Warranties on tree work in Victoria, and what to do if it fails.
There is no arborist licence in Victoria and no builder’s warranty insurance on a tree job. You have three layers instead: a written workmanship warranty, normally 12 months; the contractor’s public liability policy, which is where $20 million matters, for anything damaged on the day; and the Australian Consumer Law guarantees, which no contract can exclude and which in Victoria you generally have six years to enforce. Put any defect in writing inside 7 days.
What is covered, by whom, and for how long.
Three separate things get called “the warranty” and they behave completely differently. Product warranty barely exists on a tree job. Workmanship warranty is what the contractor writes. The statutory guarantees sit underneath both and cannot be signed away.
| What is covered | Who carries it | How long | What triggers a claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pruning cuts made to AS 4373 | Contractor, under a written workmanship warranty | Typically 12 months | A flush cut into the branch collar, a stub left proud, torn bark on a limb over 50mm that was not three cut |
| Stump ground to the quoted depth | Contractor workmanship warranty | Typically 12 months on the depth spec | Ground shallower than quoted, grindings not backfilled or carted as agreed. Settlement of 30 to 60mm over a wet winter is normal, not a defect. |
| Damage to your lawn, path, fence, roof, car, pipes | Contractor's public liability insurance | Notify the same day. The insurer's own timeframes then apply. | Ruts from a 6 tonne truck, a cracked path, a smashed gutter, a punctured irrigation line |
| Damage to the neighbour's property | The contractor's public liability, not your home policy, provided the contractor is genuinely insured | Notify the same day | A limb over the fence, a rope burn on their pergola. If the contractor is uninsured this can land on you. |
| Injury to a worker on your land | Contractor's WorkCover | At the time of the injury | Any injury on site. Never let an uninsured crew climb on your property. |
| Survival of a tree you had pruned | Generally nobody. Tree health is biological. | Not warranted as a rule | Only arguable where the cut breached AS 4373, or more than about a quarter of live canopy came off in one season, and that caused the decline |
| A newly planted replacement tree | Nursery or planting establishment guarantee | 3 to 12 months, conditional on documented watering | Death inside the window. Keep your watering record or the guarantee is worthless. |
| Accuracy of an arborist report | Professional indemnity insurance, if the arborist carries it. Many do not. | The policy period, usually on a claims made basis | A report that missed an obvious structural defect. Ask about PI before you commission a report. |
| Due care and skill, fit for purpose, within a reasonable time | Australian Consumer Law statutory guarantees. Cannot be excluded, restricted or modified by any contract term. | In Victoria a contract or negligence claim generally must be brought within six years | Any failure. A major failure lets you cancel and claim compensation; a minor failure lets the supplier choose to fix it first. |
| The legality of the removal itself | The landowner is liable to Council. The contractor is liable to you under the contract if they said the permit was in hand. | Council enforcement timeframes, not consumer law | Cutting a protected tree without a permit. See our Cardinia permit page. |
The escalation steps, in order, with the timeframe for each.
| Step | When | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Raise it before the truck leaves | Day 0 | Walk the site with the crew leader, photograph everything including the neighbour's side, and say it out loud on the day. Nine disputes in ten die here. |
| 2. Written defect notice | Within 7 days | Email, not a phone call, so there is a timestamp. Address, date, quote number, the defect described plainly, photos attached, the part of the scope it fails, and what you want done. |
| 3. Allow a reasonable time to rectify | 14 to 21 days from the notice | Give access, in writing. If you refuse them the chance to fix it, you weaken your own position later. |
| 4. Property damage: go to the insurer | Within days of the damage | Ask for the public liability insurer's name and policy number and lodge directly. This is a separate track from the workmanship dispute and runs in parallel. |
| 5. Consumer Affairs Victoria | From about 30 days after the defect notice | Free conciliation. They will expect to see that you tried to resolve it directly first, which is exactly what steps 2 and 3 evidence. Allow several weeks. |
| 6. VCAT civil claims | If conciliation fails | Lodge in the civil claims list. Application fees are banded by the size of the claim and the small claims band is inexpensive; check the current VCAT fee schedule rather than trusting a figure you read anywhere. |
| 7. Unpermitted removal of a protected tree | Any time | Report to Cardinia Shire. This is enforcement, not a consumer dispute, and it will not get your tree back. It can result in an infringement and a replanting order. |
Ask us for the certificate of currency before you book anyone.
