Arborist and Tree Service Insurance in Florida

Most People Only Notice Tree Service Companies After A Storm

Standard general liability forms frequently contain an aerial work exclusion, and for a tree company the aerial work is the business.

It does not appear on the front page of a proposal. It appears in the endorsement stack, sometimes alongside a logging and lumbering exclusion, and it excludes the climbing, the bucket work, and in some forms the rigging that makes up the day.

Then it travels. Most umbrella policies are follow form, meaning they adopt the underlying policy’s exclusions. An aerial exclusion on the primary carries through to the excess, so a company that bought a large umbrella to satisfy a municipal contract has bought additional limit over a policy that excludes what they do.

The first question on any tree service program is whether the form contemplates aerial work, or excludes it.

Tree Work Is a High-Severity Class, and the Market Reflects That

Standard small business carriers decline this trade routinely, and the reason is severity rather than frequency.

The Tree Care Industry Association tracked 243 tree care fatalities over four calendar years from 2020 through 2023 — roughly sixty-one per year — with struck-by incidents during felling and falling branches, together with falls, accounting for approximately seventy percent of them.

A misdirected limb totals a roof or a vehicle. A climbing fall becomes a catastrophic workers’ compensation claim. A crane pick that goes wrong reaches everything below it.

That means placement usually runs through specialty and program markets rather than standard ones, and it means forms vary considerably. Comparing tree service proposals on premium alone is close to meaningless — the differences live in what each form excludes.

Class Code 0106 Is One of the Highest in the System

Workers’ compensation is typically the largest line on a tree service program.

NCCI class code 0106 covers tree pruning, spraying, and repairing, including climbing and aerial operations, and its base rate reflects the trade’s actual injury data. It also carries unusually high experience modification sensitivity — a single serious claim moves the mod hard, and it stays there for years.

Three practical consequences.

Payroll separation matters. Office and administrative staff belong in a clerical classification at a fraction of the field rate, but only where the records support it. Where they do not, the auditor applies 0106 to everyone.

Understating payroll catches up. The audit reconciles estimate against actual, and the difference is a bill.

Frequency drives the mod more than severity does. A run of small injuries in a crew with turnover affects your premium longer than one large claim, which makes ordinary safety practice a pricing decision.

Care, Custody, and Control Is Tested Every Day

Tree work happens on and around property the client owns, and general liability excludes damage to property in your care, custody, or control.

A limb dropped onto a fence, a gate crushed during rigging, a retaining wall damaged by a chipper, ruts from a bucket truck across a lawn, a driveway cracked under a crane outrigger — these are the ordinary claims of the trade, and the exclusion applies to exactly the property most likely to be damaged.

Some carriers offer customer property or care, custody and control extensions that narrow it. Whether yours does is worth confirming specifically, because on this class the extension is not a nicety.

The related provision is the “your work” exclusion: the policy does not pay to redo your own defective work. If a pruning cut kills a specimen tree the client valued, that argument is different from the fence you crushed getting to it.

The Advice Is a Separate Exposure

A certified arborist does more than cut. They assess hazard, evaluate tree health, and recommend whether a tree should come down or be preserved.

When a client relies on that recommendation and the tree later fails — onto a house, a car, or a person — the claim is not property damage caused by your operations. It is professional negligence, and general liability does not reach it.

Any company doing hazard assessments, tree risk evaluations, or written recommendations should have this addressed. It is the exposure most tree services do not know they carry, and it grows as a company moves toward consulting and municipal work.

Utility Line Clearance Is a Different Account

Work near energized conductors is underwritten separately and priced accordingly.

Contact with power lines produces electrocution and severe burn claims, and carriers ask specifically whether a company performs line clearance, at what voltage, under what contract, and with what training and certification.

A company that adds utility work to a residential trimming operation without disclosing it has changed the risk without changing the description.

Cranes and Aerial Equipment May Need Scheduling

Many tree service forms exclude crane operations unless specifically scheduled, and some restrict aerial lift work by height.

