Business · By industry · Tree service & arborists
For tree services and arborists in Washington: removals, pruning, climbing, crane and bucket work, chipping. The insurance questions follow the exposure: work at height, heavy pieces coming down near houses and power lines, and crews L&I classifies by the work they do. Below are the areas to examine with an insurance reviewer. One policy does not cover all of them.
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What to review
Tree work means heavy pieces coming down near things that break: a roof, a fence, a neighbor's greenhouse. General liability responds to damage to a client's or neighbor's property and injury to people who are not your workers. Not every general liability policy is written for tree work; some exclude it or limit work above a stated height. Ask whether removal, climbing, rigging and crane-assisted work are covered as you do them.
A familiar claim is a limb or trunk section landing on a roof, a deck, a service drop or a buried irrigation line. Ask how the policy treats the property you are working on versus the property next to it, since damage to property in your care, custody or control is commonly excluded or limited. Work near energized lines raises its own questions: whether damage to utility equipment is covered, and whether the policy has conditions about distance from lines or utility coordination.
Equipment that moves from job to job, such as saws, chippers, stump grinders, climbing gear and rigging, is usually a contractor's equipment or inland marine question, because property coverage is tied to a location. Theft from a truck overnight is a common loss. Ask how equipment is valued, whether rented and borrowed equipment is included, whether a towed chipper is equipment or a trailer, and what the deductible is.
Chip trucks, bucket trucks, log trucks and the pickups that pull trailers need commercial auto, and a bucket truck's boom raises the question of whether it is covered as a vehicle, as equipment, or both. A crane you own is insured as equipment with its operation in mind; a crane hired with an operator raises contract questions about whose policy responds. Employees driving their own vehicles on business is a hired and non-owned auto question.
L&I's classification plan places tree care, topping and pruning by specialist contractors in classification 0106-00, separate from 0101 since January 1, 2015; tree work on forest or timberland is 5004, and lawn care is 0308 and excludes tree work. Confirm your own assignment with L&I, because the assignment follows the work performed, not the business name. Washington requires construction contractors to register with L&I, with a $30,000 bond for general contractors and $15,000 for specialty contractors (amounts in effect since July 1, 2024) plus proof of general liability insurance. Tree care alone may not be contractor work, but landscape construction is; check with L&I whether your work requires registration.
Washington is a state-fund state: most employers insure workers' compensation through L&I rather than a private carrier. L&I assigns each employer one or more risk classifications by the nature of the work, each with its own base rate, and adjusts an employer's rate by its experience factor. Employer's liability, sometimes called stop-gap, is not part of the state fund and is bought separately. If you use subcontracted climbers, ask L&I who covers them.
Municipal, utility and commercial contracts often ask for liability limits above what a standard general liability or auto policy carries. A commercial umbrella adds limits over general liability, commercial auto and employer's liability. Ask whether the umbrella follows the same tree-work terms as the underlying policy, since an umbrella with its own height or tree-work exclusion adds less than it appears to.
A crew removes a large fir between two houses. A rigged section swings wider than planned and punches through the neighbor's roof and skylight. The neighbor's insurer pays, then looks to the tree service. Whether its policy responds depends on whether removal and rigging were covered as described, whether the work exceeded any height limit and whether the neighbor's property counts as property in the contractor's care. A real claim depends on the facts and the policy.
Questions people ask