$20 million public liability, WorkCover, Cert IV climbers. We send it with every quote without being asked.
Which law actually applies to a Victorian tree job.
The one that always applies is the Australian Consumer Law, which sits as a schedule to the Competition and Consumer Act. It guarantees that services are supplied with due care and skill, are fit for the purpose you told the trader about, and are supplied within a reasonable time. Those guarantees cannot be excluded, restricted or modified, so a line in a quote saying “no warranty on tree work” is not worth the paper. The remedy depends on severity: a major failure lets you cancel and claim compensation, a minor one lets the supplier choose to repair it first.
The one people expect and do not get is Victoria’s domestic building framework. The Domestic Building Contracts Act and the domestic building insurance required above a set contract value cover domestic building work. Tree removal, pruning and stump grinding standing alone are not usually domestic building work, so those implied warranties and that insurance scheme generally are not what protects your tree job. If tree clearing is written into a building contract as part of site preparation, the position can change, and that is worth a question to your builder rather than an assumption.
Then there is safety law rather than consumer law. WorkSafe Victoria administers the occupational health and safety framework that governs how tree work is done: risk assessment, exclusion zones, rescue planning for a climber, and minimum approach distances to overhead powerlines under the no go zone framework, where only crews holding the specific line clearance qualification may work closer. We will not quote a distance here because getting it wrong is fatal. Ask the crew to show you the qualification, and if any part of the job is near a wire, treat that as the first question rather than the last.
Finally, there is no arborist licence in Victoria. Anyone can buy a chainsaw and print a business card. The things that actually mean something are the AQF arboriculture qualification, Working at Heights, the EWP licence, current chainsaw tickets, $20 million public liability and WorkCover. That is the whole list, and it is a short enough list to check in one phone call.
What to keep, and how to tell a defect from fair wear.
Keep six documents in one folder for at least six years, matching the Victorian limitation period. The written quote with the scope spelled out. The Council permit number if the tree was protected. The certificate of currency for public liability, dated so it covers your job week rather than last financial year. Before and after photos, taken on your phone so the date sits in the file. The tax invoice showing the ABN. And any variation agreed on the day, confirmed by text or email before the crew acts on it. That folder is the whole ball game if anything is ever argued.
The defect versus fair wear line trips people up, so here is the plain version. Fair wear and normal biology: epicormic regrowth on a gum after a legitimate crown reduction; root suckers from a ground out elm, poplar or robinia where you did not pay for the laterals to be chased; grindings settling 30 to 60mm over the first wet winter; yellowed lawn where the chip truck sat in July, if that was flagged at quote stage. Genuine defects: a cut made flush into the branch collar so the tree cannot compartmentalise; a stub left proud that will die back into the trunk; torn bark down the stem because a limb over 50mm was cut in one pass instead of three; a stump ground to 80mm when the quote said 150mm; damage to a fence or a path that was not disclosed before the crew left.
The honest summary is unglamorous: almost every dispute we have ever seen or been asked about traces back to a scope that was never written down. “Tidy up the gum” means one thing to the person paying and another to the person climbing. A quote that names the tree, the species, the work, the depth of the stump grind, what leaves the property and what stays is worth more than any warranty clause, because it stops the argument from existing.
Our own honest constraint: we do not warrant that a pruned tree will live. No competent arborist does, and anyone who does is telling you something they cannot know. What we will do is tell you before we start when a tree is past the point where pruning helps, and quote removal instead of taking your money twice. If you want that judgement in writing before you commit, ask for a hazardous tree assessment or a formal arborist report.
Get a quote with the scope and the insurance attached
Send the details and we will email a fixed written quote, our certificate of currency and the workmanship warranty terms together within 2 to 5 working days.
Warranty questions from Victorian homeowners.
Do arborists need a licence in Victoria?
How long is a tree work warranty in Victoria?
Does Victoria's domestic building insurance cover tree removal?
What should a defect notice for tree work say?
Is regrowth after pruning a defect or normal?
Who do I complain to about tree work in Victoria?
Related reading: 2026 pricing guide · neighbour tree disputes in Cardinia · what happens on removal day · budget tree removal
A written scope up front beats a warranty argument later.
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