Beaver Tree Services workers prepare ropes harnesses and safety equipment to carry out tree maintenance.
Beaver Tree Services workers prepare ropes harnesses and safety equipment to carry out tree maintenance.
Whanganui residents are being warned to do their homework after reports of threatening and bullying behaviour from unprofessional arborists offering cheap tree work.
A Whanganui arborist business – Beaver Tree Services – is concerned about an increase in people offering tree-felling and arborist services for overly cheap prices, performing work without adequate safety gear, and following established companies’ vehicles then offering discounted prices to residents.
Seven of its customers told the business they had felt “intimidated, threatened or bullied” by people coming to their door offering to cut down trees or do arborist work at reduced prices.
Often, the workers had no high-vis gear, safety equipment or affiliated arborist company.
In the last few months, the number of complaints has increased, resulting in Beaver Tree Services emailing its entire client base to warn about people offering unsolicited tree work.
Arborists often work at heights with chainsaws and heavy machinery. It can be a dangerous profession.
Luke Cabrol, an Auckland arborist affiliated with the New Zealand Arboriculture Association (NZ Arb), said arborists were facing an ongoing struggle with “cowboy companies” because of the unregulated nature of the industry.
Beaver Tree Services co-owner Bryce Robb, who has been in the industry for 33 years, said he was worried the people operating in Whanganui were taking advantage of “vulnerable, elderly people”.
“I mean how would they feel if one of these guys hurt themselves badly on their property or killed someone else by dropping a tree on the footpath,” Robb said.
“People are enticed to get the work done because it’s cheap. They’re saying, ‘Wow, $300 to take that big tree down’ but then they’re making a mess.”
Police advised anyone with “questions or concerns about such people” to do their due diligence and make the relevant checks.
“If you need help with work around the house or other such services, ask a trusted friend for recommendations and carry out research on local service providers before engaging with a provider.
“If someone comes to your door offering services that you do not require, the advice is to close the door and not engage with the person.”
Whanganui’s Monkey Business Tree Care owner Eddie White said often the people involved in these cases were not qualified, uninsured and would not understand how to properly care for trees.
“They don’t do the job properly ... then they just disappear and you don’t hear from them again,” White said.
“Be wary, don’t pay for anything until the job’s done, make sure to get quotes and that whoever’s coming around to do the job is insured and qualified.”
WorkSafe New Zealand said it had not received notifications about tree work issues in Whanganui.
It confirmed that liability for any injury or death would fall on the person carrying out the work, rather than the homeowner.
“The employer or self-employed worker carries the health and safety obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, rather than the homeowner,” a WorkSafe New Zealand spokesperson said.
Robb said the job was extremely dangerous and the prospect of unqualified workers felling large trees was a concern.
“You’re dealing with heights, chainsaws, ropes and powerlines ... it’s right up there with forestry and scaffolding in terms of danger,” he said.
Beaver Tree Services co-owner Mary Cameron said the business was concerned about instances such as “people going up a ladder in jandals when they should be wearing steel-capped boots”.
Robb said the fact people were offering undercutting, cheap prices diminished the reputation of highly-skilled arborists in Whanganui.
Auckland arborist says ‘cowboy companies’ hurting the industry
Tree King director Luke Cabrol, who is chairman of the Registered Master Arborist programme for NZ Arb, said one of the problems facing the industry was that people did not have to hold a qualification to run an arborist business.
“Because the industry is not regulated, it is causing problems,” he said.
“WorkSafe can get involved with these cowboy companies if they realise they’re being unsafe, but they’re going to have to get caught multiple times before they’ll actually be shut down.
“They’re more likely just to get fined and to keep carrying on.”
It was important the public reported any unsafe work to WorkSafe as consumer savviness could protect other households from being taken advantage of by untrained people offering tree work, he said.
Cabrol said people needed to ask a few simple questions to deter illegitimate workers because they often could be quite pushy when asking to do work on the spot.
People should be aware that they should never be asked to pay in full upfront or to make a hefty deposit worth more than 20% of the full job, he said.
“You can imagine the heartache if someone lost their life savings to these cowboys.”
How to know if someone can be trusted to do tree work
Cabrol said if residents were concerned, there were a number of things they could ask to determine if a worker was legitimate or qualified.
They could ask about workers’ qualifications and whether the company had public liability insurance.
He said any business should have insurance as a general rule, and arborists should be able to show proof of a Level Three to Five certificate in New Zealand Arboriculture.
Cabrol said because of the competitiveness of the industry, most companies had a professional website or online presence that should be easy to find.
In most cases, arborist businesses would clean up the leftover debris or cuttings after a job, and large messes being left behind were common for unprofessional operators, he said.
Robb said if someone offered to do tree work but could not extensively name different types of trees on the property, that could be a warning flag.
“It’s a telltale sign if they can’t name 90% of the common tree names on a property, say a lemonwood or oak tree – they’re probably not an arborist,” he said.
People could also search for a Registered Master Arborist on the NZ Arb website but not all trustworthy companies were listed there as it was not mandatory.
Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.
