Terms of Service

1. About these terms

TreeBay (“we”, “us”, “our”) is an online classifieds site for arborists, tree surgeons and forestry professionals in the United Kingdom. By using our website at treebay.uk (the “Site”) you agree to these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.

TreeBay is run by Treebay Trade Limited, trading as TreeBay (private limited company registered in England and Wales, company number 17498951), registered office 20 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU.

You can contact us at hello@treebay.uk.

2. Who can use TreeBay

You must be at least 18 years old to use TreeBay. The first time you list, message, post or register a tip site, we ask you to confirm you're 18 or over. By using an account, you confirm that:

• You are at least 18 years of age.
• You are legally capable of entering into binding contracts under English law.
• All information you provide during registration and listing creation is accurate, current and complete.

If we find that an account belongs to someone under 18, we'll close it and delete their details.

2a. How TreeBay works

TreeBay is a classifieds site. We do not buy, sell or take ownership of anything listed. Sellers list; buyers contact sellers. You deal directly with the other person.

• We are not a party to the deal: we are not a party to any sale, hire, lease, job, course booking or other agreement made between users.
• No guarantee of listings: we do not guarantee the condition, authenticity, legality, ownership or fitness for purpose of anything listed.
• No buyer protection or escrow: we do not hold payments between users, refund money paid between users, or guarantee any deal. We can remove listings, and restrict or close accounts, that break these Terms.
• Your own checks: buyers should inspect items before paying, check who they are dealing with, and check certificates and serial numbers. Sellers are responsible for the accuracy and legality of what they list.

How listings are ordered. In search results, category pages and Jobs:

1. Featured listings come first, marked “Featured”, and among them Premium job adverts come first. A listing is Featured through the Featured upgrade or a referral credit, and Plus and Premium job adverts are Featured (section 4.4). They come first because that's what Featured is: the seller chooses it to be seen first.
2. Then the closest matches to your search. When you search for words, listings with your words in their title, description or place come first, then listings that match only in their details (such as make, model or company), then close spellings of your words. A closer match is more likely to be what you're looking for.
3. Then the order you choose: newest first, unless you choose price (listings with no price come last) or nearest first (listings we can't place come last). Newest first is the default so that new listings get seen.

If two listings are level after these steps, the newer one comes first. Filters such as category, price range and distance only narrow the results. Nothing else changes the order: not who the seller is, whether they sell as a business or privately, whether they paid a listing fee, or how many views or messages a listing has. On the home page, Featured listings and the latest listings have separate sections, each newest first.

3. Your account

To list, message sellers or register a tip site, you need an account. Keep access to your email account secure — it is how you sign in — and tell us straight away if you think someone else has used your TreeBay account.

3.1 Seller checks

Before publishing or taking payment for a listing, we may ask a seller for:

• Proof of identity (for example, government-issued photo ID).
• Business details, if you list as a limited company or sole trader (Companies House number, trading name, registered address).
• A VAT number, if you are VAT-registered and selling in the course of business.
• Evidence of trade qualifications where a listing relies on them (for example, NPTC certificates for training providers).

If you're VAT-registered and add VAT to your price, tick “Price is plus VAT”. If you sell to consumers, your price must include VAT.

We may restrict or close the accounts of sellers, and remove their listings, if they fail these checks, give inaccurate information, or break these Terms. We may apply checks selectively (for example by category, listing value or risk) and may change them over time.

4. Listings, fees and tip sites

4.1 Categories

You can list in these categories. Every listing must relate to arboriculture, forestry or tree surgery.

• Machines, Plant, Kit & Workwear
• Vehicles & Tractors
• Subcontracting & Day Rates
• Jobs & Careers
• Training & Courses
• Land & Commercial Property
• Leasing & Long Term Rentals
• Logs, Timber & Firewood

4.2 What a listing must be

Everything you list must:

• Be accurate and not misleading.
• Not infringe anyone else's intellectual property.
• Not contain offensive, defamatory or illegal content.
• Comply with UK law.
• Describe condition, provenance and history honestly where they matter.

