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Commercial Tree Service
The climbing is the same. What differs is that a failed limb over a car park is a claim, and the paperwork showing you inspected is what decides how that goes.
Advertising disclosure: calls are routed to an independent local provider. We’re paid a referral fee for the call. You pay the provider, never us.
The short answer
On property the public uses, the duty of care around tree failure is explicit. A documented inspection regime — dated, by a qualified person, with findings and actions recorded — demonstrates the risk was managed. That record is most of what a commercial tree contract is actually for, and it’s worth more than the pruning it accompanies.
What you’re buying
A documented record
Inspection
Dated, qualified, recorded
Also required
Traffic and pedestrian management
Check
Cover for work at height
What kind of site?
Requirements scale with public exposure.
Highest exposure
Public access with trees over it
Car parks, walkways, seating areas, playgrounds. A failed limb here is a personal injury claim, and the inspection record is the defence.
High
Highway or boundary frontage
Trees overhanging a public road or neighbouring property bring obligations that sit with the landowner regardless of who planted them.
Operational
Industrial and warehousing
Access clearance for vehicles, sightlines, keeping growth off buildings and services. Less about failure risk, more about operations.
Amenity
Office and campus grounds
Appearance and shade management, with a lighter inspection burden — though anywhere people park still carries exposure.
What an inspection record should contain
Date, who carried it out and their qualification, a plan identifying each tree, the condition found, defects noted, the recommended action, and what was subsequently done about it. That last item is the one most often missing and the one that matters most — an inspection recording a defect that was never actioned is worse than no inspection at all.
Frequency depends on exposure and species, and it should be justified rather than assumed. Annual is common for high-traffic areas; longer intervals can be defensible where exposure is low.
What sits outside a grounds contract
Tree work is almost always separate from grounds maintenance, and for good reason — different qualifications, different equipment, different insurance. A grounds contractor offering to handle trees as part of the package is worth questioning about all three.
Specifying the contract
Five things, and only one is about the trees themselves.
Establish the inspection regime
Frequency, scope, who carries it out and their qualification. Justified by exposure rather than picked.
Require the record format
Dated, tree-by-tree, with defects, recommendations and actions taken. Ask to see a sample before signing.
Get the insurance certificate
Naming the site, covering work at height. Non-negotiable where the public has access.
Agree traffic and pedestrian management
Closures, signage, timing. On an operating site this is often more complex than the tree work.
Separate tree work from grounds
Different qualifications, equipment and cover. Bundling usually means one of the three is missing.
Domestic against commercial
Where this stops being a DIY job
All tree work on a site the public uses. Not a grounds-crew task — it needs the qualification, the equipment and the cover, and the absence of any of those transfers risk to you.
Anything near overhead lines. The utility, and it comes first.
Any tree with a noted defect that hasn’t been actioned. An inspection recording a problem nobody dealt with is worse than no inspection, and it will be produced in evidence.
Advertising disclosure: calls are routed to an independent local provider. We’re paid a referral fee for the call. You pay the provider, never us.
What a commercial contractor should supply
Records
Tree-by-tree documentation
Dated, with defects, recommendations and what was done. Ask for a sample.
Qualification
Names who inspects
And their credential. “Our team” isn’t an answer.
Cover
Certificate naming the site
For work at height, without being chased for it.
Common questions
How often should commercial trees be inspected?
It depends on exposure and species, and the interval should be justified rather than assumed. Annual is common where trees overhang car parks and walkways.
What should a tree inspection record include?
Date, inspector and qualification, tree-by-tree condition, defects found, recommended actions, and crucially what was actually done about them.
Can our grounds contractor do the tree work?
Usually they shouldn’t. Tree work needs different qualifications, equipment and insurance, and bundling it often means one of the three is missing.
Who is liable if a tree fails on our site?
The landowner carries a duty of care. A documented inspection regime showing the risk was managed is the practical defence.
Inspection due, or trees over public access?
Specifying the inspection regime and the record format is something you can settle before any quote arrives, and it’s the part that matters if anything goes wrong. The work itself needs the qualification, the equipment and the cover.
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