Rental's tree branch damamged the neighbor's car - not my fault.

[Drew Barrett]

Hi y'all,

I bought a small SFH in Washington state last month, well, the weather here at time of writing has been very windy, and one of the trees in said rental's back yard had a branch break off and fly probably about 50 feet, and damage the neighbor's car - put a big 'ol dent in the the hood. I learned of this when that neighbor approached me last week, and brought it to my attention.

Now, my tree isn't anywhere close to his car (although it is a ridiculously tall tree) but the damage clearly isn't my fault, because the tree's not even near his car (I'm pretty sure it's an act of God).  However, I feel bad for the guy, and am thinking about going in and paying for half the repair, or something like that....however, I'm a newer landlord so I wanted to run this idea through the public consensus, just to see if you guys think it's a bad idea?  Like, if I give him something for an issue that's not my fault, then could I somehow be inadvertently claiming responsibility and thus subjecting myself to future liability?  I don't think this could happen...but you don't know what you don't know, so I thought I'd ask.

Thanks so much for any help! 

-Drew