HB 5598 — AN ACT CONCERNING A PROPERTY OWNER'S LIABILITY FOR THE EXPENSES OF REMOVING A FALLEN TREE OR LIMB.

House of Representatives General Assembly File No.

466746 General Assembly January Session, 20212021(Reprint Houseof BillFile No.

5598466) House ofBill Representatives,No. April 15, 2021 The Committee on Judiciary reported through REP.

STAFSTROM5598 ofAs theAmended 129thby Dist.,House ChairpersonAmendment ofSchedule the"A" CommitteeApproved onby the partLegislative ofCommissioner theMay House,27, that2021 theAN billACT oughtCONCERNING toA pass.PROPERTY OWNER'S LIABILITY FOR THE EXPENSES OF REMOVING A FALLEN TREE OR LIMB.

AN ACT CONCERNING A PROPERTY OWNER'S LIABILITY FOR THE EXPENSES OF REMOVING A FALLEN TREE OR LIMB.

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466746 method;

(A) Real property owned by a political subdivision of the state, a waterpolitical company,subdivision as defined in section 25-32a of the generalstate, statutes, or a HB5598 / File No.

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466746 a water company, as defined in section 25-32a of the general statutes, or a nonprofit organization qualified as a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or any subsequent corresponding internal revenue code of the United States, as amended from time to time;

Section 1 October 1, 2021 New section JUD Joint Favorable HB5598 / File No.

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466746 The following Fiscal Impact Statement and Bill Analysis are prepared for the benefit of the members of the General Assembly, solely for purposes of information, summarization and explanation and do not represent the intent of the General Assembly or either chamber thereof for any purpose.

House "A" makes a clarifying change and does not result in a fiscal impact.

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466746 OLR Bill Analysis HB 5598 (as amended by House "A")* AN ACT CONCERNING A PROPERTY OWNER'S LIABILITY FOR THE EXPENSES OF REMOVING A FALLEN TREE OR LIMB.

*House Amendment “A” clarifies that the bill does not apply to state-owned property.

1.

a licensed arborist inspected the tree and documented that the tree or limb was diseased, decayed, or damaged and likely to fall within five years of the inspection date;

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a licensed arborist inspected the tree and documented that the tree or limb was diseased, decayed, or damaged and likely to fall within five years of the inspection date;

2.

ThenoticemustbeinThenoticemustbeinwritingandsentbycertifiedmail,returnreceipt writingandsentbycertifiedmail,returnreceipt requested.

Private Real Property The bill’s provisions apply only to trees on “private real property” that fall onto other such private real property.

Under the bill, “privatethis realproperty property” does not include:

real property owned by the state, a political subdivision of the state,HB5598 a/ waterFile company,No. or a tax-exempt nonprofit organization;

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746 state, a water company, or a tax-exempt nonprofit organization;

real property subject to aconservationeasementa heldbyconservation easement held by a tax-exempttax- exempt nonprofit organization;

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466 3.

farmfarm,forest,oropenspace land,landeligibleforthe“PA forest land, or open space land eligible for the “PA 490 program” (which allows this land to be assessed for property tax purposesbasedpurposes onitscurrentbased usevalueon ratherthanitsfullmarketits current use value rather than its full market value).

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