Apartments · HOAs · Commercial property
Tree care for property you’re responsible for
Scheduled, insured, and written down — so the trees stop being something you deal with only after they’ve caused a problem.
I walk the property, put in writing what needs doing and what can wait, and we agree a schedule that lands in your budget instead of your emergency line. Certificate of insurance on request. There’s an ISA Certified Arborist on my crew, which matters more here than it does on a driveway.
What you’re actually managing
On a residential job the tree is the problem. On a property you manage, the tree is rarely the problem — what was known about it is.
A resident mentions a limb over the car park. It goes in an email, or it doesn’t. Eight months later it comes down on a tenant’s roof in a storm. Whether that is an act of God or negligence turns almost entirely on what was on record beforehand and what was done about it. The Texas position on that is here, with its sources.
Which is why the first thing I do on a commercial property isn’t quoting. It’s writing down what I can see.
Start with a walk of the site
No charge and no obligation. I walk the property with you or on my own, and you get it in writing: what needs doing now, what can wait a season, what only needs watching, and roughly what each of those costs.
That document is useful to you whether or not you ever hire me — it’s the thing you attach when you have to justify a spend to an owner or a board, and it’s dated evidence that the property is being looked after. Ask me to come and walk it.
What an ongoing arrangement covers
Built around the property rather than a list of trees, because trees don’t stay the same size:
- A survey of the whole canopy, once or twice a year depending on how much of it sits over something that can be damaged.
- Deadwood out of anything overhanging a building, a walkway, a parking space, a playground or a pool.
- Clearance pruning back off roofs, gutters, lighting, signage and sightlines — the things that generate complaints and the things that generate insurance letters.
- Storm response on a property I already know, which is a completely different job from storm response on one I don’t.
- Removals when a tree is genuinely finished — and I will tell you when one isn’t.
Scheduled in advance, so residents get notice and you get an invoice you were expecting.
The paperwork side
Being straightforward about this, because it is usually where the decision actually gets made:
- Insured — certificate on request, before any work, every time.
- ISA Certified Arborist on the crew. I’m not personally ISA certified and I’m not going to imply otherwise. What that certification gets you here is an assessment that carries weight when somebody later asks who said the tree was fine.
- One person to deal with. You call me, not a dispatcher, and the person who quoted it is on the property when it happens.
- Permits handled. Several cities around here regulate removals by trunk size, and commercial property is treated differently from a private yard in some of them — Bastrop charges non-residential $400 per caliper inch. I’ve read the ordinances for eighteen cities; they’re all written up here.
What it costs
Per property, once I’ve walked it, rather than a rate card that would be wrong for every site. What moves it: acreage and canopy density, access, and how much of the canopy sits over something that can be damaged. A site where everything can be dropped into open grass costs a fraction of one where every limb has to come out over parked cars.
An agreement is normally cheaper per visit than calling it in job by job, for the obvious reason — the drive, the setup and the crew are already paid for by the time we’re on site.
Questions I get asked
Do you work with apartment complexes and HOAs?
Yes. Multi-family, HOA common areas, mobile home parks, storage sites, churches and commercial landlords across about fifty miles of Central Texas out of Kyle. The work is the same trees; what changes is that there are more of them, somebody has to answer for them, and it has to happen without blocking residents in.
Are you insured, and can I get a certificate?
Yes, and yes — ask and I'll send it. Ask every company you're considering for theirs as well. An uninsured crew working over a tenant's car or a leasing office roof is the property's problem, not the contractor's, and that is the single most expensive corner anybody cuts in this trade.
What does a maintenance agreement actually cover?
It's built around the property rather than a tree list. Typically: a walk of the whole site once or twice a year, deadwood out of anything overhanging a building, a walkway, a parking space or a play area, clearance pruning off roofs and signage, and the storm work when it comes. Scheduled in advance so it lands in a budget rather than an emergency.
How do you price it?
Per property, not per tree, once I've walked it. Acreage, canopy density, access and how much of the canopy sits over something that can be damaged are what move the number. A property where everything can be dropped in open grass costs a fraction of one where every limb comes out over parked cars.
What happens when a limb comes down at 11pm?
Call me. Storm work on a property I already know is far quicker than storm work on one I don't, because I've already seen the access, know where the problem trees are and don't need to be walked round in the dark. That is a real part of what an ongoing arrangement buys you.
Why does documentation matter so much on commercial property?
Because the exposure is rarely the tree — it's what was known about it. In Texas, a healthy tree that fails in a storm is generally treated as an act of God. A tree that was already dead or dangerous, where the owner knew or should have known, is negligence. A dated written assessment is the difference between those two outcomes, and it has to exist before the failure rather than after.
Want the property walked?
No charge and nothing owed. You get it in writing either way — and that document is worth having on file regardless of who does the work.
Same-day callback on estimates
Call or text before 5pm on a weekday and you'll hear back from me the same day. Not an answering service — me.