Also:

• Job and training adverts: if the job, apprenticeship or course is open to under-18s, say so and say how to apply outside TreeBay. If you employ or train young people, you're responsible for following the law that protects them, including a risk assessment for young workers. Every job advert must be for paid work: a trial shift must be paid at least the minimum wage, though a short interview or skills test can be unpaid. Say whether you'll ask the person you hire to pay back training costs if they leave, and if so, the terms.
• Knives, axes, billhooks, machetes and other bladed tools: you may sell them only to someone aged 18 or over, and only by handing them over in person. Don't post them or send them by courier. If the buyer looks under 25, ask to see photo ID, and don't sell if you're not sure they're 18 or over.
• You must own what you list, or have the right to sell it. We may ask you for proof. We pass information about suspected stolen goods to the police.
• Firewood: if you sell firewood in England, wood sold in bags or loads under 2 m³ each must be certified Ready to Burn, and for larger loads you must give the buyer the notice on how to dry it. This applies to wood sold for burning in homes. Only list timber that was felled legally. In England, don't deliver firewood or other wood fuel to a home in a smoke control area unless you've good reason to think it has an approved stove.
• Personal climbing and rigging kit (harnesses, ropes, lanyards, slings, karabiners, lowering devices): say how old it is and give its inspection history.
• Hire: if you hire out equipment to an individual, sole trader or small partnership on terms that can last more than 3 months, you may need authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority for consumer hire.
• Subcontracting: list only your own work, or your own business's people and machines. Supplying other workers for a fee is not allowed in this category.
• Land and property: only list land or property you own, or that you're authorised to sell or let. Agents must meet their own legal duties.

4.3 What you can't list

• Stolen property or anything obtained illegally.
• Items that don't meet UK safety standards (for example, chainsaws without chain brakes).
• Counterfeit or replica equipment presented as genuine.
• Items that don't fit one of our listing categories.
• Weapons, and any knife or bladed article that is illegal to sell in the UK (for example flick knives, butterfly knives, zombie-style knives and disguised knives).
• Any knife, axe or tool described or pictured as suitable for combat, fighting or self-defence, or in a way that suggests violence.
• Explosives and fireworks.
• Pesticides, weedkillers (including stump killers), fumigants and other poisons, stump removers, nitrate fertilisers, and any other chemical on the Home Office's lists of explosives precursors and poisons.
• Firewood that breaks the Ready to Burn rules, or timber that wasn't felled legally.
• Personal climbing or rigging kit (harnesses, ropes, lanyards, slings, karabiners, lowering devices) that has failed an inspection or is past its maker's lifespan.
• Land or property you don't own and aren't authorised to sell or let.
• Controlled substances, or anything else prohibited under UK law.

Selling a vehicle: say if there is finance outstanding on it, if it has been recorded as an insurance write-off (and its category), and if you know the mileage is wrong or can't be verified. Only list a vehicle for road use if it's roadworthy. Otherwise, say “not roadworthy: for spares or repair, not for road use”.

4.4 Listing fees

All prices are in pounds sterling and are the total you pay — nothing is added at checkout. You see any fee before you pay, and it is set by the listing's category and asking price. We take no commission on anything you sell.

What a listing costs depends on its category:

Where the fee is set by the asking price:

If you tick “Price is plus VAT”, the asking price is the price you type, before VAT.

For Subcontracting, the day rate counts as the asking price, and a listing without a day rate is free. The fee is paid once for the listing, not for each day.

Your first one free. The first listing you would otherwise pay a listing fee for is free: one per member, in any category, from 11 October 2026. That's a listing with an asking price (or, for Subcontracting, a day rate) of £1,000 or more. Listings under £1,000 or with no price don't use it up, and neither does a job advert (each employer's first Standard advert is free anyway, see Job adverts below). It doesn't cover Featured. If you delete the free listing before it ever goes live, you can use it again. It's one per person: if one person uses more than one account to get more than one free listing, we may take the extra listings down unless the normal fee is paid.

