We have had many trees removed over the years.
The fees vary widely, dependent upon location, difficulty, height...
No time of the year was cheaper than another.

Best thing you can do is call several companies for bids specific to you situation.

I think you might get very different answers.

I had one taken down last year summer. They were able to get easily with the lift truck from the driveway. No wires in the way.
One man... dropped it in sections in my yard and left for us to clean up and he also left the stump. (that's what I wanted)
It was probably 50-60' high. A fairly big oak. It looked healthy except it had started to lean. We had it cut while it still had leaves...It had about an 8" hollow in the center. I think I paid $200. Lancaster County PA.

I would not be at all surprised if you are well over $1000 for what you describe.

Thanks for your responses. I should have mentioned that my tree is about 30' high and wide. The electric company chops it into a V shape so that it doesn't interfere with their wires. Looks horrible in addition to being unsafe.

be thankful you are not in central or south fl needing that tree out, it would never come under $5k! I had a huge 50' Water Oak come down in my front yard March 2011 after a serious storm w 50+ mph winds. Most of my city had tree damage that evening. This tree was uplifted and fell in the only possible way to not crush my house, a neighbors or fall in the street. It stretched across my entire front lawn, took out a Pindo Palm and parts of 2 Pink Tab street trees, the girth of the trunk was 5' in diameter and root ball over 8' tall. I have worked in the landscape industry for 15+ yrs and had a friend over in 2 hours to estimate it. It took them 2 days,cost $2500 CASH we previously had that tree estimated to be removed from $7k to $15k (during the busy 2004 hurricane season) so falling helped alot! Unfortunately the next week my cities landscape crew was in my office and told me they were planning on helping me get it out for (for free) at cities cost LOL but it would take them a whole week... GEEZ who tells someone that LOL! They had hundreds of trees to take out & clean up from that storm! ~ liz

Toronto, Ontario. Not cheap. Normally in winter, depending on where you live, it can be cheaper. But after the recent major ice storms in Toronto and the fallen trees, branches everywhere, this winter it will not be cheaper. You could well be in the same situation. I would expect well over $1,000 plus the cost of the stump removal. Here that is calculated separately and could easily be $300. I would get it in writing that you can have the tree removed - and have the letter indicate whether you need a permit and/or an arborist's report - in Toronto an arborist's report is at least $350 PER TREE plus the permit fee of $100. Then you have to make certain that there are no gas lines etc. buried in the area where you want to dig and have flags put in the ground marking them if there are. Next up I would check to find out if you have to have another tree planted. In Toronto if there was a tree - say planted by someone 50 years ago that finally dies you have no choice but to have the City put in a new tree. This, despite the fact that other people who have never had trees do not have to have trees put on the City owned portion of their lots - because they have never had a tree. Obviously I have just gone through this again. Private tree removal of trees over a certain size require the arborist reports, permits AND the home owners must replace the tree with another - twice the size that the city puts in. If the tree is in a dangerous place next to the house the City might allow you to arrange for the arborist's report, the permit, tree removal - and then you can PAY the City about $800 for the privilege of not having to plant another tree in the same spot. Something is clearly wrong here. I fully expect you will get many quotes. If you have seen any trees removed on your street by private arborists I would ask them for referrals plus check out I think in the U.S. it is Angie's List - or something. But I would not recommend hiring anyone dodgy - the price differential should tell you if something is off. A lot of damage can be done otherwise.

We've had lots of trees removed and the prices really do vary. When we lived in Hulmeville, Bucks County (not too far from you) we had a wooded lot and we wanted to remove some trees before the contractor started excavating. Since they didn't have to worry about hitting anything they simply felled the trees and left them for my husband to cut into firewood. They charged $50 a tree - but stump grinding was an additional $100 each - and that was 35 years ago.

Now we're in Moorestown NJ and last year we had a 35' Copper Beech removed. It was about 15' from the street and the tree was dead. They charged us $500 to cut down the tree, grind out the stump, and haul everything away - including all the wood and the debris left after the stump grinding.

Two years before that my town removed a 50' red maple that was between the curb and the sidewalk. The roots were lifting our driveway apron and sidewalk. They did all the work at their cost - but they accidentally cut both Comcast's cable and Verizon's phone lines to 50 + houses.

Make sure your contractor is insured and calls for a utility mark out.

Just outside of Philadelphia and paid $1000 per tree to have two enormous oak trees removed, including the stump ground out and the hole filled with soil.

Sheesh, you lost your best chance after the limbs fell on your daughter's car. By 'street tree', I am assuming that this tree is not yours but belongs to the city.

If that tree removal policy is real City policy, I'd get it in writing. Perhaps it's in the by laws. I'd also ask for a copy of the arborist's evaluation of your tree. You should know the credentials of the City Arborist, too. Is he or she ISA Certified? Get copies.

No one can give you a comparable estimate without seeing the tree and the site. Is the tree in such bad shape that it cannot be safely climbed for felling? That will increase the cost. Tree climbing is not recommended for routine maintanance, but is fine for take downs ....as long as the tree is safe.

Are there utility lines any where near any tree removal activity will take place? That requires special skills.

Be SURE to ask for and obtain copies of all business licenses and proof of liability insurance. You will be held financially responsible if something happens, including to one of them, on your property. Do not take their word for being insired. You'd be shocked at the horror stories I could tell you.

