The risk that becomes yours when a crew climbs your tree
Tree work is dangerous work, and some of that danger quietly transfers to you the moment an uninsured crew steps onto your property. Here’s how to hand it back where it belongs.
Two insurances protect you: general liability covers damage to your property, and workers’ compensation covers the crew if someone’s hurt. Without both — verified, not just claimed — an accident on your property can become your bill, and your own homeowner’s policy may refuse the claim. The good news: a few minutes of verification, plus hiring a crew that works safely, moves nearly all of that risk off you.
At a glance
- An uninsured worker injured in your tree can, in some cases, make you the one responsible for the bill.
- Many homeowner’s policies deny claims for damage caused by an unlicensed or uninsured contractor.
- In Washington, workers’ comp runs through the state fund — you can verify a company’s standing through L&I.
- Tree work has a real safety standard (ANSI Z133); a careful crew’s habits are visible from the ground.
- You can prune a neighbor’s branches back to the property line — but not cross it, and not carelessly.
The exposure most homeowners never see
When you hire a tree crew, you’re not just buying labor — you’re inviting real hazard onto your property: people at height, chainsaws, tons of falling wood. The whole point of a professional operation’s insurance is that when something goes wrong, their coverage absorbs it. When they don’t carry it, the exposure doesn’t vanish. It lands on the nearest person with assets, which is often you.
This guide pulls together the protection threads that run through the rest of our library — the liability, the coverage, the safety — into one place, so you can make sure the risk of a dangerous job stays with the professionals paid to carry it.
We’re free to read, and we always will be — and reaching us or getting a recommendation never costs you anything. When a homeowner we’ve helped wants an introduction, we point them to a company we’d trust with our own home.
If that homeowner hires them and the job is completed, the company pays us a referral fee. You never do. Every company we’d point you to clears the insurance and safety bar in this guide — it’s the first thing we check, not the last.
What a fully protected job looks like
Before anyone climbs, four things should be true. If they are, you’ve moved the risk where it belongs.
You don’t need to read the policies; you need to confirm they exist and cover this work.
- The crew carries general liability, and you’ve seen proof direct from the insurer.
- The crew carries workers’ compensation for tree work — verified through Washington L&I.
- They work to a recognized safety standard, with real gear, rigging, and ground control.
- You understand what your own policy will and won’t do if something slips through.
Miss the first two and a bad day becomes your financial problem. Confirm them and you’ve done the single most important thing a homeowner can do in all of tree work.
How a stranger’s injury becomes your bill
What’s happening
Tree work is among the most dangerous jobs there is. When a company carries workers’ compensation, an injured worker’s medical costs and lost wages are covered by that policy — the system works as intended. When a company skips it to shave its price, that safety net is gone.
Why it matters
If an uninsured worker is seriously hurt in your tree, the law may look to the property owner who hired the work. In some cases a homeowner has been treated as the effective employer and pulled into responsibility for injuries that can run into the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. And separately, many homeowner’s policies will deny a claim for damage caused by an unlicensed or uninsured contractor — so the cheap crew’s mistake isn’t covered by anyone. The discount was never a discount. It was risk, transferred quietly to you.
What to look for
Not the words “fully insured.” A Certificate of Insurance sent to you by the insurer, naming both coverages, plus confirmation of the company’s standing through Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries.
One question worth asking
“If one of your crew is hurt in my tree, whose insurance pays — and can you prove it before you start?”
Liability and workers’ comp do different jobs
They’re often lumped together as “insurance,” but they protect against different disasters. You want both, and in Washington there’s a specific way to check the second.
| Coverage | Protects against | How to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| General liability | Damage to your home, property, or a third party during the work | Certificate of insurance direct from the insurer |
| Workers’ compensation | Injury to the crew — the coverage that keeps their accident off you | In WA, verify the company’s account and standing through L&I |
| “We’re insured” (spoken) | Nothing you can rely on | Not proof — ask for documents |
A Washington-specific note: our state runs workers’ compensation through a state fund rather than private carriers for most employers, which means a company’s coverage and standing can be checked through Labor & Industries. Watch for the dodge of a company calling itself a “landscaper” or its crew “subcontractors” to avoid carrying real tree-work coverage — ask specifically about workers’ comp for tree work, and confirm it.
You do not have to take our word for what a serious company carries.
Seattle keeps a registry of tree service providers, and a company cannot be on it without meeting a published standard. It must carry at least one million dollars in commercial general liability coverage. It must name the City of Seattle as an additional insured. And it must have a currently credentialed ISA Certified Arborist, trained to the ANSI A300 standard, on staff or on retainer. A provider that breaks the tree code can be struck from the registry for a year, and both the provider and the property owner can face financial penalties.
Those requirements exist in Seattle. Your city may ask for none of them. But they are a public, written answer to the question what does a serious tree company actually carry — and there is no reason to accept less from the company working in your yard, wherever your yard is.