If you raise the asking price of an unpaid listing while a payment for it is going through, and the new price has a higher fee, the listing stays a draft until you pay the difference. What you have already paid counts towards the new fee.

Job adverts. Every job advert runs for 60 days. When you post one you choose a plan:

• Standard

  Price

  £50

  What it adds

  Your advert in Jobs and search, and in members’ daily job alerts when it matches their saved searches

• Plus

  Price

  £75

  What it adds

  Featured for the whole run, your logo on its card in results

• Premium

  Price

  £100

  What it adds

  Everything in Plus, shown above Plus and Standard adverts in Jobs and search results

The price shown is the full price; nothing is added at checkout. Each is a one-off payment, and nothing renews. A job advert ends after 60 days. It isn't kept or relisted for free: posting it again is a new advert, on the plan you choose. While an advert runs you can move it to a higher plan by paying the difference; its end date stays the same. Plus and Premium adverts are Featured for their whole run, so the separate Featured upgrade isn't available for job adverts.

First job advert free. Each account's first job advert is free on the Standard plan, if the account has never had a job advert go live on TreeBay. You can move it to Plus or Premium by paying the difference. It's one free advert per employer. We check this using the account and signals from the device and internet connection used, and if one employer uses more than one account to get more than one free advert, we may take the extra adverts down unless the normal price is paid.

Job adverts that went live before 1 October 2026 keep the terms they were posted under. Job adverts and plan upgrades paid for before 2 October 2026 keep the 14-day full refund they were sold with.

To post a job advert you need an organisation profile. It's shown on your job adverts.

Featured upgrade — £4.99 per listing. A Featured listing is shown above standard listings in search results and category pages and is marked “Featured”, for as long as the listing stays live. Only a live listing can be featured, and it can be a free listing. Job adverts are Featured through the Plus and Premium plans instead.

Referral credits. You can earn a referral credit when someone joins TreeBay through your referral link, or names you as the member who told them about it, and their first listing goes live. That's one credit for each new member, and up to 10 credits in a calendar month, and 120 in any run of 12 calendar months. A credit lasts 12 months from when you earn it. You can use it either for a Featured upgrade on one of your live listings, or so that one listing pays no listing fee, whatever its price band. Credits don't cover job adverts, have no cash value and can't be transferred. If you post your link publicly, say that you get a credit if people join through it. Accounts that pay no fees don't earn them. We check referrals: we may hold a credit while a person checks it, refuse a referral (for example, your own second account), and take back an unused credit if the listing that earned it is removed for breaking these Terms within 30 days. We may remove a member from the scheme for misusing it. We may change or end the scheme for future referrals by giving 30 days' notice on your Referrals page and here. Credits you've already earned stay usable until they expire.

Accounts with different fees. Some accounts have different fees by agreement with us. Where they do, we give those terms to the account holder directly, and they form part of these Terms for that account.

Changes to fees. We may change the fees for new listings and upgrades by updating this page. A change never affects a fee you have already paid.

The Pricing page explains these fees in plain English.

4.5 Cancelling a listing fee or Featured upgrade

• For listing fees (except job adverts) and Featured upgrades: if you're selling as a business, the fee isn't refundable once your listing is live or Featured. If you're selling as a private individual, you can cancel by the end of the 14th day after you pay, and we refund the fee less 1/30 of it for each day your listing was live (or Featured) before you told us. We use 30 days only to work out that share: your listing and any Featured placement aren't limited to 30 days. When we refund a listing fee, the listing comes off TreeBay; when we refund a Featured upgrade, the listing goes back to standard placement. Listing fees and Featured upgrades paid for before 2 October 2026 keep the 14-day full refund they were sold with.
• Job adverts. Job adverts and plan upgrades bought for a business aren't refundable once the advert is live. We refund in full if a fault on our side stops it going live or a payment reaches us that we didn't need. If you're posting as a private individual, not for a business, you can cancel within 14 days of paying, and we refund the price less 1/60 for each day the advert was live. Job adverts and upgrades paid for before 2 October 2026 keep the 14-day full refund they were sold with.
• If we take a payment but don't publish or feature the listing because of a fault on our side, we refund it in full.
• If a listing fee reaches us after the listing was deleted, hidden by a moderator or already live (for example, because you paid the listing fee twice), we refund that payment in full automatically. The same applies to a Featured payment for a listing that was deleted, hidden, no longer live or already Featured when the payment arrived.
• Nothing is refunded for a referral credit, because nothing was paid. A credit used for a listing fee comes back if you delete that listing before it ever goes live; once it's used on a live listing, it stays used.
• To cancel, email hello@treebay.uk with a link to the listing, or use the cancellation form. Refunds go back to the card you paid with within 14 days of your cancellation, at no cost to you.

