Assessing a tree for insurance purposes

[Island Lescure]

I have been asked if I can assess a tree. I am not entirely sure for what yet as it is a friend of a friend asking if I could do it. What I would like to know is, would PI be enough to cover me in this?

 

I believe I need to confirm whether it is for:

A: general insuring of a house with a tree within x amount of meters or

B: a building suffering from cracks that could potentially be caused by subsidence caused by a nearby tree.

 

In either case just PI of £1 mil should be enough no? Obviously credentials will also be a factor if a claim is made and the insurers for the house will want a suitably qualified person to assess the tree.

 

I believe that I have the credentials and the knowledge, even if I will have to dig in the books for specifications, to carry this out. It just boils down to whether the insurance companies will agree with this.

 

Any thoughts please?

[Andy Clark]

Reports of this nature should usually be done in conjunction with an engineers report re: the fabric of the building, and/or site investigation report re: the underlying ground strata. Without those you would need to be very careful about anything you say re: the trees, without knowing g the full contextual relationship between the trees, building and site soil - and that goes for either of the two report types (mortgage/subs) that you mention.

[10 Bears]

Take a look at this document, it contains some useful information that may help you:

 

http://www.barrelltreecare.co.uk/pdfs/BT06-ReportWriting.pdf

 

In terms of PI - yes this would be the exact situation that it is for, ie to indemnify your written (or verbal) recommendations. Of course you still need PL to work on someone elses land (imagine if they tripped over your clipboard!), but I'm sure you have this in any case.

 

The issue with this kind of work, is that you will have to have your PI insurance now, and maintain it for 7 years after your report as essentially, if you get it wrong, claims could be made against you at some point in the future. Just worth considering.

 

Now, I don't believe that folk absolutely must have a qualification for every part of their work as proven experience in a certain area is legally acceptable, but personally, I did go on the arboricultural mortgage and insurers users group (AMIUG) course so I was more familiar with completing this type of work. I'm not sure who runs this course at the moment.

 

Just be mindful in your report that you dont stray outside of your area of expertise i.e. only comment on the trees/subsidence/soils, and not discuss factors outside of your area e.g. extent of cracks/potential of the building to withstand problems etc. Although similar - discussing the building directly is not what you should get into as you are not a structural/building surveyor.

 

So, presuming you have some experience writing reports, are PI insured (as you say), have knowledge/experience/quals of trees and such like, I would presume you are fine to take it on.

[10 Bears]

and then of course there is this guide...

 

http://www.trees.org.uk/Trees.org.uk/files/80/80ec79ab-0eb6-42d3-aa18-90c7f51105fd.pdf

[Island Lescure]

Thanks very much!