Couple of key phrases
Hi All!
Couple of thoughts here and they revolve around the phrases "duty to act" and "due dilligence."
first if ours is to be considered a "profession" then we can rightly be considered experts and knowlegeable of things the average person might not. That said, any time we walk onto a person's property if we see
anything that could be a problem we have a duty to act and to inform the customer.
For example, if Mrs Jones wants us to estimate pruining her prized
Celtis occidentalis and we notice that her
Acer saccharum is riddled with rot, conks and hollows and show a opening and closing crack running the lenght of the bole then we are obligated to let her know that the defects are there and that the may spell trouble.
What that translates into is that whenever we step onto someones property, we must be attuned to such things and be prepared to inform the customer.
This also makes good business sense as it opens the door for potentially more work.
So, essentially, especially those of us that carry certifications, we are obligated to note and present such items.
Now, there will be things we miss. And, we may be consdered experts but our own limitations and spot on the learning curve may prevent us from being able to catch these things. That being the case quite often, you should
always give the customer a written report when you go on thier property. Generally this is in the form of an estimate. Wording in the estimate will serve best if it states something that Only the trees listed were observed, no other trees were looked at or considered.
Our estimates include the following:
Only trees listed on this proposal are under consideration. Any work or trees not explicitly listed or authorized in this proposal is excluded from this proposal. Evaluations, opinions of tree conditions and defects of trees listed herein are based upon a naked eye, ground view survey. Customer is advised that more detailed assessments may be available for an additional fee from Hivernant Arborists or another tree care provider. Hivernant Arborists does not provide all levels of assessment of trees.
Something like this should be reviewed by your own attorney before you put it in place.
Then there is the E&O insurance....any time you offer an opinion to a customer or options for them to choose from you are likely to forget something important. Kinda like , " the tree should come down" but you forgot to add "immediatly" or "because it is likely to be blown over in the next thunder storm."
The keys are
- you need to be very clear as to what trees you ARE and ARE NOT looking at
- You need to let the customer know that more detailed inspections are available, for a fee, and whether or not you do them.
- any time you offer an opinion, you have sold your soul.
Part of our estimating process is simply that we do estimates for known and obvious work on specific selected trees and no others. If they want opinions and options on those or thier "trees" then that is a billable service call. We prepare a contract for that and it details exactly what they will get.