4.6 Tip-site registration

This section applies if you list a tip site (a place where tree surgeons can drop chip or logs) in the TreeBay directory. It is also kept as a permanent record at treebay.uk/terms/tip-sites/2026-10-13.

4.6.1 What you get. Registering puts your site in the TreeBay tip-site directory, where tree surgeons can find it and contact you. Searching the directory is currently free for everyone. We don't promise any number of views, calls or tips.

4.6.2 Who can register. Sites in the UK, registered by the owner or by someone with the right to offer the site. You can register as a private individual or as a business.

4.6.3 Price. There are 500 founding places. A founding site is free for 12 months from the day it's listed (4.6.3a). We don't ask for card details. After that, and for any site listed while all 500 places are taken, listing a site costs £19.99 for 12 months, paid up front. It doesn't renew automatically. At least 30 days before a free or paid year ends, we'll email you the price of the next year. If you don't pay for it by the day the year ends, we stop listing your site. Nothing is charged unless you choose to pay. If all 500 places are taken before paid listings open, registration pauses until they do. You can remove your site at any time.

4.6.3a Founding sites. Up to 500 sites at a time are founding sites.

• A place is used when a listing is completed, in the order listings are completed, while places are free.
• When a founding site is removed (by its owner, by us, or because its owner's data is erased), its place is given back and can go to the next site listed. A site removed and listed again later doesn't get a new free place.
• The place belongs to the site and its owner's account, and can't be transferred.
• Sites on accounts we've made fee-free don't use a place and aren't charged.
• The number of founding places left, shown on the listing page, is live.
• Your dashboard and your confirmation email say whether your site is a founding site.

4.6.3b Cancelling a paid year. If you list as an individual and not as a business, you can cancel within 14 days of paying. We refund the £19.99, less a share for the days your site was listed. If you list as a business, the fee isn't refundable once your site is listed. If we're at fault, or you paid twice by mistake, we refund in full. If we remove a paid site for a reason that isn't your fault, we refund the unused months.

4.6.4 Waste rules. When you register, you confirm that the site is allowed to take what you say it accepts: that it holds the waste exemption, registration, licence or permit the law requires for that material where the site is, or that none is needed. What that is depends on where the site is. In most cases:

• England: a waste exemption or an environmental permit (Environment Agency).
• Wales: a waste exemption or an environmental permit (Natural Resources Wales).
• Scotland: a registration or a permit (SEPA). Some activities need neither, if they follow SEPA's General Binding Rules.
• Northern Ireland: a registered exemption or a waste management licence (NIEA).

You can add its reference. We may ask you for it, and we may make it required.

4.6.5 What members see. Anyone can see your site's name, its town, what it accepts, and whether it's free to tip, charges or pays for loads, with any price you give. You choose, and can change at any time from your dashboard:

1. whether signed-in members see your full address, postcode, what3words and notes, or only members whose request to tip you accept; and
2. whether signed-in members see your phone number, only members whose request you accept, or no one, in which case members contact you through TreeBay messages.

When you accept a request, that member sees what you've chosen to share for as long as your site is listed, unless you stop sharing. They may already have noted it. Any arrangement to tip, including any charge you make, is between you and the member. Don't put phone numbers or gate codes in your notes.

4.6.6 Keeping it right. Keep your site's details accurate. If it closes, or stops taking something, update or remove it from your dashboard. You can remove your site at any time.

