How to choose a tree surgeon in the UK

Choosing a tree surgeon carries a bit more risk than most other home improvement jobs, because poorly carried out work can damage a house, a boundary or a neighbour's property, and because some trees are legally protected regardless of who is doing the cutting. A handful of checks before any work starts, on qualifications, insurance and the tree's legal status, go a long way towards avoiding a costly mistake.

The Arboricultural Association runs an ARB Approved Contractor scheme, and firms on it have been assessed against standards covering arboricultural competence, compliance with relevant legislation, and health and safety practice, with the health and safety element endorsed through the CHAS accreditation scheme. Contractors on the scheme must hold minimum levels of insurance as a condition of approval, and the Association also recommends directly to consumers that they look for at least £5 million of public liability cover when hiring any tree surgeon, approved or not. Searching the ARB Approved Contractor directory on the Association's website is a quick way to check whether a firm has actually been through this vetting process, rather than simply claiming to meet the standard.

Beyond scheme membership, individual operators should hold recognised chainsaw and climbing qualifications, most commonly issued through NPTC, which sits under City & Guilds, or through LANTRA Awards. These cover specific competencies such as chainsaw maintenance and cross-cutting, felling small trees, climbing and aerial rescue, and using a chainsaw from a rope and harness, and are usually evidenced by a plastic ID-style card or an A4 certificate that a competent operator should be willing to show on request. Anyone climbing or using a chainsaw at height without this kind of certification is taking a risk with both safety and the standard of the finished work.

Public liability insurance matters because tree work close to a house, driveway, car or shared boundary carries a real risk of accidental damage, and a firm without adequate cover leaves the homeowner exposed if something goes wrong. Firms that employ staff should also hold employers' liability insurance as a matter of course, and it is reasonable to ask to see a current insurance certificate before work begins, rather than accepting a verbal assurance.

Before any cutting, lopping or removal takes place, it is worth checking whether the tree in question is covered by a Tree Preservation Order, which can apply to an individual tree, a group of trees, or a whole woodland, regardless of who owns the land. A TPO prohibits cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, or wilfully damaging or destroying the tree without the written consent of the local planning authority, and a confirmed order is recorded as a charge against the property in the local land charges register. Trees within a conservation area that do not have an individual TPO are also protected to an extent, since anyone wanting to carry out work on them generally has to give the council six weeks' notice first, known as a Section 211 notice, so the authority can decide whether to make a new order before the work goes ahead. This is general information rather than legal advice, and anyone unsure about a specific tree should check directly with their local planning authority before agreeing to any work.

Checking a tree's status is usually a case of contacting the local planning authority's tree officer, who can confirm whether an order exists; many councils also hold a public register or online planning map searchable by address. This matters because felling or destroying a protected tree without consent is a criminal offence under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990: a conviction in the magistrates' court can bring a fine of up to £20,000, and in more serious cases the matter can go to the Crown Court, where the fine is unlimited and the court must take into account any financial benefit gained from the work. Lesser breaches, such as unauthorised pruning that does not destroy the tree, carry a fine of up to £2,500. None of this liability shifts automatically onto the contractor, so it is worth confirming a prospective tree surgeon routinely checks for TPOs and conservation area status, and sensible for the homeowner to check as well.

Removing cut branches, logs and other arisings from site counts as moving controlled waste, so a business doing this as part of its work should be registered as a waste carrier with the Environment Agency and able to produce evidence of that registration if asked. Operating without the required registration can lead to an unlimited fine, and asking about it is a reasonable way to gauge how properly a business is run, since firms cutting corners on waste handling are often cutting corners elsewhere too.

A written quote is worth insisting on for anything beyond the smallest job, and a proper one should set out exactly what work will be carried out, the height any stump will be left at, whether waste and arisings are being removed as part of the price, who is responsible for checking TPO or conservation area status, and any deposit required before work starts. A few signs are worth treating with caution: unsolicited cold calls or leaflets offering to deal with a tree that has just been noticed as dangerous, a request for full cash payment upfront, an inability or reluctance to produce insurance documents or qualification certificates, missing basic protective equipment such as helmets and eye and hearing protection, and quotes noticeably lower than everyone else's for what is otherwise the same job. None of these guarantee a problem on their own, but together they form the pattern most often associated with poor or unsafe tree work.

Frequently asked questions