
Check for downed power lines and injuries first, and stay away from any line that is down or touching the tree. Get out from under any sagging or cracking section of ceiling. Do not climb onto the roof yourself. Photograph the damage from the ground, call for emergency tarping if the roof is open, and notify your insurer the same day.
Does homeowners insurance cover a tree falling on your roof in Michigan?
Generally, yes. The Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services states that damage from a storm or a fallen tree, along with the resulting tree removal, is generally covered by a standard homeowners policy, subject to your deductible and policy limits. If the tree did not hit anything, removal is often not covered or is capped at a modest flat amount, so check your own policy.
Who pays if my neighbor's tree falls on my roof?
In almost all cases, you file with your own homeowners insurer regardless of whose yard the tree grew in, and your policy pays for the damage to your home. If the tree was visibly dead or diseased and the owner ignored it, your insurer may pursue the neighbor's liability coverage afterward to recover your deductible, but that happens behind the scenes after you file, not before.
Can I remove the tree from my roof myself?
We do not recommend it. A tree resting on a roof can be holding tension in ways that are not obvious from the ground, and cutting into it without the right equipment can cause it to shift suddenly. Hire a licensed tree removal company, keep the invoice, and let a roofer handle the roof itself.
How much does it cost to repair a roof after a tree hits it?
It depends on what the tree actually did. Minor damage like cracked shingles or a dented vent can run a few hundred dollars, in line with the $250 to $600 range we see on small, contained repairs. A branch that punches through the decking costs significantly more, since it means replacing OSB sheathing, underlayment, and shingles over a wider area, and severe damage can make a full replacement the better value.
