Landowners, like many home owners, utilize contractors to do the work that is needed to manage their forest lands. Frequently they are not trained in the finer art of contract negotiations and find themselves contracting for services they need, but do not fully understand. For instance, when I contract with a plumber, I know I want water in the appropriate places in the house, but I may not know the proper method to get the water where it needs to go and keep it from damaging the house. Just because I watch HGTV doesn’t really mean I know how to plumb a house!

Many landowners I know are the same when they are contracting for the various work to be done on their forests. They know they want good and growing timberland, which is well stocked and disease-free, and they want to be able to sell for a great price at the appropriate time. Unfortunately, just because they are experts in their respective fields, does not mean they are forestry experts who have been trained in understanding the finer points of managing forests. They need to hire a contractor who does.

May 2019 — Contract Fraud Costs You Money

Photo by Karim Sakhibgareev on Unsplash