How to check a tree service license in Washington

The short answer

Why a tree service needs L&I registration

Chapter 18.27 RCW is the contractor registration law. Its definition of a contractor is broad, covering anyone who for compensation builds, alters, repairs or demolishes a structure or project, and the legislature added tree removal services to the list explicitly. A general contractor is one whose work needs more than one building trade on a job; a specialty contractor is everyone else, and may subcontract only work incidental to its specialty. Most tree companies register as specialty contractors, which sets their bond at $15,000.

Registration is not a competency test. L&I’s registration page describes the process as proof of bond and insurance plus a fee, after which the business “can bid, advertise, and perform construction work.” There is no exam for tree removal, no required arborist credential, and no inspection of equipment. The L&I page checked does not say whether a pruning-only business that never removes a tree must register; ask L&I’s contractor information line (1-800-647-0982) before treating a pruning crew as exempt.

Pruning and removal companies are also subject to the same workers’ compensation and safety rules as any other employer, which is why the Verify tool shows an L&I workers’ comp account and a safety-violation history alongside the registration.

Step by step: the Verify a Contractor tool

1. Get the exact business name or number. Ask for the L&I contractor registration number or the UBI from the bid. A name alone can return several similar businesses.
2. Open secure.lni.wa.gov/verify and search by name, license number, UBI or workers’ comp account number.
3. Check the registration status and dates. “Active” with a current expiration is the baseline. Note the specialty listed and whether it matches tree work.
4. Check the bond. The record shows the bond amount and surety. A specialty contractor’s bond is $15,000; if it shows $30,000 the business registered as a general contractor.
5. Check the insurance. The record shows the carrier, policy number and expiration. The statutory floor is low (see below), so a tree company with only the minimum is a prompt to ask for a certificate of insurance.
6. Check workers’ comp. An active, paid-to-date account means employees on your property are covered. Some owner-operators with no employees legitimately have no account; ask who will be on the crew.
7. Read the lawsuits and violations. Suits against the bond and safety citations appear here. One old citation is common in tree work; a pattern is not.

Do the lookup before the first visit, and again the day before the job if more than a month has passed, since bonds and policies lapse mid-year and the record updates when they do.

What registration does not guarantee

L&I’s own consumer page puts it this way: “Hiring a registered contractor doesn’t guarantee that problems won’t happen, but it may give you protections that aren’t available otherwise.” The protections are the bond, the insurance, and access to L&I’s complaint and recovery processes. The gaps matter on a tree job:

• The bond is small. $15,000 covers one contract dispute on a mid-sized removal, and it is shared with every other claimant against that contractor that year. RCW 18.27.040 caps the surety’s total exposure at the face amount of the bond.
• The insurance floor is low for tree work. RCW 18.27.050 requires $50,000 for property damage and $100,000 per person / $200,000 per occurrence for injury; L&I states this as $200,000 public liability and $50,000 property damage, or a $250,000 combined single limit. A limb through a roof and a car can exceed $50,000. By comparison, Seattle’s Tree Service Provider registry requires $1,000,000 in commercial general liability with the City as additional insured.
• No arboricultural standard. Nothing in chapter 18.27 RCW stops a registered contractor from topping a tree or spiking a pruned one. For pruning advice and species knowledge, the credential to look for is an ISA Certified Arborist; see the arborist hub.
• No line-clearance qualification. Registration says nothing about whether anyone on the crew may work within 10 feet of a power line (see below).

Checking a certificate of insurance

The Verify record tells you a policy exists; a certificate of insurance (COI) tells you what it covers. Ask the company to have its insurance agent send the COI to you directly, with you named as certificate holder, and read four lines on it:

• General liability limits. Per-occurrence and aggregate. For a removal within reach of a house, $1,000,000 per occurrence is the figure Seattle uses as its registry floor and is a reasonable benchmark anywhere in the state.
• Operations described. The COI should describe tree removal or tree care, not “landscaping” alone; ask the agent in writing whether tree removal and crane work are covered operations.
• Workers’ compensation. For most Washington employers this is an L&I account rather than a private policy, so cross-check it in the Verify tool instead of relying on the COI.
• Dates and the agent’s phone number. Call the agent to confirm the policy is in force on the job date. A COI is a snapshot, not a guarantee the premium was paid last month.

If a crane or a bucket truck is coming, ask whether the crane operator is the tree company’s employee or a subcontractor, and get the subcontractor’s registration and COI too. The tree removal cost in Washington guide explains why crane days are priced separately.

ISA Certified Arborist lookup

The International Society of Arboriculture keeps a public directory of credential holders at treesaregood.org/findanarborist, with certificate verification at certificates.directory.isa-arbor.com. Search by name or location, and check that the credential is current and that it is the one you need: ISA Certified Arborist for general tree care, Board Certified Master Arborist for the top tier, and the Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ) for written risk assessments. Seattle requires a TRAQ holder for any hazard-tree assessment on private property, and Shoreline and Redmond want an arborist’s assessment for hazard exemptions, so the credential has permit consequences as well as quality ones. The tree risk assessment page describes what a TRAQ report contains.

ISA certification is held by a person, not a company. A business that advertises “certified arborists” should be able to name the individual and their certification number, and that person should be the one who looks at your tree, not only the one who signs the invoice.

