# Licensing for Tree Co. in Ohio



## TreeLady (Mar 19, 2006)

At this time there is no licensing in Ohio for tree companies. I want to contact my state rep to see if they could pass a bill to change that. Anyone from other states have experience in this? Also, any info about the licensing requirements in other states could be useful. Thanks for your help.


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## Dadatwins (Mar 19, 2006)

Only thing required in Virginia is state business license and county license for each county you will be working in. License class for state has me listed as landscape class C general contractor no tree industry specified or listed as option. Class C (no test, $175 flat annual fee) allows me to bid up to $7500.00 per job, Class A ( written test, fee based on earnings) has no limit.
There are no category list on any application that I have seen in my area for Tree work specific.


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## TreeLady (Mar 19, 2006)

Landscaping isn't licensed here either. Do you have to show liability and workers coverage when you get the license?


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## begleytree (Mar 19, 2006)

How about instead of creating another headache that Ohio won't enforce, but will be happy to collect fees from, why not push for enforcement of laws and lic reqs already on the books in the local juristicions? 
A statewide lic will not, IMO, alter the public perception nor stop weekend hacks from doing their thing. Local laws, when enforced, will do everything you desire, and keep taft's fingers out of our pockets for more "govt intervention".
As you can tell, I'd be against it.
-Ralph


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## Dadatwins (Mar 19, 2006)

TreeLady said:


> Landscaping isn't licensed here either. Do you have to show liability and workers coverage when you get the license?



State does not require it for the class C, but some counties do if you have more than 1 employee, owner /operator work comp not required, but liability is and that changes for different counties. Virginia is a commonwealth, but the laws are far from common.  Each county/city here has their own set of rules and regs that must be followed, which adds to the confusion. It is possible on some days that I will work in 3 different counties under 3 different jurisdictions and only travel 10 miles.  I agree more enforcement of the laws in place would help before writing some new legislation that will confuse things even more.


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## clearance (Mar 19, 2006)

TreeLady said:


> At this time there is no licensing in Ohio for tree companies. I want to contact my state rep to see if they could pass a bill to change that. Anyone from other states have experience in this? Also, any info about the licensing requirements in other states could be useful. Thanks for your help.


What an awesome idea, more laws, fees, more goverment culls driving around in taxpayers trucks, wasting taxpayers money, damn, why didn't I think of that?.


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## TreeLady (Mar 19, 2006)

Clearence, arn't you from Canada..and weren't you telling people to mind their own business on another thread?

I understand what you are saying Ralph, and I don't want a big regulation thing, just a simple license where you have ins. and workers comp, pay a small fee and you're good to go. Of course, I understand when you deal with govt. simplicity is impossible. It's just that we have way more than weekend hacks around here. Alot of crews have zero ppe. I've seen kids on jobsites, 12 or 13 year olds working. Guys climbing without ropes. Topping is rampant. There are really a small handful of good companies. 
What do you recommend as far as pushing for enforcement? At this point, I'll try anything.


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## clearance (Mar 19, 2006)

Why not just come right out and say you want control at the lowest cost to you so that competition is limited? If all the hacks and fly by night butchers, illegal immigrants, and so forth are stopped by regulated enforcement then customers will have to call the permitted trees services, right? Ultimately improving your bottom line, nothing wrong with improving the bottom line, just put your cards on the table, be upfront with what you really are after.


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## skwerl (Mar 19, 2006)

Treelady, 
As much as it pains me, it looks like I am in agreement with Clearance on yet another topic. Before you go petitioning for more regulation in your area, perhaps you might spend some time investigating areas where similar laws have been enacted and what were any positive or negative results. Just because you believe a new law will 'fix' something doesn't mean it will. Most well intentioned regulations have unintended consequences that are as bad or worse than the original problem. Add to that the original problem may only be reduced by a tiny percentage, and now you have increased cost and hassle along with the original problem of hacks plus new problems of selective and prejudicial enforcement (among others).