4.6.7 If we remove your site. We may remove a site that has closed, is unsafe, is described falsely, doesn't hold the exemption, registration, licence or permit it needs, or breaks these terms. To ask us to look again, see section 7a of our Terms. Questions: hello@treebay.uk.

4.6.8 Changes to these terms. If we change these terms in a way that matters to you, we'll email you at least 14 days before the change takes effect. If you don't want to carry on, remove your site from your dashboard.

4.6.9 Your legal rights. Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights.

5. Deals between users

As section 2a says, TreeBay is not a party to any deal between users. So:

• No warranty: we do not guarantee the quality, safety, legality, ownership or accuracy of any listing, or how any user behaves.
• Buyers: inspect items before you pay, check certificates, and satisfy yourself about condition.
• Sellers: honour what your listing says, describe what you sell accurately, and comply with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and any other consumer law that applies to your sales.
• Problems: sort out problems with the other person directly. We do not decide disputes between users and cannot refund money paid between them. Report it (section 7a) if someone has misled you or broken these Terms — we can remove their listings, stop their account posting for a period, or close it. Our Refund policy sets out your options, and our Staying safe page explains what you can do when a deal goes wrong, including your rights and the small claims court.

6. Paying TreeBay

Payments on the Site are payments to TreeBay for our own services — listing fees, Featured upgrades and tip-site fees — never payments between buyers and sellers. Stripe processes them for us.

• All prices are in pounds sterling (£).
• Card details are handled by Stripe and are never stored on our servers. Stripe's own terms apply to your card payment.
• Refunds of our fees follow sections 4.5 and 4.6.3b and our Refund policy.
• If we ever offer ways to pay other users through TreeBay (for example, holding money until an item arrives), separate terms will apply and we will ask you to agree to them first.

7. How to behave

You agree not to:

• Use the Site for anything fraudulent or unlawful.
• Scrape, harvest or collect data from the Site without permission.
• Interfere with the Site or the systems it runs on.
• Create more than one account to get round a ban or restriction.
• Harass, abuse or threaten other users.
• Send sexual images in messages, or images of anyone who hasn't agreed to be shown, or anything you don't have the right to share.
• Upload or send photos that show a child (anyone under 18), even in the background.
• Post spam, unsolicited advertising or promotional material.
• Mark a listing as sold to someone, or confirm a deal, when that deal didn't happen, or offer or ask for anything in return for confirming one.
• Use more than one account, or organise others, to vote on community posts, or offer anything in return for votes.
• Link to other marketplaces or job boards in listings, tip sites, messages or community posts. You may mention them by name, and you may link to your own business's website.

Posts on the community board must also follow our Community rules.

7a. Reporting content

How to report. Use the Report button on what you're reporting, or email safety@treebay.uk or use our contact form with a link to it.

Illegal content. When we become aware of illegal content on TreeBay, we take it down swiftly. This covers terrorism content, child sexual abuse material (which we also report to the relevant authorities where the law requires) and other illegal content. We may also remove anything that breaks these Terms or our Community rules.

Automated decisions. We may use automated tools, including AI, to find, review and remove content, including when photos are uploaded to listings or sent in messages, and to restrict or close accounts, with or without a person being involved. Photos sent in messages are checked before the other member can see them. You can ask for a person to review any such decision (see Appeals).

Intimate images shared without consent. Report it using the reason “Intimate image shared without consent”. If you're the person shown, or acting for them, we take it down, together with copies of it we identify, within 48 hours of your report, unless we reasonably believe it isn't an intimate image shared without consent or that you aren't the person shown or acting for them. To challenge our decision, reply to our decision email with “Urgent appeal” in the subject; we deal with these under an expedited procedure.

Accounts. If you break these Terms or our Community rules, we may remove your content, restrict what your account can do, or close it. For serious breaches we may do so without notice.