Two things follow. If you use a crane — owned, rented, or subcontracted — confirm it is on the policy. And if you rent a crane with an operator, the arrangement between you and the crane company determines whose coverage responds, which is a contract question worth resolving before the pick rather than after.

The same applies to bucket trucks and aerial lifts brought in for a specific job.

Storm Season Is the Florida Problem

For a Florida tree service, hurricane cleanup is a revenue event and an underwriting one at the same time.

Volume spikes. Crews work longer hours in worse conditions on damaged trees that behave unpredictably. Temporary labor comes on quickly. Out-of-state crews arrive. Subcontractors get hired without the usual process. And the work itself — hangers, split trunks, trees on structures — is the most dangerous version of the job.

Three things worth having in place before June rather than during September:

A subcontractor verification process that survives a busy week. A subcontractor who cannot produce current general liability and workers’ compensation has their payroll charged back to you at audit as if they were your employee — and if one of their people is injured, the claim can land on you.

Payroll tracking for temporary labor, which the audit will find.

Disclosure to your carrier if storm work is a meaningful share of your revenue, because it changes the profile.

The Equipment Is the Business, and It Is Not on the Property Policy

Chippers, stump grinders, bucket trucks, aerial lifts, saws, rigging, and trailers travel daily and sit at job sites. Commercial property coverage stops at your yard.

That is inland marine, and the questions are the usual ones for this class:

Scheduled or blanket. Higher-value units typically scheduled with serial numbers, smaller equipment on a blanket limit.

Replacement cost or actual cash value. On equipment that depreciates and has long replacement lead times, the difference is whether you can put a crew back to work.

Theft conditions. Trailers and chippers are stolen regularly, and coverage often requires locking, immobilization, or secured storage. Read the conditions against how equipment is actually left overnight.

Newly acquired equipment, with its limit and reporting window.

Loss of income or rental reimbursement, since a stolen chipper stops a crew. Renting a substitute is what keeps the schedule.

More on inland marine coverage.

Vehicles Carry Real Severity

Chip trucks, loaded trailers, bucket trucks, and crew vehicles operating on residential streets produce accidents with weight behind them.

Commercial auto on owned vehicles, and hired and non-owned auto for employees using personal vehicles — which on a tree crew happens constantly and is frequently uninsured.

Motor vehicle records, driver approval, and trailer loading practice are what underwriters ask about.

What Contracts Will Require

Municipal contracts, HOA and property management agreements, and commercial accounts specify insurance in detail: stated limits, additional insured status by endorsement rather than certificate, waiver of subrogation, primary and non-contributory wording, and sometimes a performance bond.

A tree company that cannot produce those documents quickly loses work to one that can, and agreeing to a limit the policy does not carry is a breach from the day of signing.

Worth Confirming on Your Program

• Does the general liability form contain an aerial work or logging exclusion?

• Does the umbrella follow form, and does it inherit that exclusion?

• Is there a care, custody and control or customer property extension?

• Are crane operations scheduled?

• Is professional liability in place if you provide hazard assessments?

• Is utility line clearance disclosed, if you do it?

• Is payroll separated between field and office on workers’ compensation?

• Are equipment values current, and what theft conditions apply?

• Is hired and non-owned auto present?

• Do you have a subcontractor verification process that works during storm season?

Arborist and Tree Service Insurance in Florida

Prestige Insurance Group works with tree services, arborists, climbers, stump grinding operations, storm cleanup crews, and land clearing contractors across Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Kendall, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, and throughout Florida.

This is a class that standard markets decline and specialty markets write on forms that differ substantially from each other. The useful comparison is exclusion by exclusion — aerial, crane, felling, and care custody and control — rather than premium by premium.

Miami 305-969-8776 · Orlando 407-993-2331

Se Habla Español.

Related Coverage

General Liability · Workers’ Compensation · Business Auto · Inland Marine · Commercial Umbrella · Commercial Property

Related trades: Landscaping Contractor Insurance · Contractor Insurance · Equipment Rental Insurance

General information only, not legal advice. Policy forms, exclusions, and classifications vary significantly by carrier; refer to your policy for the terms that apply to your operation.