Tree Inspections

[Dave177]

Been asked by a regular client to inspect some trees within a woodland and along a boundary of the road and carry out any action as required.

 

Now from what I have been told by a few sources that to carry out tree inspection you need to be a suitably qualified arborist. I have not undertaken any profesional inspection courses, only what we were taught at college.

 

I have all usual practical tickets, Fdsc Forestry and Woodland Management and half way through BSC (Hons) in arboriculture. I feel I could correctly identify obvious hazards and weaknesses within the tree, however if there is any issues with me doing the inspections I would rather Sub it out.

 

If I can undertake the work then I would also need Personal Indemnity Insurance to cover myself? anything else required?

Thanks

[openspaceman]

Been asked by a regular client to inspect some trees within a woodland and along a boundary of the road and carry out any action as required.

 

Now from what I have been told by a few sources that to carry out tree inspection you need to be a suitably qualified arborist. I have not undertaken any profesional inspection courses, only what we were taught at college.

 

I have all usual practical tickets, Fdsc Forestry and Woodland Management and half way through BSC (Hons) in arboriculture. I feel I could correctly identify obvious hazards and weaknesses within the tree, however if there is any issues with me doing the inspections I would rather Sub it out.

 

If I can undertake the work then I would also need Personal Indemnity Insurance to cover myself? anything else required?

Thanks

 

This can open a can of worms. The most recent recognised court precedent seems to indicate that you need to have been trained and be competent to a level 2 as described by the judge, level 1 being a lay person and level 3 a fully qualified professional ( NVQ 6 or NDF grade), but you must report only within your knowledge range. If the tree needs a further inspection know your limits.

 

It sounds like you will meet the level 2 requirement but a much higher standard of reporting will be required of a corporate land owner compared with the owner of a rural woodland.

 

It will be professional indemnity insurance you will require and there are lots of gotchas in PI insurance, you must time limit your advice. Many inspection regimes seem to require a 3 yearly thorough inspection, don't let this cycle determine your liability.

 

In the event of a failure the court will look to see if you have been negligent in your advice, and this will extend to advice you have given which is apparently unconnected with the failure. Any proven negligence and the judgement will very likely go against you and then the PI will come into play and the company loss adjuster see what he can avoid paying, the balance becoming a personal liability.

 

Tree inspections seem to be regular business but the majority of potential failure symptoms become most apparent in September to November period.

 

All the above my personal opinions only and I'm definitely not qualified to speak on this subject.

[Dave177]

Thanks for the reply, seems to be in line with what I have been told elsewhere.

 

I think I will take a look and offer my advice, if there is anything that looks dubious I will pass it on to someone else.

[daltontrees]

BE cautious, verbal advice even if not paid for, may be taken by landowner as sufficient then relied upon, could come back to haunt you. But if you are also to take all necessary action then the temptation would be for you to take a very precautionary view on what actions are needed.

[Dave177]

If I do get the work I think that I would rather err on the side of caution and write into the quote that I will only be inspecting for obvious defects etc. Does anyone know a decent freelance tree inspector in the surrey area?

[APC]

Rather than make a new thread, I'm gonna hijack this one.

 

With the professional liability insurance, say the annual policy runs Jan2014-Dec2014, say I carry out an inspection/report in July14, I put on it report valid until July15, does the cover cover the date at which the report was made or will the policy need to be renewed to cover the date at which the report is valid to, therefore guaranteeing that one must have 2 years insurance?

 

I hope that makes sense as reading it back it is babble

[sloth]

Best bet is speak to an insurer. As I understand it you are advised to have professional indemnity cover for at least a year after the date of your last survey.

[tresrgr8]

Yes, defo speak with your insurance provider on that one. If you're undertaking large scale safety inspections you may require PI for up to 5 years after the inspection, with single tree condition reports it will depend on any caveats you attach with the report.

[APC]

Best bet is speak to an insurer. As I understand it you are advised to have professional indemnity cover for at least a year after the date of your last survey.

 

I'm glad you managed to decipher what I meant!!!

[oslac]

PII normally needs to extend 6 years beyond the survey to cover future negligence claims although claims for injury may extend a further three years beyond this time. This won't be a problem if you intend to carry on surveying trees but when you retire a six year run off insurance will be required. If you work for someone, they should hold the PII but if you act as a sub-consultant, freelancer or whatever you may call yourself, you will be required to take out the insurance along with public liability and possibly employer's liability insurance.

 

All tree surveys should be time limited and probably two years would be a sensible limit although depending on the type of survey and condition of tree, this may be a longer or shorter period. I doubt very much if the surveyor could be held negligent beyond this two year limit but the law is a strange thing and strange things happen.

 

As mentioned earlier on the thread, this survey could probably be carried out at a level two competancy however, the fact that this thread exists suggests that the originator has doubts and perhaps requires more experience before carrying out condition surveys without somone to guide him.