What do you do when you turn up to do a 5837 survey and find this..?

[benedmonds]

Turned up to do a 5837 that needed doing yesterday.. Only to find two diggers happily removing everything..

All perfectly legitimate as they are the neighbours trees and not protected..

 

Do I complete my survey with no trees and bill them as quoted?

Bill them for a wasted trip?

Forget about it?

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Have you got a topo?

 

If trees are recorded on the topo they go in the AIA (plus any that aren't in the topo but are present) - maybe that they are just represented by stumps rather than trees though.

 

Charge quoted rate for AIA.

 

Slight aside, interesting that you mention legitimacy of removal since they are the neighbour's trees.  

 

Not withstanding any other restrictions, it would be just as legitimate to remove them even if they were the prospective applicant's trees.  Preparing, submitting or awaiting the outcome of a planning submission doesn't prevent a land owner from doing tree work.  From the pic, it looks like they are beyond time for removal anyway.

[benedmonds]

12 minutes ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

Slight aside, interesting that you mention legitimacy of removal since they are the neighbour's trees.  

 

I only mentioned it was legitimate as I didn't want the contractor undertaking the works or anyone else viewing the post to feel I was suggesting the contractor had done anything wrong.  The tree owner obviously can do whatever they want to unprotected trees. 

 

Interesting you would charge your full fee. I am not comfortable with that so will charge a reduced fee for my time spent preparing and visiting the site. I am not going to spend time creating an AIA and TCP when by tomorrow there will be no trees!   

[Tommy_B]

How far did you have to travel mate? I'd bill for travel but not full whack

[trigger_andy]

9 minutes ago, benedmonds said:

Interesting you would charge your full fee. I am not comfortable with that so will charge a reduced fee for my time spent preparing and visiting the site. 

Did you manage to earn any more money that day? Or was it written off on the prospect of doing this job? If you've lost a days wage for this thats what Id be charging. Its not your fault. 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

8 hours ago, benedmonds said:

I only mentioned it was legitimate as I didn't want the contractor undertaking the works or anyone else viewing the post to feel I was suggesting the contractor had done anything wrong.  The tree owner obviously can do whatever they want to unprotected trees. 

 

Interesting you would charge your full fee. I am not comfortable with that so will charge a reduced fee for my time spent preparing and visiting the site. I am not going to spend time creating an AIA and TCP when by tomorrow there will be no trees!   

Fair play if you feel a £ reduction is the right way to go. 
 

Id have given a quote when asked and would probably stick with it if the bulk of the time / effort / work still remained. 
 

Are you able to say you won’t do an AIA / TCP? 
 

Is it a requirement of the validation list that the app be supported by an AIA?

 

If validation requires an AIA and topo predates tree removal, I’d have thought the applicant would still require an AIA?  Maybe a very light touch TCP since (Some of?) the trees are alReady removed?

 

If I’d put the a time in the diary, travelled, been prepared to do the task, Id probably stick with the quote but I guess there could be scope for a relative reduction. 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2020 by kevinjohnsonmbe

[daltontrees]

Reduced fee, good for client relationships. Home early, get some admin stuff done for a couple of found hours.