When calling for estimates, ask them to bring their appropropriate credentials with them when they come for the inspection. Of course, get your estimate in writing and make sure that it includes all services that you expect.

Too much information, probably.....but I spent much of my career working to train and educate tree care professionals and with comminities to improve their tree care policies. Sadly, for every well trained and professional wielding a chainsaw, there are 10 shysters.

The good ones deserve the work. Good luck with your tree. Wish I could be of more help.

LuAnn is right the the fees vary widely. In my experience even for the same tree you can get estimates where the highest bid is 10 times as much as the lowest bid. For some where the tree had no chance of hitting something expensive, we've gone toward the cheap end of the scale where you get a local guy with a chainsaw, and the tree ends up gone eventually.
This fall we had a tree that we couldn't afford to have removed on the cheap. It was about 100 feet tall, 3 feet in diameter, and about 20 feet from the house. We went with a small professional tree service, that knew what they were doing, but who were still only about half the price of the large companies in the area.

To answer your specific questions:
What city do you live in? Charlottesville, VA
How long ago? In September 2013
How much was it? $2400
How accessible to the street was yours? Not very. See pictures in this thread

Do you know what type of tree it is? How big is it? Is is alive, but damaged? Or if dead, how dead? How close to electric lines? How close to your house? Or neighboring houses? Is the tree leaning? Is there any direction that it can fall and _not_ hit something? How busy is the street? Is there a fee or permit required to close the street temporarily if that is necessary? All of these will affect the final price.

Good info, Rhizo.

I think it's outrageous that you must pay to have a city tree removed. Not enough money? I don't believe it. It can be found.

We just had a tree cut down in October and it was the city's tree but they also didn't have the money to do it so we paid. We had a local tree cutting business in town and they only charged us $850.00. It also had the power lines next to it. We had another tree cut down(was the neighbors,but mainly hung over our house/patio) and we paid $1440. They did a great job and no shingle damage or anything went wrong. Seems like a lot of cities are squeezing pennies these days.

We have had 3 taken down, and it is quite costly here in southern California, as is most everything. But we do have a lot of firewood as a result. Two more will have to be removed in the next few years, possibly 5. We planted them 35 years ago, and they don't last much longer than that.

To answer some of the above concerns - I first dialed 311 (non emergency) and asked about acquiring a permit for tree removal. They connected me with Phila. Parks & Recreation, which has jurisdiction over street trees. The director himself answered (!); his secretary had called in sick. He said that the arborist is responsible for getting the permit. That explained why it wasn't among the permits that are downloadable from the city's website. He also told me to hire a certified arborist; told me there were horror stories about fly-by-nighters cutting a limb off that crashed through a neighbor's roof and then literally packing up and leaving! He did send me a list of qualified arborists, so I'll be using one of them.

Trees within a certain distance of the center of the street belong to our township, whether you planted it or they planted it where I live. They went around and put little metal tags on "their" trees. They will perform all maintenance on them. However, they also have the right to decide that the tree must go even if you don't want it cut down. They planted a Callery Pear tree in my front yard years ago. It blew over in a storm (typical) and into the street. The township took care of the whole thing and did a good job, too.

Ah, the things we don't think of when putting that innocent sapling in the ground!

oh -- the oak trees I mentioned above were removed this past summer by Kingkiner Tree Service.

Sounds good, softball! Everything I said about getting their proof of insurance, etc. still holds, though. That's just good business. Also, don't give any money in advance.

I'm glad to know that Philly recommends ISA certified arborists. All municipalities should insist that work done within city limits be done only by certified professionals.

Softball - if the power company "trims" your tree, ask them if they will take the whole thing down.

We asked them to just cut the entire tree down, instead of trimming it. They were overjoyed. One time cut down, instead of semi-yearly trims.

They did not remove the stump, of course - but they did cut down and remove the entire tree at no charge. They grind them up on the spot.

They even gave use the mulch, and dumped it in a different location.

Stump removal wasn't a big deal for us - but it can also be costly, if you want it ground out right away.

Iowa girl makes a good point. We had an overgrown mess of trees, weeds and vines along the road beneath the power lines. Every other year or so the power company would trim the top of the mess. However when we asked, they were happy to cut and remove all of the troublesome big trees: oak, locust, sassafras, pine and all of the evil vines with them, and they even left the smaller understory trees: weeping cherry, dogwood, cedar, holly, redbud that aren't likely to ever reach the power lines. Although if they'd do it, they would likely do it when it made sense for their schedule, which may mean spring or summer.

We just had two large pecan trees removed in central Texas. It was $500.00 dollars for the pair. They did not remove the stumps.

Sure, gave the guy $50, and in a few minutes it was down, sawed up, and stacked for the city to pick up.

The first thing I did was ask the power company. They refused to take down the tree; they only do topping when needed.

The fellows that were out trimming trees for our utility company took down one of our trees for us in late October. It was either $225 or $275. The tree was in our back yard but they were able to get the lift truck back there and took the tree down in pieces. Part of it had to be taken down in a neighbor's yard and they did that and tossed the pieces over a fence into our yard. Left the wood for us for firewood, but would have taken it if we hadn't wanted it.

No but we have taken down many trees on our property. This was our 4th of July project. It was a 100 yr old burr oak. Well over 30 ft high. We could see right through it, it was hit by lightening years before we came along. When it leafed out this year half of the canopy died. It seemed the time was upon us. Today it is -22 and my fire place is glowing with the wood gathered that day.