Before the branch gets moved
The branch on the car is your best evidence, so photograph it in place from several angles before a helpful neighbour drags it off. Toronto’s older neighbourhoods carry a huge mature canopy, and summer thunderstorms and winter ice storms bring pieces of it down onto parked cars every year — include a shot of the tree it came from and the car’s position under it.
Then check the glass. A limb heavy enough to dent a roof can crack a windshield or a backlight, and driving with a broken rear window showers glass through the cabin. If the roof is pressed down far enough to touch the headliner, tow it rather than drive it.
- Photos of the branch on the car, from several angles
- The tree it fell from and where the car was parked
- Every dented panel, shot at a low angle in daylight
- Windshield, sunroof, and rear glass checked for cracks
- Bark or debris caught in the trim, which documents the impact
Whose insurance handles it
A falling limb is a comprehensive claim on your auto policy — the same bucket as hail and animal strikes. No driver is at fault, your comprehensive deductible applies, and these files tend to move quickly because the cause is obvious from the first photo.
People always ask about the tree’s owner. Whether a neighbour or the city bears responsibility generally turns on negligence — a known dead tree left standing is a different case from a healthy limb snapping in a storm — and that question gets worked out between insurance companies. Your own comprehensive claim is the faster road to a repaired car.
What roof and hood damage takes
Roofs are the hardest panel to repair well. They are broad, gently curved, and lit from directly above, so any waviness left behind shows from across the street. Doing it properly means dropping the headliner, working the metal from underneath, and refinishing one large uninterrupted surface.
We also look past the skin. A limb heavy enough to dent the roof can distort the rails and the pillar tops that carry them, and on many vehicles those are structural. If the door frames or glass openings moved at all, that gets measured before any refinishing is planned.
- Roof skin worked from underneath with the headliner out of the way
- Rails, pillar tops, and glass openings checked for distortion
- Hood alignment and latch operation confirmed after straightening
- Sunroof track and drain function tested before refinishing begins
- A wide blend so the roof reads true in flat overhead daylight
Getting it in and getting it quoted
A single storm drops this work on the whole GTA at once, so photos sent early hold your place in the queue. Send the frames you shot at the scene and a free written estimate comes back ready to hand to your adjuster.
If the car is not safe to drive, call (647) 594-3401 and we help arrange the tow into North York. Glass goes to a specialist we can recommend; the body, structural, and refinish work happens here, with a lifetime paint warranty behind it.
