Managing Tree Related Risk
When a tree fails, there is the potential for three outcomes:
- Damage to property;
- Damage to people;
- Litigation.
In order to avoid these outcomes, landowners need to show that they have a defendable tree risk management system in place. This means that the owner of the tree must show:
- A clear audit trail - this provides the defence against any claim
- A tree risk assessment - this requires an identification of any hazard and an assessment of the risk
- A management system is in place - this details what actions will be taken to reduce the risk and remove the hazard.
At Tree Frontiers, we are qualified to undertake tree hazard surveys that will look at your trees, consider the hazards, assess the risk and provide you with a report detailing any necessary action and a time frame in which that action should take place. The advantage for you, the landowner, is that responsibility for the risk is transferred to us, the professional tree surveyor.
Recent legal rulings (click here) have offered guidance as to the level of competence required for tree inspections. Although no legal precedent has been set to provide precise parameters, it is widely accepted that a minimum level of qualification to carry out tree inspections should be level three (click here for a detailed explanation of the qualifications). At Tree Frontiers, our surveys are only carried out by surveyors with a minimum of a level five qualification.