These come from reading published forms line by line. The wording differs state to state, but the structure holds - so knowing the nine tells you what to look for in whatever document lands in front of you.
01
How and when do I get paid?
Purchase price and terms of payment
This is the single biggest fork in a timber sale, and on most published forms it is a blank line rather than a default. Whoever fills it in sets who carries the risk between the handshake and the last load.
- Lump sum: the buyer purchases the standing timber before harvest, either paid in full up front or as a partial payment with a specified final payment later.
- Pay-as-cut: the buyer pays a per-unit stumpage price for each product - sawtimber, pulpwood - typically weekly, based on what was cut and delivered that period.
- On the South Carolina form the payment timing line reads "Payment shall be made ___" and is left open for the parties to fill.
Read from: SC Forestry Commission sale agreement; Arkansas Extension FSA5014
02
Which trees can they cut?
Designation and marking of timber
A boundary argument after the fact is unwinnable without physical evidence. Marking clauses exist to make a dispute provable months later, when the crew is gone.
- Only trees marked by the seller or their agent may be cut.
- The South Carolina form requires the base mark to remain on the stump after felling - that stump mark is the proof that survives the harvest.
- Arkansas service contracts call for boundaries described by visible landmarks with maps attached, and for areas that must not be touched to be identified explicitly.
Read from: SC Forestry Commission sale agreement; Arkansas Extension FSA5024
03
What happens if they cut a tree they should not have?
Damages for unmarked or destroyed timber
Published forms carry a penalty for cutting unmarked timber, but the multiplier is usually a blank. Left at one times the unit rate, the clause costs a crew nothing more than the timber was worth anyway.
- The South Carolina form charges merchantable trees cut or needlessly destroyed at "___ times" the unit rate set earlier in the agreement.
- The multiplier is filled in by the parties, not fixed by the form.
Read from: SC Forestry Commission sale agreement
04
Who fixes my roads, gates and fences?
Repair, restoration and cleanup
Harvest damage to access and drainage is normal and expensive. Whether it lands on the buyer or the landowner is decided by one paragraph, and the list of what it covers matters as much as the fact that it exists.
- The South Carolina form puts repair of roads, gates, fences, ditches, bridges, culverts and buildings on the buyer, along with payment for crop losses.
- It requires logging debris cleared from roads, ditches, streams, ponds and boundary lines, and damaged fields restored to their original condition.
- Wet weather and seasonal restrictions, stream crossings, streamside management zones and log deck placement appear on the attached Best Management Practices schedule as blanks to be filled per tract.
Read from: SC Forestry Commission sale agreement
05
Who carries the liability if something goes wrong?
Insurance, indemnity and fire responsibility
This is the clause most often missing entirely from a short form, which is exactly why it is worth checking for. Its absence is not neutral - it leaves the question unanswered until something happens.
- The South Carolina form makes the buyer responsible for fire suppression and for damage caused by fire started by the buyer or their crew.
- It has the seller disclaim liability for the buyer’s equipment on the property, and for third-party damage such as power, telephone and water lines.
- The base form carries no liability insurance requirement, no workers’ compensation requirement and no performance bond. Anything of that kind would have to be written into the Special Provisions article.
Read from: SC Forestry Commission sale agreement
06
When does the timber stop being mine?
Passage of title and vendor’s lien
If timber is cut before the money arrives, the question of what the landowner still holds becomes urgent. Some forms answer it; a handshake never does.
- On the South Carolina form title passes on payment or on harvest, whichever happens first.
- Where trees are cut before payment, the seller retains a Vendor’s Lien on the products until paid in full.
- The same form has the seller warrant title, satisfy existing liens, and keep property taxes current.
Read from: SC Forestry Commission sale agreement
07
What if the term runs out with timber still standing?
Termination date and reversion
Weather, mill quotas and equipment breakdowns stretch harvests. The contract decides whether an expired term returns the standing timber to the landowner or simply lapses into an argument.
- On the South Carolina form, timber still standing at the termination date reverts to the seller, as do cut products not removed by that date.
- The seller keeps the right to inspect at any time during operations.
- Georgia’s salvage guidance lists the contract period and its expiry among the terms a salvage contract should state, alongside the method of accounting for units removed.
Read from: SC Forestry Commission sale agreement; Georgia Forestry Commission salvage guide
08
Is this even a contract?
Parties, capacity and binding effect
Extension guidance is unusually blunt on this point: the label on the document and the exact legal name of who signs it decide whether there is anything to enforce.
- Arkansas Extension states that where money is exchanged for services the document is a contract and should say so, because a memorandum of agreement is not a legal document.
- It calls for parties named correctly as an individual, a "doing business as" name, or a corporation.
- The South Carolina form binds heirs, administrators, executors, successors and assigns of both parties.
Read from: Arkansas Extension FSA5024; SC Forestry Commission sale agreement
09
Should I just take the offer that came to my door?
Sale method and buyer-supplied paperwork
Extension services describe the sale method itself as a decision that precedes the contract, and note that a contract handed to you was drafted around someone else’s objectives.
- Arkansas Extension states a landowner may use a buyer’s standard contract as a starting point, but must confirm it meets the landowner’s objectives rather than the buyer’s.
- It identifies selling "on shares" - the logger taking a percentage - as carrying risk where the landowner does not know the quantity or quality of their standing timber, and notes such deals are often sealed by handshake.
- It also notes that overly restrictive contracts can drive prospective buyers away, so the balance runs both directions.
- Arkansas guidance adds that a vendor who discourages review of the contract should be treated as hiding something.
Read from: Arkansas Extension FSA5014 and FSA5024