Florida's Tree Removal Law Is Not the Free Pass Everybody Thinks It Is

Somebody calls about a tree. Partway through, they tell me that Florida passed a law and they do not need a permit to take down a dangerous tree anymore, so they just need me to sign something. Sometimes a tree service already told them this. Sometimes a neighbor did.

The law is real. It is Section 163.045 of the Florida Statutes, and it came out of House Bill 1159 in 2019. But it is much narrower than the version of it that circulates by word of mouth, and I have watched people rely on the word of mouth version and end up with a code enforcement problem on top of the tree problem they started with.

So here is what it actually says.

In plain terms, the law stops a local government from requiring a notice, application, approval, permit, fee, or mitigation before a property owner removes a tree that presents a documented unacceptable risk. It also stops the local government from making that owner replant a tree removed under it.

That is a genuinely meaningful protection. Before it existed, a homeowner with a hazardous tree could be stuck waiting on a municipal review process for a tree they had every reason to want down immediately, and could be told to plant two more in its place. The law was written to solve that.

But it comes with two hard limits, and both of them get skipped in the retelling.

The statute does not say residential in the loose sense that most people use the word. It defines residential property specifically, as a single family detached building located on a lot that is actively used for single family residential purposes and that meets applicable zoning requirements.

Read that again if you manage anything larger, because that definition excludes a lot of property that people casually call residential.

This is the part worth sitting with. The properties where a tree failure is most likely to hurt somebody are apartment complexes, condo communities, HOA common areas, and commercial sites, because those are the places with mature trees standing over parking lots, walkways, playgrounds, and building entrances all day long. Those are exactly the properties the statute does not reach.

If you manage one of those, you are operating entirely under your local tree ordinance, and those ordinances are typically stricter for non-residential property than for a homeowner's back yard. In unincorporated Volusia County, for example, trees at 6 inches DBH and larger are protected on non-residential property including multifamily projects, mobile home parks, and subdivision common areas, removals run through a development permit, and replacement is calculated on the cross sectional area removed. Live oaks and bald cypress at 36 inches DBH and larger can be handled as historic trees needing committee approval.

That does not mean you cannot remove a hazardous tree. It means you go through a process, and it means you want a defensible arborist report supporting the request rather than an argument at the counter.

Even when a property does qualify, the law does not let an owner decide on their own that a tree is dangerous. It requires documentation from an arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture or a Florida licensed landscape architect.

And it names the standard that documentation has to be prepared under: the ISA Best Management Practices for Tree Risk Assessment. The finding has to be that the tree presents an unacceptable risk, and that removal is the only practical way to bring that risk below moderate.

That last clause does real work. It is not enough that a tree has some problem. If cabling and bracing, a crown reduction, deadwood removal, or moving what is underneath the tree would bring the risk down far enough, then removal is not the only practical option and the tree does not meet the standard. An arborist who signs off on removal for a tree that does not meet it is putting their certification behind a document that does not hold up.

There is also a practical point people miss: the statute exempts you from the permit, not from being right. If it turns out later that the tree did not meet the standard, the exemption you relied on was never there.

A few more boundaries, because these come up constantly.

If you own a single family home in Central Florida and you have a tree you genuinely believe is dangerous, get a proper assessment from an ISA Certified Arborist first. If it meets the standard, you get documentation prepared under the correct methodology, you keep a copy, and you proceed. If it does not meet the standard, you find that out before you have removed a protected tree without a permit, which is a far better outcome than finding out afterward.

If you manage anything other than a single family home, the statute is not your path. Get the assessment anyway, because a documented arborist finding is what supports a removal permit application, satisfies a reviewer, and gives you a record of when you looked and what you found. Then work through your jurisdiction. Every incorporated city administers its own tree code, so confirm whether the county or the city has authority over your specific parcel before you schedule anything.

One more thing worth saying plainly. I am an ISA Certified Arborist, not an attorney, and this article is general information rather than legal advice about your property. Ordinances change and jurisdictions differ. Verify with the authority having jurisdiction, and talk to counsel where the stakes justify it.

We do the assessment and the documentation across Seminole, Orange, Lake, and Volusia counties. That includes hazard and risk assessments on residential property, tree inventories and condition reports for apartment communities, HOAs, and commercial sites, and the arborist reporting that goes into permit applications and development review.

We will also tell you when a tree does not meet the standard. That is not us being difficult. A report that says what a client wants to hear is worth nothing the moment somebody actually reads it.