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## begleytree (Mar 19, 2006)

TreeLady said:


> I understand what you are saying Ralph, and I don't want a big regulation thing, just a simple license where you have ins. and workers comp, pay a small fee and you're good to go.
> What do you recommend as far as pushing for enforcement? At this point, I'll try anything.



treelady, thats exactly what you have to do/have to get the biz license here for the year. $25 fee. In town, there are 3 tree co.s and 1 landscaper who get the license. I am one of them. if any of us attempt to work jan 2 without the new lic, we are shut down. While we drive off from the jobsite, we pass other pickup truck operations who don't have the lic, can't get the lic, and the city officials drive right past them without saying anything.
All I'm saying is it's not right. I refused to buy the lic last year, and ignored them when they came out to shut me down. I sent them a cert. letter after that stating why I was not going to get the lic that year, but that I was going to operate as usual, and dared them to say anything about it until they enforced the law for everyone. Never heard anything else about it. didn't buy it again this year for the same reason. City called 4 days ago wanting my quote on some city work even though I don't have the lic, so it must not be a big deal to them either.
As far as making them enforce the laws, I don't know. I thought about buying the lic, then filing a lawsuit against the city and PD, but that'd do nothing good for me. I have spoken about it to homeowner associations, and city officials, even some police officers I know, but no (measureable) headway yet.

-Ralph


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## clearance (Mar 19, 2006)

TreeCo said:


> During the 1990's in Delaware every small town started collecting license fees for working in town limits. What a pain in the butt that was. It should be illegal.


Hey, a few weeks ago you were bragging about taking pictures of and ratting guys out that didn't have permits to do treework, though you would like the opportunity to play cop and drop the dime on more people, whats up?


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## doggonetrees (Mar 20, 2006)

Treelady, here in Miss. it cost us 60.00 for our license, which we were told was good for any municipality. Saw an ad for bid proposals to be turned in on some crown reduction/removal work in an outlying city of Jackson, and when we turned our bid in, had to show the council proof of ins., state lic., and city permit- the latter of which we had to have prior to submitting our bid. Granted, it was only 25.00, but if each city does this, then we are going to spend an awful lot more $$ for their permits than what we did for the state lic. The funny side to this one proposal was that we were to deal with any clients that had a problem with any tree work being done- the city council did not want to become involved with any legal litigation.


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## Nickrosis (Mar 20, 2006)

TreeLady, clearance was answering your question. 

I agree with him and with skwerl and pretty much everyone else. Why in the world make things more complicated? I would be thankful that you don't have a licensing debacle in your state! To start initiating change, approach those companies constructively and encourage them to join your local ISA chapter and the TCIA - baby steps of course - to start a process of improvement. That's the push strategy. Push them into changing.

My favorite strategy is the pull strategy. Make things such that they are pulled into changing. If you put out public relations releases periodically for your local news and offer to appear periodically for timely tree care updates, you're positioning yourself to change your own tree care climate. Take it a step further over time, and you'll force other companies to become more competent if they want to compete. Make topping unattractive in the public eye, and there goes the market. hehe, I'm wearing a "Do Not Top Trees - Ask Me Why" shirt today.


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## TreeLady (Mar 20, 2006)

> To start initiating change, approach those companies constructively and encourage them to join your local ISA chapter and the TCIA - baby steps of course - to start a process of improvement. That's the push strategy. Push them into changing.



I think the only thing that would be pushed, would be me, out the door and down the street. The bad companies don't care, they would see ISA or TCIA as another expense and nothing more.

Don't get me wrong there are some great companies around here doing beautiful work. They are just far from the majority. I do not want to make anything more complicated or difficult for "real" businesses.



> If you put out public relations releases periodically for your local news and offer to appear periodically for timely tree care updates, you're positioning yourself to change your own tree care climate. Take it a step further over time, and you'll force other companies to become more competent if they want to compete. Make topping unattractive in the public eye, and there goes the market.