What safe work looks like — and where your rights end
The trade has a formal safety standard for how this work is done, and you don’t need to read it to recognize its habits from the ground: crews in real protective gear, heavy limbs lowered on ropes rather than dropped, a ground worker keeping people and traffic clear, controlled cuts, a tidy site. Recklessness — limbs crashing wherever, no helmets, no ground control — isn’t just alarming to watch. It’s the visible edge of the same corner-cutting that shows up in the insurance.
Overhanging limbs are one of the most common sources of neighbor friction — and misunderstanding.
Generally, you may prune branches (and roots) that cross onto your property back to the property line, at your own cost — but you can’t cross the line to work on the tree itself, and you can’t prune so severely that you harm or kill your neighbor’s tree, or you may be liable for it. It’s courteous, and smart, to talk to your neighbor first and to use a professional who knows where your rights stop. When a whole tree is the concern, that’s a conversation with the neighbor, not a unilateral removal.
One question worth asking
“How will you protect my property — and stay on the right side of the property line — while you work?”
The uninsured crew isn’t cheaper. It just hands you the bill later.
Are you actually protected?
Run this before any crew starts. It’s the difference between a job that’s their risk and one that’s quietly become yours.
Verify before work begins
- Certificate of insurance received directly from the insurer (not a photo from the contractor).
- It names general liability and workers’ compensation for tree work.
- Company’s license, bond, and workers’ comp standing confirmed through Washington L&I.
- You’ve read your own homeowner’s policy’s contractor and tree provisions.
Watch on the day
- Protective gear worn; heavy limbs roped, not dropped.
- A ground worker keeping people, pets, and traffic clear.
- Property protected; work stays on your side of the line.
At the property line
- You may trim overhanging branches back to the line — not beyond.
- Don’t prune so hard you could harm the neighbor’s tree.
- Talk to the neighbor first; put shared work in writing.
The question that protects you most
“Can your insurer send me a certificate for liability and workers’ comp, and what’s your L&I number so I can confirm your standing?”
What we’d do
- We’d confirm both insurances from the insurer, and check L&I ourselves, before anyone started.
- We’d read our own policy’s fine print on contractors before hiring, not after a claim.
- We’d treat an unusually cheap, unverifiable bid as the risk it is.
- We’d watch for real safety habits on the day and speak up if we didn’t see them.
- We’d talk to the neighbor before touching anything near the line.
Because the whole reason to hire a professional is so the danger is theirs to carry — not yours to inherit.
Questions homeowners ask
Won’t my homeowner’s insurance cover it if something goes wrong?
Don’t count on it. Many policies deny claims for damage caused by an unlicensed or uninsured contractor, and workers’ injuries are generally the company’s workers’-comp responsibility, not your homeowner’s policy. Your best protection is confirming the crew’s coverage up front, not relying on your own afterward.
How do I verify insurance in Washington specifically?
Ask for a certificate of insurance sent directly by the company’s insurer, naming both general liability and workers’ compensation. Then confirm the company’s license, bond, and workers’-comp standing through the Washington Department of Labor & Industries, which administers workers’ comp for most employers in the state.
Why is workers’ comp the one people miss?
Because it’s expensive for high-risk tree work, so cut-rate operators drop it or misclassify their crew to avoid it. That’s exactly the coverage that keeps a worker’s injury on your property from becoming your financial problem, so it’s the one to confirm most carefully.
Is there a safety standard tree crews should follow?
Yes — the industry works to a recognized safety standard for arboricultural operations (ANSI Z133), alongside general workplace safety rules. You don’t need to know it in detail, but you can recognize its habits: protective gear, controlled rigging, and a ground worker managing the site.
Can I cut my neighbor’s branches that hang over my yard?
Generally you can trim overhanging branches and encroaching roots back to the property line at your own expense — but you can’t enter their property to work on the tree, and you can’t prune so severely that you damage or kill it, which could make you liable. Talk to your neighbor first and use a pro who respects the line.
What insurance limits should a tree company carry?
Reputable companies carry meaningful general-liability limits and full workers’ compensation; the exact figures vary with the size of the work. Rather than fixating on a number, confirm both coverages exist, are current, and specifically cover tree operations — that’s what protects you.
Want a crew whose insurance you never have to worry about?
Every company we’d introduce you to clears the insurance and safety bar in this guide before we’d ever recommend them. Tell us what you need and we’ll point you to one.
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This guide is independent and research-driven, informed by working professionals in western Washington’s tree trade. Contractor licensing, bonding, and workers’ compensation standing can be verified through the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (lni.wa.gov), which administers workers’ compensation for most employers in the state. Safe arboricultural practice is governed by the ANSI Z133 safety standard and applicable workplace-safety rules. Insurance coverage and liability outcomes depend on specific policies and circumstances and are governed by your contracts and Washington law — confirm details with the insurers and, for property-line or liability questions, a qualified professional. This is not legal or insurance advice.