When a tree job goes wrong, with a limb through the neighbor’s porch or a worker hurt in your yard, the question of who pays comes down to paperwork. Four checks cover most of it: the county license, the arborist’s number if there is one, the insurance, and the contract.
Look up the county license
Both Long Island counties license tree companies as home improvement contractors.
- Nassau: the Office of Consumer Affairs lists “tree surgery” among the work that needs a home improvement license. Search the company name or license number in the Nassau County license lookup.
- Suffolk: the County Code definition of home improvement, as quoted by a state court in 2013, includes “tree pruners, tree stump removers and all other tree services.” Use Search Licensed Contractors or call Suffolk Consumer Affairs at 631-853-4600.
Make sure the name on the license matches the name on the truck and the estimate. The Town of Huntington’s permit application asks for the company’s Suffolk County home improvement license number, so a company without one may not be able to get your permit.
Verify the arborist, if they say they have one
ISA certification belongs to a person, not a company. Ask for the arborist’s full name and certification number and search it in ISA’s Find an Arborist directory. ISA says to search by name or ID, because the search by area only shows people who added their location. The arborist page explains what the credential means.
Confirm insurance with the insurer
A certificate handed to you can be out of date. ISA’s advice is to ask for proof of insurance and then call the insurance company to confirm it. Ask about two policies:
- Liability, which pays if the crew damages your house, your car or a neighbor’s property.
- Workers’ compensation, which covers the crew if someone is hurt on your property. Look the company up in the Workers’ Compensation Board’s free Does Employer Have Coverage? search. The Board says a sole proprietor with no employees does not need it, so a one-person company may legitimately have none.
The Town of Huntington’s form spells out who carries this burden: making sure the company is insured is the applicant’s job, and the town does not verify it.
Get the contract in writing
The New York Attorney General’s home improvement fact sheet covers jobs over $500. It says the contract must be in writing, in plain English, and handed to you before work starts. It should include:
- the company’s name, address and phone number
- approximate start and finish dates
- a specific description of the work, which for a tree job means which trees, the stump, and the cleanup
- the price
You can cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing, in writing. Money paid before the job is substantially done has to go into an escrow account in a New York bank within five business days, and the company has to tell you where within ten, unless it posts a bond instead. The Attorney General also says never to pay the full price up front, and to hold the final payment until the work is finished.
Red flags
- Door-to-door bargains. ISA’s hiring brochure tells homeowners to be careful with people who come to the door offering a deal.
- An offer to top the tree. Cutting a tree back to stubs is a practice ISA calls harmful. See tree trimming for what a proper trim looks like.
- No license number, or a number that belongs to a different business name.
- Cash only, all up front.
- No answer on who pulls the permit, when your town or village requires one.
- The lowest bid with the least detail. ISA says not to take the lowest bid automatically, and to compare credentials and written specifications.
The three lines on our company cards
Every company card on this site has three lines: county license, ISA Certified Arborist, and insurance. A line says “checked” only after the license or certification turned up on the issuing body’s public lookup, or the insurance certificate was confirmed. Until then it says “not checked yet,” which means exactly that and nothing worse. As of October 2026 none of the companies listed has been checked yet, so run these lookups yourself before you sign.