Tree work: why it rates differently from the rest of landscaping

The honest answer is that tree work is priced on gravity. Everything else in landscaping happens at ground level: the mower, the sod, the paver base, the irrigation trench. Tree work happens sixty feet up, with a running saw, above a house, a car, a service drop, and a groundman. The underwriter knows that, the rating organization knows that, and the carrier’s form was written by people who know that. So a landscaper who takes down “the occasional tree” is doing the one thing in the trade that gets rated, underwritten, and excluded separately, often without telling anyone. We insure landscaping contractors across Colorado, and the tree service page covers the policy stack. This article covers why the stack is different, in four parts: the GL, the comp, the climber on a 1099, and the crane.

Two policies, two reasons

Keep the general liability and the workers’ comp separate in your head, because they rate tree work apart for different reasons. GL cares about what the tree lands on. Comp cares about who falls out of it. Both are more expensive than the same crew mowing, and both are more likely to be limited or excluded on a policy written for landscaping.

Why the GL rates it apart

Height, first. A limb that swings on the rigging during a 70-foot cottonwood removal in Loveland after an October storm loaded it with wet snow goes through a roof, not a lawn. The property damage per incident is a different order than a rock through a window, and the carrier’s form knows it. Under many landscaping GL forms, tree work is limited to a stated height, limited to trimming with removals excluded, or excluded altogether by endorsement. The form has to be read, not assumed.

Lines, second. A climber trimming a silver maple in north Boulder on a Chinook-wind afternoon drops a limb across the service drop. The outage, the pole, and the neighbor’s electronics are the claim, and some forms restrict work near energized conductors or exclude utility line clearance as its own specialty. Ask whether the form does either before the first job near a line.

Then the ordinary stuff at a bigger scale. The neighbor’s fence under the drop zone. The customer’s car nobody moved. The stump grinder that finds an irrigation main. The general liability page covers what a contractor’s GL typically responds to; the tree-specific question is whether the classification on the dec page says tree pruning and removal, in words, and whether the endorsement list takes it back.

Why the comp rates it apart

Workers’ comp rates on payroll by class, and tree work has its own class. Landscaping contractors are typically rated under NCCI code 0042 (Landscape Gardening & Drivers; lawn maintenance under 9102), excavation under 6217 (Excavation & Drivers), tree work under 0106 (Tree Pruning), and stand-alone snow-clearing under 9402 (Street Cleaning & Drivers); the carrier makes the final assignment under NCCI rules. (NCCI Scopes Manual) [VERIFY] That code assignment is still being confirmed against the current NCCI scopes, and the carrier makes the final assignment under NCCI rules, so read it as “typically rates as,” not as settled. What’s settled is the reason: a fall from a climbing line, a hand in a chipper, a limb on the groundman’s shoulder. Those are severe injuries, and severe injuries are what the code is priced on.

The class code article walks how a governing class works and how payroll gets split. The tree-specific point is that the split has to exist. A landscaper who does removals with the same three people who mow, and reports all the payroll under landscape gardening, is under-rated for the climbing hours, and the audit finds it. The audit article covers what the auditor asks for. Timecards by task are the answer. So is telling the carrier there’s a climber on the crew before the audit tells them.

An aerial lift changes the exposure, not always the code. A bucket truck keeps the climber off the rope, which the underwriter likes, and some carriers price bucket work differently from climbing. Ask. The workers’ compensation page covers the one-employee rule and the owner election, and both apply to a tree crew the same as anyone.

The 1099 climber

This is where tree outfits get hurt worst, and it’s a Colorado statute, not an insurance rule.

Read that against the climber you pay by the job. Is he free from your control and direction, both under the contract and in fact? He’s on your ropes, using your saws, taking direction from your foreman about what comes down and in what order. Is he customarily engaged in an independent business related to the service? Maybe, if he has his own outfit, his own insurance, his own customers, and he shows up with his own gear. Most climbers paid on a 1099 by a landscaper don’t fit that description. The 1099 isn’t part of the test at all.

Two consequences. If he’s an employee under the statute, you needed comp for him from day one: Colorado employers must carry workers' compensation insurance as soon as they have one or more employees, whether part-time, full-time, or family members (C.R.S. 8-40-203(1)(b), 8-44-101); the state can fine an uninsured employer up to $500 for every day without coverage. (C.R.S. 8-40-203(1)(b); 8-44-101; 8-43-409) And if he falls, the injury comes to you as the employer, with the uninsured-employer penalties on top and no policy to defend it. The uninsured subcontractor article covers how a sub’s injury becomes your claim, and the one-employee article covers the statute. The written independent-contractor document the statute describes, notarized and with the conspicuous disclosure, creates a rebuttable presumption and nothing more. Get it if the climber is genuinely independent. Get a certificate of his comp. If he’s neither, put him on payroll.

Cranes and aerial lifts

A crane pick is the most expensive hour in tree work, and the insurance for it sits on three policies at once.

The crane itself, when it comes with an operator from a crane rental firm, is commonly on that firm’s policy. The load on the hook, the rigging, and the house it’s swinging over are where your GL gets read, and some forms treat the load as property in your care, custody, or control and limit it. The crane contract will have an indemnity clause pointing at you. Get the crane firm’s certificate, send us the contract, and ask which policy owns the load before the pick.

The bucket truck is a different split. The truck on the road is commercial auto, including the trip down I-70 with the Vermeer chipper behind it. The aerial device may be covered as part of the truck’s physical damage or scheduled on the equipment floater with the chipper, the stump grinder, and the Yanmar mini skid steer with the grapple. The policy language controls, and the wrong assumption shows up when the boom folds on a soft shoulder above Vail in decomposed granite.

Saws and the chipper

The tool exposure is why comp is the biggest line in a tree outfit’s stack. A chainsaw on a rope at height, a chipper being fed by a groundman on a steep lot, a pole saw near a line. The underwriter will ask about training, gear, whether the crew climbs on spikes or uses a lift, and whether anyone’s been hurt. Loss runs matter more here than anywhere else in landscaping, because a single climber injury can define the account for years.

Landscaping vs tree work, line by line

Where to go from here

If you take down trees, the policy has to know. Get Insured lists what to have ready, and for tree work that means the tallest removal you’ll take, how you get up there, whether you work near lines, and who’s on the climbing crew. Already carrying a landscaping policy and not sure where the tree work sits? The policy review reads the classifications and the endorsement list for the height limit or the exclusion. The tree service page covers the full stack, and the land clearing and forestry mulching page covers the ground-level version of the same work. If the trees are in an HOA, the HOA contracts article covers what the board’s template asks for. Wet spring snow on a leafed-out cottonwood in Loveland doesn’t care what the dec page says. Make sure it says tree work. No online quote, on purpose.

Serving businesses located in Colorado. Coverage is determined by the policy language and the carrier.