Tree Removal Contract: What to Look For

What belongs on the paper before anyone cuts

A tree removal contract should name the tree (or trees) in plain words, describe exactly what gets removed and what gets left behind, and say who is responsible for the stump, the debris, and any damage to your property. If a document does not answer those four things, it is not finished yet.

You are standing in the yard looking up at a trunk you have decided has to come down, maybe because a limb is resting on the roof or the base is heaving out of the ground. The person who walked the property is back in the truck writing something on a clipboard. What you sign or pay against in the next few minutes is the only thing that decides who pays when the fence goes or the stump stays.

Most disputes after a removal are not about the cutting. They are about scope, cleanup, and who owns the risk. The contract is where those get settled.

• Which tree, and how it is identified on the page.
• What is removed, and how high the cutting goes.
• What is hauled away, and what is left on site.
• Who handles the stump, and who pays if something is damaged.

What should the scope section actually say?

The scope section should say in writing which tree is coming out, how far down the trunk gets cut, whether the stump is ground or left, and whether the debris leaves your property. A scope that says only "remove tree" leaves every one of those open, and open items are where money gets added later.

Ask for the tree to be identified the way you would point at it: front yard, left of the driveway, the maple near the corner. If there are two trees close together, ask whether the price covers one or both. Ask how high the trunk is cut, because a stump cut flush with the ground and a stump cut at knee height are different jobs with different cleanup.

Then ask the cleanup questions while the person is still standing there. Is the wood taken away or stacked for you? Are the chips left or hauled? Is the yard raked and blown, and does that include the roof and the gutters if branches came down over them? If a fence panel has to come out to get equipment in, who puts it back?

None of these are trick questions. They are the ones that decide whether the number on the page is the number you pay.

What should I ask about the stump?

Ask directly whether the stump is ground, how deep it is ground, and whether the grindings are removed or left in the hole. Stump work is the single most common add-on after a removal, because the trunk coming down and the stump going away are two different operations.

A stump grinder chews the wood into chips and leaves a hole where the stump was. That hole has to be filled with something, and the chips from the grind are often what fills it. If you want topsoil instead, or want the chips hauled off, that is a separate line. Ask before the work starts, not after the grinder has left.

Ask what happens to surface roots. A grinder reaches the stump and the roots it can see, not every root running under a patio. If a root has lifted a walkway, say so during the walkthrough so the scope can reflect it.

And ask whether grinding is included in the quoted figure or listed as an optional line. Either answer is fine. What is not fine is finding out later that the number you agreed to covered only the trunk.

What should I ask about damage, and who pays if something breaks?

Ask who is responsible if a limb lands on the fence, the siding, the garage, or a neighbor's property, and get the answer written into the document. Tree work is heavy work done near things that break, and the question of who pays should be settled before the first cut, not argued about after.

Ask what happens to landscaping under the tree. A drop zone is the area where cut sections land, and it is rarely bare dirt. Shrubs, a lawn, a garden bed, a parked car: all of it sits somewhere. Ask where the drop zone will be and what gets protected.

Ask about utilities. If the tree is anywhere near a power line, the line is the utility's problem, not a tree crew's, and the work near it has to be planned around that. Ask how the plan accounts for it. If you have a septic field, an irrigation line, or a buried dog fence, tell the person walking the property, because nobody can see those from the surface.

Ask about the neighbor's side too. If the tree leans over a property line, or if limbs hang over a fence, ask how that gets handled and whether the neighbor needs to be told. Getting that straight early avoids a second argument later.

What should I ask about payment and paperwork?

Ask what the total is, what it includes, and when payment is due, and ask for all of it in writing before work begins. A verbal number and a written scope are not the same thing, and the written one is what you can point to.

Ask whether the figure changes if the job turns out harder than it looked. A hollow trunk, a tree leaning over a structure, a tight gate, a slope: any of these can change how the work has to be done. Ask how that gets handled if it comes up mid-job, and who decides.

Ask what the document says about the start date and what happens if weather pushes it. Rain and wind stop tree work, and a schedule that ignores weather is not a schedule. Ask how you will be told if the day moves.

Ask for a copy of whatever you sign, on the spot. Keep it with the photos you took of the tree before anything happened. If a disagreement ever comes up, the photos and the paper are what you have.

Watch, soon, or now: which problems can wait

Some tree problems are cosmetic and some are not, and the difference decides how much time you have to sort out the paperwork. Use this to judge what you are looking at before you start calling.

• Watch: dead limbs high in the canopy, a small crack in the bark, a tree that dropped a few twigs in the last storm. Get eyes on it, but you have time to compare written scopes.
• Soon: a trunk that has started to lean where it did not lean before, a split fork, mushrooms growing at the base, a hollow you can see into. Get it looked at in the next few weeks, and ask specifically what the removal would involve.
• Now: a limb resting on the roof, a trunk cracked and shifting, a tree leaning over a driveway or a walkway people use, a root plate lifting out of the ground. Keep people and cars away from the area and call. Do not stand under it to take a closer look.

If you are not sure which column you are in, describe what you see when you call. A lean that appeared overnight and a lean that has been there for years are different situations.