Arborist boundary tree report software
When a neighbour’s tree drops limbs, blocks light or lifts a driveway, the dispute often ends up in front of a tribunal with an arborist’s report in the evidence bundle. The report has to identify the tree, describe its health and structure, measure what it is doing to the neighbouring land, and say what pruning or removal would fix it without killing the tree. SurveyThanks captures each tree with its measurements and the damage it is alleged to cause.
Built for homeowners running teams of roughly 3–50 inspectors.
Sample Arborist boundary report
An illustrative excerpt. The site, readings and findings are fictional; the layout is yours to set.
Arborist boundary report
Tree T1 — Spotted gum, rear boundary of 3 Example Way
- Instructed by
- Owner of the neighbouring property (fictional)
- Assessment
- Visual tree assessment from both properties
- Date
- 8 April 2026
| Attribute | Observation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| DBH | 780 mm | Note: Measured |
| Health | Good vigour, full canopy | Note: Good |
| Structure | Included bark at the main union, 4 m | Note: Defect |
| Impact on neighbour | Root heave lifting the driveway by 30 mm | Note: Damage |
Fields captured on site
Your firm builds the form in-app, so these are a starting point rather than a fixed schema. Every field is captured on the device, with or without signal, and lands in the arborist boundary report where your template puts it.
Per tree
- Tree ID
- Species (botanical and common)
- DBH (mm)
- Height and canopy spread (m)
- Location relative to boundary
Assessment
- Health
- Structure and defects
- Tree protection zone (calculated)
- Damage to the neighbouring property
Recommendation
- Pruning, root pruning or removal
- Work specification
- Photos from both properties
Standards the report works to
- AS 4970Protection of trees on development sites
- The method for calculating the tree protection zone and structural root zone that root-pruning advice is based on.
- AS 4373-2007Pruning of amenity trees
- The pruning specification any recommended crown work is written to.
- Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006 (NSW)Applications to the Land and Environment Court
- The NSW framework under which such reports are commonly used; Queensland’s equivalent is the Neighbourhood Disputes (Dividing Fences and Trees) Act 2011.
Load the standards you hold into your reference library and the drafted prose is written against them rather than against a general model.
How the arborist boundary report gets built
Capture it once, offline
Your firm builds the boundary tree dispute report form in-app — 25 field types, nesting repeatable groups, compound AND/OR visibility rules, reusable modules and calculated fields. Field capture works with no signal: jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio all queue in an idempotent outbox that only clears once the server confirms receipt.
Link it to your rooms and external areas
Enter rooms and external areas once, as a register. Every one of your defects, photos and timber pest findings then points at a stored row rather than a name somebody typed — and the links survive a disconnected device.
Render your own template
The arborist boundary report renders into the Word template you already use — your letterhead, your section order, your clause library — with conditionals, loops over repeats, composable sub-templates and photo grids.
Reviewed before it leaves
You write the review framework: a checklist of what a arborist boundary report must contain, plus the prose standards you would mark a junior against. Link it to a report template and it runs every time that template renders. Each finding comes back graded info, minor or major, quoting the sentence at fault, and a person accepts or dismisses every one.
Because the structured submission behind the report is held too, the review is a comparison rather than a proofread: The summary says no major defects were found; the form carries a major structural defect on the rear wall.
Checks a residential property framework usually carries
- The standard’s required wording, limitations and exclusions are all present
- Every area is either reported on or listed as not accessed, with a reason
- Each defect in the summary appears in the body at the same severity
- Timber pest findings carry the risk statement the standard requires
Questions
- Can the tree protection zone be calculated on the form?
- Yes. A calculated field can derive the TPZ from the DBH you enter (12 × DBH under AS 4970), so the figure in the report always matches the measurement.
- Can one report cover several trees along the boundary?
- Each tree is a repeatable section with its own measurements and photos, and the report can loop over them in order with a summary table.
- Does the software identify the species from photos?
- No. The arborist records the species. Photos are attached for evidence; the drafting step works from the recorded answers.
What this is not
Worth knowing before you book a demo, so neither of us wastes the half hour.
- Not field-service dispatch. No timesheets, no parts, no inventory. Scheduling exists to get an inspector to a site.
- No signature capture. If your deliverable has to carry a signed sign-off on the artefact itself, this is not the tool yet.
- Field capture is what works offline — jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio. Reports, chat, scheduling and the inbox need a connection.
- No client portal. Reports go out as a file or a password-protected link.
Other residential property work we cover
- Meth residue testingContamination test report
- Mould inspectionsMould assessment report
- New-build handover inspectionsPCI defect report
- Owner-builder defect inspectionsDefect schedule
- Pre-auction inspectionsCondition summary report
- Pre-purchase building inspectionsBuilding inspection report
- Pre-settlement inspectionsSettlement checklist report
- Property photography ordersPhoto floorplan package
Other disciplines
Rebuild your arborist boundary report in SurveyThanks
Bring the Word template you already send clients. If you are coming off another field-forms tool, a filled report can be uploaded, read field by field, and re-rendered into your template.