Washington tree service marketing for windstorm weeks, Seattle's notice rule and your L&I number

Inside Seattle, a tree company needs a city listing before it works, and most jobs need a public notice days ahead. An ad promising removal tomorrow in Ballard sets up a crew to break the city's code.

SDCI keeps a Tree Service Provider Registry/trees-and-codes). A listed company keeps at least one ISA Certified Arborist on staff or on retainer and holds a current Seattle business license. Working while that arborist's certification has lapsed is itself a violation. The city's Director's Rule 10-2023 sets the penalty for breaking the registry section at $5,000.

Timing is the part ads get wrong. SDCI's tree public notice tip wants the notice in at least three full business days before reportable work. For removing a tree 6 inches or more in diameter, it is six. The notice is free. A copy also goes up at the site where the street can see it, and stays for five days after the job.

What that changes in your marketing:

• Quote the earliest legal start. A Seattle removal page and the booking reply count the posting period before naming a date. "We can cut on the 14th" beats "same week" that you then have to walk back.
• Show the listing. Put the registry status and the arborist's certification on the Seattle page, where an owner comparing three bids will look for them.
• Treat the posted notice as a sign. Neighbors read it while your crew works. Make sure the company name on it matches the one on your Google profile.

Storm work still counts. Emergency removals skip the advance approval, but the crew doing them must still meet the registry rules, as SDCI's 2023 tree code summary explains.

A Washington tree quote carries a tax line that owners from other states often miss. Pruning and removal for a homeowner are retail sales here, so the tax applies to the labor as well.

The Department of Revenue's landscaping and horticultural guide says retail sales tax is due on these services for homeowners and commercial clients. The rate is the one where the work is done. Its rule covers trimming for size, shape or looks, diseased branches and limbs grown too close to a house.

Two exceptions shape marketing:

• Orchards being replanted. DOR's orchard removal notice treats pulling trees or stumps for a farmer who is replanting as a horticultural service, with no sales tax. The grower documents the purpose and keeps the papers five years. A crew around Yakima can build a grower page on exactly that.
• Line clearance for a utility. Trimming done for an electric utility to keep its lines clear is outside retail sales, by DOR's utility clearance page.

On the website, a "from" price reads as before tax, and every quote shows tax on its own line. For a job that sits near either exception, ask DOR before quoting it as tax-free.

Washington adds its own texting and recording rules on top of federal law. A crew that texts last winter's customers about pruning needs their consent on file first.

• Marketing texts. The commercial text law asks for clear, affirmative consent given in advance, with no carve-out for past customers. Each unwanted message can cost $100 or actual damages, whichever is greater, under the damages section. Put a consent box on the estimate form and keep the record.
• Recorded calls. Everyone on the line has to agree. Saying at the start that the call is recorded works, as long as that statement is captured on the recording too, under the recording law. Call tracking gets that line at the start.
• Outbound sales calls. Calls ring no earlier than 8 a.m. and no later than 8 p.m. The caller gives a name, the company and the reason within 30 seconds, under the telephone solicitation law. Calls to someone who hired you in the prior 12 months, about that work, are excluded.
• Recorded or AI-voiced sales calls. An autodialed recorded pitch is barred even when it lands in voicemail, under the robocall law.

Job updates and arrival texts that sell nothing are a different case from promotions, so keep the two lists apart. Not legal advice; confirm with counsel.