Grounds and tree work: what the board should plan for

A tree left unpruned for ten years costs more to fell than it would have cost to maintain. And it always falls on something.

Grounds are one of those headings nobody looks at while everything grows. The contractor comes, the invoice lands, and the subject only returns to the agenda when a branch breaks a car, roots lift a path, or a neighbour formally demands a tree be cut back.

Yet few files are as easy for a board to take back in hand: the checkpoints are visible to the naked eye, and the savings are immediate.

What the contract actually covers

The first question is always the same: what exactly are we paying for? A routine contract usually covers mowing, hedge trimming and clearing. Pruning tall trees, felling, stump removal and treatments are almost always excluded and billed separately.

• The number of visits per year and how they are spread — six visits bunched in spring are not six visits spread out.
• The exact scope: lawns, hedges, beds, paths, building surrounds, car park.
• What happens to green waste: removal included or billed?
• How often weeding happens and by what method.
• What triggers an additional quote, and at what hourly rate.

The comparison method is the same as for the cleaning contract: without a written specification, two quotes are not comparable.

Pruning: the item always postponed

Trees are pruned in cycles measured in years. Postponing does not remove the cost: it grows it. A maintained tree is pruned from the ground or a light platform; the same tree left fifteen years needs a climber, machine access and sometimes a closed car park.

Pruning therefore belongs in the multi-year works plan, like paint or waterproofing — it is cyclical maintenance, not an emergency.

The classic disputes

• Branches overhanging a neighbouring property, which the neighbour can require to be cut back.
• Roots lifting a path, cracking a wall or entering a drain.
• A tree lastingly blocking light to a flat.
• Leaves blocking rainwater drainage every autumn.
• A protected or notable tree that cannot be felled freely.

That last point deserves checking before any decision: depending on local rules, felling may require permission or be prohibited outright. Have the manager ask before anything is put to a vote.

When a tree becomes dangerous

Fungus at the base, detaching bark, dead limbs, a worsening lean: these justify a professional survey, not a judgement made by eye at a meeting.

Meanwhile the area gets cordoned off. Damage caused by a tree whose condition was visible and documented for years is hard to defend: see how a claim is handled.

What gets voted

Routine upkeep sits in the budget. Felling, replanting, turning a lawn into parking or installing irrigation alters the common areas and is voted. Present such projects with an annual upkeep cost, not just an installation cost: ambitious landscaping is paid for every year.

A tree is the only heading that gets more expensive every year you decide to do nothing.

Track your contractors with CoproHarmony

CoproHarmony keeps contracts, quotes, before-and-after photos and the history of grounds-related incidents. Create your free space.

Two shared facilities weigh even more on the budget: a pool and a shared room.