The dead tree at the back of the yard has been dead all summer, and it was easy enough to ignore while the weather stayed calm. Fall windstorms change that calculation. A tree with no living wood holding it together is exactly the kind of tree that comes down in a gust, and once it’s down, whether it damaged anything is a matter of luck, not planning. The instinct to just get it removed before October makes sense. The part homeowners in Toronto miss is that “it’s dead” doesn’t skip the permit process here the way it does in some neighbouring municipalities.
Toronto Does Not Waive the Permit for a Dead Tree
Toronto’s Private Tree By-law, Chapter 813, has no dead-tree-specific exemption. A standard permit application and arborist report are required for a tree that’s dead but not an immediate hazard, the same as for a healthy tree you simply want gone. The only carve-out is for a tree that poses an immediate hazard to a person or property. That tree can come down first, but the exemption still needs documentation after the fact, not a verbal claim that it looked dangerous.
That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should. “Dead” and “immediate hazard” are not the same category to the city, and treating them as interchangeable is how a straightforward removal turns into an enforcement question later.
The Exemption Depends on Which City You’re In
Toronto’s rule above doesn’t travel. Some nearby municipalities waive the application fee for a dead tree, some exempt a dead or hazardous tree from the permit requirement outright, and some keep the full permit process but accept lighter documentation. The exemption differs by city, and the details, including where the line falls between “dead” and “dead enough,” are specific enough that they belong in a reference, not a paraphrase. Our comparison of dead tree permit rules across the GTA breaks out what each of the 21 municipalities we serve actually requires.
Document the Tree Before the Storm, Not After
An arborist letter prepared calmly, on your schedule, moves through a municipal review process faster than one assembled under pressure once branches are already on the ground. The paperwork itself doesn’t change whether it’s August or November. What changes is who’s setting the timeline: you, or a bylaw officer and an insurance adjuster after a storm already made the decision for you.
Across nearly every municipality with any kind of exception, the pattern is the same: nobody takes a homeowner’s word that a tree is dead. A dated set of photographs, a condition letter, or a full written assessment is what turns a claim into something a city reviewer can act on. Getting that in hand before the first real windstorm means the tree can come down on your schedule, not whenever a contractor has an opening after every other dead tree in the neighbourhood got knocked over the same week.
A Dated Report Also Backs Up an Insurance Claim
The permit application isn’t the only place a dated assessment matters. If the tree does come down in a storm and causes damage, either yours or a neighbour’s, an insurer’s first question is going to be whether you had reason to know the tree was hazardous before it fell. A tree risk assessment completed weeks or months earlier answers that question in one direction or the other, and either answer is better than no record at all.
If the report rated the tree as healthy and it failed anyway in a windstorm that took down trees across the block, that’s a documented, unpredictable event, not something a homeowner should have caught. If the report flagged a problem and nothing was done about it, that’s a different conversation with the insurer, but at least it’s a conversation grounded in what was actually known and when. A current, dated assessment protects you either way. What doesn’t protect you is having nothing on file when the adjuster asks the question.
A Thin Canopy Is Not Automatically a Hazard
Thin foliage or a few bare branches doesn’t by itself tell you whether a tree is dead or hazardous, and only a closer look tells you which. Canopy dieback concentrated at the top, fungal growth at the base, a new or worsening lean, and cracked limb unions are all signs worth that closer look, but what they mean depends on where they show up and what’s underneath the tree. Our self-triage guide for assessing tree risk walks through what each of those signs might indicate and whether it’s a monitor-and-wait situation or one to get looked at soon.
We don’t do removals. As ISA Certified consulting arborists, our work is the report and the risk assessment, not the crew that takes the tree down, which means the read you get on your tree reflects its actual condition rather than whether removing it fills a schedule. A formal tree risk assessment follows the ISA’s TRAQ methodology and rates the likelihood of failure, the likelihood something gets struck, and the consequences if it did, combined into one documented rating. That’s the kind of paper a city reviewer, an insurer, or a lawyer will actually accept.
If a Storm Beats You to It
If a tree is already resting on power lines, stay back and call the utility, not a tree company. If a tree has come down on a house, a garage, or a vehicle with someone inside, or anyone is trapped, call 911 first and stay clear of any damaged structure until emergency services confirm it’s safe. Once people are safe and the immediate danger is handled, photograph the damage from multiple angles, including the base and any exposed roots, before any cleanup starts. Insurers want that record, and it can’t be recreated once debris is cleared.
Storm damage also tends to put the removal decision in the hands of whoever shows up first to clear debris, which isn’t always the party positioned to give you a neutral read on the tree. Our guide on getting a second opinion before removal covers why that independent check is worth the extra day, even when the pressure is on to just get the yard cleared.
A dead tree with a dated report behind it is a permit application. A dead tree with nothing on file is a much longer conversation, with the city, with an insurer, or both.