T.P.O. Forms... for free or how much do you charge?

[Ian Flatters]

Id take a guess that you fall under the Broadland Council area then?

 

Never charge for it. I normally will make a phone call to the council before i go to the site so i know whats what. I tell the client when im on site having a look, then the choice is there's if they go with me or someone else. Once accepted i fill in the paperwork.

 

Why would you fill it in before you get the job accepted??

[Nimby]

It takes less than 1 minute to fill out TPO/CA notification forms and put it in an envelope.

 

As far as I am aware ,(i.e. where I am) If you put your details in as the agent then the LA send you the consent/reply and not your client.

[Ian Flatters]

It takes less than 1 minute to fill out TPO/CA notification forms and put it in an envelope.

 

As far as I am aware ,(i.e. where I am) If you put your details in as the agent then the LA send you the consent/reply and not your client.

 

Same here.

[treebloke]

It takes less than 1 minute to fill out TPO/CA notification forms and put it in an envelope.

 

As far as I am aware ,(i.e. where I am) If you put your details in as the agent then the LA send you the consent/reply and not your client.

 

You must be a very fast writer, I do mine on line and it takes that amount of time to log on, you will need site location plan, photo's and then depending on the reasons for the work possibly a report.

 

I agree they should send it to you but dont hold your breath, quite often they will send it to the client or even both.

[treebloke]

Never charge for it. I normally will make a phone call to the council before i go to the site so i know whats what.

 

That's ok if you are dealing with your local LA who probably know you, we work throughout the country and most will only do a check if you enquire in writing. Fortunately e mails sort this fairly quickly but I have just asked Birmingham City Council to do a TPO/CA check, I have supplied the full postal address, they have replied and asked for a site plan and it will take up to TEN days:cursing:.

[bumble B]

That's ok if you are dealing with your local LA who probably know you, we work throughout the country and most will only do a check if you enquire in writing. Fortunately e mails sort this fairly quickly but I have just asked Birmingham City Council to do a TPO/CA check, I have supplied the full postal address, they have replied and asked for a site plan and it will take up to TEN days:cursing:.

 

I wonder how many problems they have with rogue tree topper loppers who don't have to wait?

[veners]

Free of charge if an order is placed £50 +VAT if not, wish mine only took a couple of mins recently had an application with one of the London Boroughs and it endeded up taking 3.5 man hours what with application, photos, phone conversations etc

[oslac]

The thing is, nobody fills forms in for free. You may tell the client its free but you will absorb the price into the job, unless of course you don't get the job, in which case it was a speculative attempt at getting a job.

 

For those of you who put your name as agent, the client only needs to log onto the LPA portal and download the consent form themselves and they then have the piece of paper. This will only be true for TPO not CA.

 

As a consultant, I always charge for TPO aps. I charge for the visit, for the filling in of the form and for receiving the info back and for admin.

 

If you don't want to get stung by a Client, I think you should sepperate out the TPO ap and the job and charge sepperately. If you are then given the job, you can always say you will take the TPO ap fee off but only after you have raised the price of the job to cover the work you have put in.

[likeitorlumpit]

Why wouldn't you charge

In my experience the homeowner/ management company just don't want to fill in the forms (don't want to look stupid morelike)

I think a £50 charge is reasonable and don't refund if they get us to do the job

It's work we've done and should be paid for

[Treecreeper1961]

Why wouldn't you charge

In my experience the homeowner/ management company just don't want to fill in the forms (don't want to look stupid morelike)

I think a £50 charge is reasonable and don't refund if they get us to do the job

It's work we've done and should be paid for

 

I agree whole heartedly. The client is requesting your service as a professional and no one should be expected to do a couple of hours work for free as a sweetner.

If the client is able to fill in the form and specify work in a manner that is acceptable to the tree officer then they have the option. Raising the standards of the industry is a responsibility that LA's and Arbs should be shouldering together and having a system like the TPO form is a big part of that. If the work is not specified to BS3998 then the application should not be approved. If the average client can specify BS tree work then they would probably fill in their own forms!