We are doing this with some success. For years there has been an attitude around here that an untopped tree is a neglected tree. Alot of people expect someone to knock on their door if they need tree work. That is going to take some time to overcome, but it is a worthwhile effort. Thanks for the input.


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## Nickrosis (Mar 20, 2006)

TreeLady said:


> I think the only thing that would be pushed, would be me, out the door and down the street. The bad companies don't care, they would see ISA or TCIA as another expense and nothing more.


Some will never change, for sure.

Others will crack under pressure to change and over time. My neighbor is beginning to change as the son begins to make more of the decisions and is deciding to buy trucks that would pass a DOT inspection instead of cobbling together old vehicles forever. It's a graaaadual process for sure.

I just used "for sure" twice as my own amen. Ahhh.... I'm a geek, for sure.


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## Koa Man (Mar 23, 2006)

Move to Hawaii. The state licenses everything here. It requires a contractor's license for almost any kind of work over $1000 in total cost and you cannot break up the total job to keep it under a thousand. Example, I will trim this tree for $500 on one contract and remove another one for $750 on another contract if both are on the same jobsite. 

Licenses are renewed every even numbered here in September. In 2004, I did not renew my license and placed it on inactive status. I continued to operate status quo, no difference at all in amount of work I got and free from Dept. of Commerce regulation. This month I reactivated my license, not because of any legal pressure, but because my son-in-law will be buying my business over the next 5 years and I figured I better get it all above board for him. We have tons of guys operating big time, chippers, dump trucks, 12 man crews, all without licenses. They don't bother me, as I already have more work than I can handle.

I know another guy who is doing hundreds of thousands of $$$ in masonary work each year. Currently working on a project over $250K, all without a license and has been doing so for several years. Bottom line is, do licensing laws prevent people who don't care about them from working? The answer is no, at least here in Hawaii. It only gives guys who want to be legal a huge disadvantage in competing with the unlicensed guys who don't have to pay into the things like the contractor's recovery fund, payroll taxes, state umemployment fund etc.


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## TreeLady (Mar 23, 2006)

I would love nothing more than to move to Hawaii. We got married on the Kohala coast and it was just paradise. I can imagine how difficult it would be to own a business there...the beach would be calling me and I don't think I could get any work done.

As far as trying for regulations here, you guys have convinced me that there is no point and it wouldn't make a difference. I have no interest making things more difficult for legit businesses, or wasting my time. I guess I should be happy I don't have a ton of regulations to deal with here. Thank you all for sharing your points of view. I have learned alot here.


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## Nickrosis (Mar 23, 2006)

Me too!


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## cord arrow (Mar 23, 2006)

begleytree said:


> As you can tell, I'd be against it.
> -Ralph



as would i. Bob Tax has bitten everything. and he's opened the door for more taxing. five different sales taxes in the small area in which i shop. five.

wife's tanning, nails, hair, my cable and satellite, my barber.

dudes a class act.

soooooooooo, ya wanna give this guy yet ANOTHER avenue to take our money....................great.....................


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## cord arrow (Mar 23, 2006)

*i'm positive i was told........*

.......that's what the lottery was for. fortunately it's making money. unfortunately, only the lottery is seeing much profit.

stop me now, i'm on a tirade.


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## TreeLady (Mar 26, 2006)

> soooooooooo, ya wanna give this guy yet ANOTHER avenue to take our money....................great.....................



No I don't. My last post was:


> As far as trying for regulations here, you guys have convinced me that there is no point and it wouldn't make a difference. I have no interest making things more difficult for legit businesses, or wasting my time. I guess I should be happy I don't have a ton of regulations to deal with here. Thank you all for sharing your points of view. I have learned alot here.



There is no way for a legit business to compete with the guys that arn't paying taxes, insurance and workers comp. With the economy and gas prices the way they are, everyone is looking to save a buck any way they can. I just wish there was a way to make it a level playing field, but I've learned there isn't. That's what I'm here for, to learn. Thanks for the lesson guys.


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