Work near power lines: WAC 296-45

Washington’s electrical worker safety rules decide who may cut near a line. WAC 296-45-035 defines line-clearance tree trimming as pruning, trimming, repairing, maintaining, removing or clearing trees or brush within 10 feet (3.05 meters) of electric supply lines and equipment up to 50 kilovolts, with the distance growing 4 inches for every 10 kV above that, and defines a line-clearance tree trimmer as an employee who, through training or on-the-job experience or both, is familiar with the special techniques and hazards of that work. WAC 296-45-455 adds that a trimmer approaching closer than 10 feet to a conductor over 600 volts needs a second trimmer within voice range, must keep the minimum approach distances in WAC 296-45-325, and must stop in adverse weather. For everyone else, WAC 296-24-960(6) keeps unqualified people, and anything they hold, at least 10 feet from unguarded overhead lines up to 50 kV.

So if any part of the tree is within 10 feet of a line, ask the company directly whether it employs line-clearance tree trimmers and who the second trimmer will be. Many residential crews do not, and the right answer is often a call to the utility, which trims around its own primary lines at no charge and can disconnect a service drop so a crew can work: Puget Sound Energy needs at least five business days’ notice for a disconnect, Avista three. The tree removal near power lines guide and the Puget Sound Energy tree trimming page cover the utility side.

City registrations on top of L&I

A few Washington cities add their own layer. Seattle requires any company paid to remove a tree of 6 inches DSH or more, or to cut live branches 4 inches and up, to be on SDCI’s Tree Service Provider registry (SMC 25.11.100), which demands an L&I general contractor number, a Seattle business license, $1,000,000 in general liability, an ISA Certified Arborist on staff or retainer and TRAQ for hazard work; the public directory is at seattle.gov/trees/service-providers. Spokane requires an ISA Certified Arborist holding its Commercial Tree License for work on street and park trees (SMC 12.02.960). Walla Walla licenses Tree Care Specialists for major work on street trees of 6 inches and up, at $50 initially and $25 to renew, requiring a state contractor registration, liability insurance and ISA or NAA certification (WWMC 12.49.080). Yakima requires state licenses plus a city business license for anyone pruning or removing public trees (YMC 8.77.200). Whether your own tree needs a permit at all is covered in tree removal permits in Washington.

Red flags

• No registration number on the bid or website. RCW 18.27.100(3)(a) requires any advertising that shows the contractor’s name or address to display the current registration number, with penalties up to $10,000 for violations under subsection (8); its absence is the single most reliable warning sign.
• The words “licensed” and “insured” with nothing behind them. The claim costs nothing; a Verify record and a COI from the agent cost two minutes.
• A door knock after a windstorm with a cash price and a chainsaw already running. L&I’s consumer pages warn about scams and ask you to report unregistered contracting at 1-888-811-5974 or online.
• Full payment up front, or a demand for cash. A deposit tied to a crane booking is normal; the whole job before a cut is not.
• No written contract. L&I’s advice for any contractor is at least three written bids, references, and a written contract with clear terms, with a performance bond considered for large projects.
• Asking you to pull the permit or to sign that no permit is needed, in a city where the Verify record shows the business has no Seattle registry listing or the tree is clearly regulated.
• Topping offered as a service. Seattle bans topping of park and right-of-way trees outright, and Mount Vernon makes it unlawful in the right-of-way (MVMC 12.28); a crew that sells it as maintenance is telling you something.

Complaints, bond claims and the recovery fund

If a registered tree company damages your property or walks off a job, three routes exist, and the deadlines are short.

Suit against the bond. Under RCW 18.27.040(3) a residential homeowner sues for breach of contract or damages by filing a summons and complaint with the clerk of the appropriate superior court, naming the contractor and the surety, within two years from the date the contract work was substantially completed or abandoned. Anyone else (a subcontractor, a supplier, a non-resident owner) has one year. Service is exclusively on L&I: three copies of the summons and complaint plus a fee set by rule of not less than $50, sent by registered or certified mail, which gives the court jurisdiction over both the contractor and the surety. If several claims hit the same bond, subsection (4) pays employee wage claims first, then breach-of-contract claims by parties to the construction contract, then subcontractors and suppliers, then state taxes, then court costs, and claimants other than residential homeowners share no more than half the bond. The surety is never liable for more than the face amount.

Homeowner Recovery Fund. If you win a superior court judgment against a registered contractor and the bond does not cover your loss, L&I’s Homeowner Recovery Fund can pay up to $25,000, depending on available funds, to the owner-occupant of a single-family home or a building of four or fewer units (condominiums excluded). The judgment must be entered after July 1, 2026, and the application is due within 90 days after the case ends, with a certified copy of the judgment, proof of residency and the bond documentation; L&I reviews in about 14 business days and pays in waitlist order (360-902-5699, HRF@Lni.wa.gov).

Reporting and small claims. Unregistered contracting is reported to L&I’s fraud line (1-888-811-5974) or online at secure.lni.wa.gov/reportcontractorfraud. For a money claim against the business itself rather than the bond, small claims court takes claims up to $10,000 for an individual (RCW 12.40.010). If a crew damaged a neighbor’s tree or fence while working on yours, the Washington neighbor tree law guide explains who is liable for what.

The two-minute check

1. Verify record active, bond and insurance current, workers’ comp paid, no pattern of bond suits.
2. COI from the agent, $1,000,000 general liability benchmark, tree work named as a covered operation.
3. ISA credential number for the person assessing the tree; TRAQ if a hazard letter is needed.
4. Within 10 feet of a line: line-clearance trimmers on the crew, or the utility called first.
5. In Seattle: on the SDCI registry; in Spokane, Walla Walla or Yakima: the city license for public trees.
6. Written contract with scope, cleanup, stump and debris terms, and a start date.

None of this takes long, and the Washington tree services hub lists the permit, insurance and utility pages that go with it.