Neighbors tree fell into our front yard

So you think I should call the clean up company and pay for it?

What if two clean up companies come (I call one and the neighbor calls one), will the clean up company who doesn't get the business be pissed that they had to come all the way out?  Would they require any type of fee for coming out?

2X, this happened at my old house.  Just dragged it over to their yard and let them deal with it.

Is the tree in any danger of damaging your house?

If there is only a 10-15 foot section in your yard and no threat of damage to your house I would leave it alone.

I for one would not be happy if I was out of town and my neighbor took it upon himself to hire a tree company and then present me with the bill. I would prefer to make my own decisions on how to clean up the mess. In fact I would most likely do it myself to save the money, so I would not be too enthused if you paid someone to do it and then asked me for the money.

Also from a legal standpoint if you were to take it on yourself to pay for the clean up, I am reasonably certain your neighbor would have no legal obligation to pay you back. Moral and ethical obligation? Perhaps. But I don't think the law would fall on your side.

Yeah, unless he beats me too it, I'm going to go ahead and either pay to clean it up or go rent a chainsaw and cut it myself.  I'll consider it cross training ha.

Property line is pretty much where the shade ends and sun begins.  As mentioned, tree is entirely in their yard, the part that fell just happened to land on my side

I suggest cleaning up the mess, keeping the wood if you want it and then taking pictures of the tree and property line for future reference.  Should the tree get blown over onto your property or worse onto your house then you have a basiss to file a claim and have your insurance company pursue their company to cover damages and clean-up. 

It could also be worth the time to write a quick letter and mail it to them (they may be out of town and have mail forwarded and/or your schedules are just offset and mail could be an effective way to communicate with them.   All you have to say is that a branch fell in a previous storm but you would like to talk to them about preventing possible damages by pruning the tree. 

I have a big nasty branch hanging over the garage of my rental house, I talked with the home owner and the owner of the tree about it.  So far they have done nothing.  I just hope when it goes my stuff/family is not there.  I just know I won't be paying one cent of a claim.

In lovely California, the tree belongs to the property owner where the trunk resides.  If you trim the tree without permission and it damages the tree, the owner can sue you for damages.

Make sure you know the law in your state.

Take photos of everything first.

I'd say my priority list would go something like this:

- threat to my house: clean it up right away
- threat to my neighbor's house and he's out: probably clean it up for him (document everything)
- no immediate threat: wait till he gets back

Even if the neighbor is the type who would never pay, I'd much rather be proactive and spend a little money to clean up, as opposed to fighting with insurance companies over house damages.

that was a pretty good storm last night. I had a couple of branches to clean up that landed in the alley before work.

as for the tree limb.   is it a big deal if you do nothing until they come home?   is it restricting access to anything?  Since you are so unsure of what to do, I"d wait till the neighbor got home and explain that to them...  Tell them you were so nervous about doing the wrong thing you even went online to ask a bunch of people you don't know what to do. then handle it from there.

If you really wanted to you could rent a chainsaw and start to cut up the stuff on your side.   Plus once they get home they might want someone to come out and look to see if the tree has gone bad (rotted)  which may change how the neighbor wants to deal with it.    plus by waiting I'm sure you will have a few cards on your door from people willing to do the clean up work. At least that's how it is in my area. which is just a few miles from you

Completely agree!  The cop is an expert in laws such as trespassing and he was right that if the neighbor refused you access you can't go there.  However, I doubt the cop is an expert in laws regarding requirement to hire a professional to do a service that you are perfectly capable of doing yourself and offered quite expeditiously.   In general, people need to flippin chill out.  Unless there was in immediate danger there is no reason for him to make such demands in my mind.