Cut a protected tree in Richmond Hill without a permit and the number people brace for is $100,000. That figure is real. It is also the maximum a court can impose on conviction, which means a prosecution has to happen first. Richmond Hill runs a second penalty system alongside that one, administrative rather than judicial, and it starts at $50. Injure a tree without a permit and the set penalty on that schedule is $750. The city issues that as a notice, with no courtroom involved.
The Bylaw Covers More Trees Than You’d Guess
Richmond Hill’s Tree Preservation By-law 19-25 protects any tree with a trunk diameter of more than 15 centimetres, measured at 1.4 metres above the ground. Except the bylaw and the city’s own website don’t quite agree on what that means. The legal text says “more than 15 cm.” The plain-language webpage says “15 cm or more.” One reading arguably lets a tree at exactly 15.0 cm through, the other does not. If your tree lands anywhere near 15 cm, assume the stricter reading and apply.
Multi-trunk trees get their own math. The diameters of each trunk combine using the square root of the sum of their squares, not simple addition. A three-stem birch that looks unremarkable from the driveway can clear the threshold on that calculation.
“Injury” under the bylaw covers more than most people assume. Yes, it means removing more than 20% of a tree’s live tissue within any 12-month period. It also means any encroachment into the tree’s protection zone, even if nothing gets cut. That zone isn’t one flat number: it scales from a 1.8 metre radius for a small tree in the 10 to 14 cm range up to 6.0 metres for a tree between 91 and 100 cm. At 101 cm and above, the radius comes from a formula instead of a table: trunk diameter multiplied by six. A contractor digging a trench near a large tree’s roots can trigger this without ever touching the trunk.
An Exemption Permit Needs Different Proof for Each Category
Not every removal needs the full permit process. The bylaw carves out an Exemption Permit path. Which document you need depends on why the tree has to go.
- Dead tree: photographic evidence, and that is the whole file.
- For a dying tree, the city wants an Arborist Report prepared by an Arborist.
- Hazardous trees set the highest bar of these three: a Tree Risk Assessment report from a Qualified (TRAQ) Tree Risk Assessor.
The city won’t accept a photo where it wants a formal assessment. If you’re not sure which bucket your tree falls into, a tree risk assessment settles the question before you apply.
Storm damage gets a different track entirely. Emergency Work, defined as work needed immediately to prevent imminent danger, doesn’t wait for a permit up front. It gets a Retrospective Permit filed after the fact, backed by an Arborist Report justifying the emergency and photographs of the tree taken before removal. Photos taken after the tree is on the ground can’t fill that gap. Shoot the tree first, even when the crew is already on site. Our storm-season dead tree post walks through the same documentation problem in Toronto.
The Fee Ladder Is Cheap Compared to the Penalty Ladder
The application itself isn’t the expensive part. A standard Tree Permit runs $314 plus HST for the first tree and $109 plus HST for each one after that, capped at $859 plus HST total. That fee is non-refundable, so a refusal does not get your money back. A permit that does issue expires 12 months later. The Tree Preservation By-law Officer can extend it, but never past 2 years from the original issue date.
If you have to replace trees you remove, the count scales with size: nothing under 15 cm, one replacement at 15 to 20 cm, then two, three, four, five, and six as the tree climbs through the 21 to 100 cm range, up to seven at 101 cm or beyond. Cash-in-lieu of replacement runs $945 per tree under the current Tariff of Fees, and where replacement planting is required, the city also collects a security deposit equal to the number of required trees multiplied by that same rate.
Compare that to what happens if you skip the permit. The tree penalties were added to Richmond Hill’s existing Administrative Monetary Penalty System on the day the bylaw was enacted, and they run on a fixed schedule rather than a range a judge picks from:
- $50 for not keeping the permit posted where it can be seen
- $200 for giving false or misleading information, and the same $200 for letting a continuing offence carry on
- $350 for not following a written compliance order
- $500 for injuring a tree in a way that breaks the terms of an Exemption Permit
- $750 for injuring a tree with no permit at all, and the same $750 for obstructing an inspector
None of these need a courtroom. The notice is served, and it stands unless you ask for a review. Court still sits behind all of this. A conviction carries a fine up to $100,000, and a continuing violation carries a separate $100,000 maximum for every day it goes on, with no overall cap. Multiple trees in one incident work the same way: each one is separately exposed to the $100,000 maximum.
Unpaid Penalties Land on Your Tax Bill
An administrative penalty that goes unpaid for 15 days after it becomes due is a debt to the City. From there it can land on the municipal tax roll and get collected the same way as property taxes. Fifteen days is a short window, and once the amount is on the roll it is collected against the property.
You Can Push Back, Just Not on the Same Track
Two different appeal routes exist here, and they are easy to confuse.
If the city refuses your permit, or revokes one you already had, you get 15 days to ask the Commissioner in writing (by email) for a review before the decision becomes final. That review doesn’t pause the original decision while it’s pending.
An AMPS penalty notice goes through a different process entirely: a Screening Review first, then a Request for Review in front of a Hearing Officer, under Articles 5 and 6 of the Administrative Penalty By-law. The Commissioner review doesn’t reach a penalty notice. The Hearing Officer doesn’t reach a permit refusal. File into the wrong track, and the original decision stands.
Farms and Woodlots Play by Different Rules
Trees inside a woodland covered by York Region’s own Forest Conservation By-law aren’t touched by Richmond Hill’s bylaw at all. Neither are trees on city-owned land. Those fall under a separate Trees on City Lands By-law, with its own penalty table.
Farms get a two-tier exemption. Inside the Greenbelt or Oak Ridges Moraine, with a registered Farm Business Registration Number, Normal Farm Practices allow tree removal with no numeric cap. Outside those protected areas but still within the city’s settlement area, the same farm exemption caps out at five trees per 50 acres per year. Past that, you need a permit like everyone else. If you’re building next to farmland, check which designation the trees actually sit in before you rely on someone else’s exemption.
There is a fourth Exemption Permit category, and it is the one you are least likely to need. A Woodlot, meaning a connected stand between 0.2 and 1.0 hectares that meets a minimum tree density, can be logged under a Managed Forest Plan from a Registered Professional Forester instead of an arborist report. A typical residential lot will never qualify.
Where This Comes From
By-law 19-25 was passed April 23, 2025 and took effect the same day, repealing the older By-law 41-07. The AMPS penalty table for tree violations was bolted onto the city’s existing Administrative Penalty By-law 69-16 by a same-day amendment, By-law 48-25. The $945 cash-in-lieu figure comes from the 2026 Tariff of Fees, By-law 61-25, passed July 9, 2025 and effective January 1, 2026.
Getting Your Richmond Hill Permit Right the First Time
Avoiding the $750 penalty comes down to filing the right permit before any cutting starts, with the evidence that category actually requires. Our tree removal reports are built for this, matched to whichever category your tree falls into: dead, dying, hazardous, or standard removal. If you’re weighing a property in a neighbouring city, our Markham permit fee breakdown shows how differently Markham prices the same kind of removal. Contact us with your address and what’s going on with the tree, and we’ll tell you which permit path applies before you cut anything.