Appeals. If we remove your content, or restrict or close your account, and you think we got it wrong, reply to our email or email hello@treebay.uk with “Appeal” in the subject, and a person will review the decision. A person who wasn't involved in the first decision will look at it, and we'll reply within 5 working days. If you reported something and disagree with our decision, reply to our decision email.

Your right to bring a claim. If we remove your content or restrict who can see it, or restrict, suspend or close your account, in breach of these Terms, you have the right to bring a claim against us for breach of contract. Section 14 says which courts deal with it.

7b. Complaints about TreeBay

To complain about TreeBay, including how we handle reports or our other online safety duties, use our contact form or email hello@treebay.uk, or write to 20 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU. For complaints about how we use personal data, see section 6 of our Privacy Policy.

We don't use an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme. If you're still unhappy after our reply, you can get free advice from Citizens Advice.

8. Content and intellectual property

The TreeBay name, logo, design and our own content on the Site belong to us. You may not copy, change or distribute them without our written permission.

When you upload content (such as photos and descriptions), you give TreeBay a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use it to run the marketplace (for example, displaying your listing and promoting the Site). This includes sharing your listing’s title, price, town, main photo and a link to it in the TreeBay Facebook group, unless you tick the box on the listing form to leave it out.

9. Our liability

• Apart from the promises in these Terms and your rights under the law, the Site is provided “as is”.
• We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from your use of the Site, including any loss arising from a deal between users.
• Our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid TreeBay in the 12 months before the claim.
• Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited under English law — including your rights as a consumer.

10. Closing an account

You can close your account at any time by emailing hello@treebay.uk or through our data rights form. We may restrict or close your account under section 7a. If we close your account, you mustn't open another.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms. The date at the top shows the latest version.

On 9 October 2026, TreeBay passed from Rob Lloyd, trading as TreeBay, to Treebay Trade Limited. The company took on everything agreed with you before then, including your listings, any refund you're due, and founding-member benefits. We may transfer these terms to another organisation in future only if your rights under them aren't reduced, and we'll tell you first.

12. Trade sales and consumer rights

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 mainly protects consumers buying from traders. Many TreeBay deals are business-to-business — for example, one tree surgery firm selling a chipper to another. A business buyer's rights under English law are different from a consumer's, and can be changed or excluded by the contract between the parties.

We do not advise on which rules apply to your deal. Traders and consumers should take their own legal advice where the value or risk of a deal warrants it.

13. Business sellers and personal data

13.1 You may become a data controller

When buyers contact you through TreeBay, you receive their personal data, such as their name and contact details. Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, a business (including a sole trader) that uses personal data for commercial purposes is a data controller for that use. If you are a business seller, you are an independent data controller for any personal data you keep or use outside TreeBay (for example, in your own inbox, customer records or accounts software).

13.2 Your obligations

If you use buyers' personal data as a business, you must:

• Use it only for the deal — do not send buyers marketing without their separate consent, as the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) require.
• Keep it only as long as you need to — for the deal, or for any legal obligation such as tax records.
• Keep it secure — take sensible steps to prevent unauthorised access, loss or disclosure.
• Not share it with anyone else without a lawful basis under the UK GDPR.
• Answer requests — respond to any data subject access request from a buyer about personal data you hold outside TreeBay.

13.3 Registering with the ICO

Most UK businesses that use personal data for commercial purposes must pay the Information Commission's Office (ICO) data protection fee. If you are a business seller, check your obligations at ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-fee. TreeBay's data protection obligations cover our own processing only; they do not extend to your business.

13.4 How we handle data

How we handle user data, including messages between buyers and sellers, is set out in our Privacy Policy. We process this data as an independent data controller.

13.5 Not legal advice

Nothing in this section is legal advice. If you are unsure of your obligations, see the ICO's guidance for small businesses at ico.org.uk/for-organisations or take independent advice.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and disputes go to the courts of England and Wales. If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring proceedings in your local courts.

15. Contact

TreeBay is run by Treebay Trade Limited, trading as TreeBay (private limited company registered in England and Wales, company number 17498951), registered office 20 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU.

Questions about these Terms: hello@treebay.uk, or write to 20 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU.