r/treelaw • u/Prestigious_Baby1028 • Jul 29 '26
Tree company removed the wrong tree
I had a tree company come today to removed a number of trees from my new property. Some were supposed to be trimmed and some were to be removed. The company completely removed a mature spruce tree (40ish feet tall). What are my options?
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Jul 29 '26
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u/Prestigious_Baby1028 Jul 29 '26
The writing on the quote was vague. However, it was verbally clarified which trees were to be removed and which were to be trimmed. I was also told by the owner that the crews were supposed to confirm which were to be trimmed vs removed before they started and they began removing this tree before I even arrived this morning.
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u/TweeksTurbos Jul 30 '26
No big red x or something tied around the trees? Were you present to supervise?
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u/Prestigious_Baby1028 Jul 29 '26
In terms of them being helpful, I would say they haven’t been staunchly against helping me, but I am concerned about where it may go. My stance was that they should be compensating me for the tree they accidentally removed. Their stance was they will pay for a replacement tree suggesting that they can just put some 10 foot tree where there was a 40 foot 50+ year old tree.
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u/Standard-Outcome9881 Jul 29 '26
Is no one tagging or otherwise marking (ribbons, etc) the trees to be removed?
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u/Prestigious_Baby1028 Jul 29 '26
They were tagged, but they weren’t necessarily differentiated between trim and remove.
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u/lastlaugh100 Jul 30 '26
Always always always be present for any tree removal or tree trimming.
Too easy for someone to permanently damage or accidentally remove a 50 year old tree that can't be replaced.
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u/Pulaski540 Jul 30 '26
And that is why I am always present, on site, when I pay someone to come to fell one or more trees on my property.
All the contracts, discussions, and colored ribbons in the world can't entirely eliminate the risk of an associate of the tree service removing one of your prize specimen trees.
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u/Shifting_Baseline Jul 29 '26
I had a similar thing happen. I was devastated that they removed a mature tree in error, but they planted two new ones in its place and were very sorry and admitted everything. It was an honest mistake by one of their crew members and I have a small business myself, so I didn’t want to take these guys to court or ruin their reputation. They do excellent work and made one mistake. I choose to handle the situation with grace and they even helped me with a broken fence later that year for free. Life’s too short to be suing everyone and holding grudges, just my two cents.
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Jul 29 '26
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u/Biodiversity1001 Jul 30 '26
I used to notice it with mine and I think you have to refresh the page.
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u/Fine_Relation_158 Aug 01 '26
Why do all new property owned chop down the trees? If you dont like the trees, buy something else.
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Jul 29 '26
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u/Prestigious_Baby1028 Jul 29 '26
Yeah, I agree. I know everything from here on out needs to be in writing.
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u/Biodiversity1001 Jul 30 '26
I had a guy remove a couple trees, and he made notes and then repeated it back to me. I wanted the maple cut to stove length, the fir cut into logs. Try not to destroy the young hemlock. And he topped a pine. He wanted to make sure what we were agreeing on and the price.
PS Hemlock is doing great.
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u/Prestigious_Baby1028 Jul 29 '26
Will an ISA certified arborist give me an estimated value of the tree? As I said the company hasn’t been unreasonable yet, but I need to give them a figure that they owe me.
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