Live Termites
If the house you just bought has live termites or what is known in the pest control industry as an “active infestation," then the odds are pretty strong that you didn’t buy the home knowing or believing you had a problem. So how did this happen to you? Were you deceived, mislead or given false information by your inspector? It’s possible. There are several factors involved. First, how substantial is the infestation? If there is considerable damage and the pests have been present for more than a couple of years, then the easy answer is that your inspector probably could have and should have found evidence of the infestation. If the activity is more recent and there are no signs of previous infestation or treatment by the preceding homeowner, then you may be the unfortunate victim of nature and bad timing. However, that is rarely the case. As a defense attorney for dozens of pest control companies, I have seen first hand how poorly inspections are performed.
It became obvious that in the vast majority of inspections, if the termites didn’t come out from behind the walls and introduce themselves, the inspector wouldn’t find them.
Bad Termite Inspections
If you financed the purchase of your home, your lender required that you have the home inspected. This is a long standing practice in the industry because termites and their damage are not readily obvious to a lay person, and because your homeowner’s insurance will not cover termite damage. A lender does not want to finance a purchase that may be worth less than the amount loaned with no insurance to correct any problems.
When an inspector looks at a house, his job is to note visible evidence of two primary things:
- Live termites
- Things that might lead to an infestation.
Sadly, because inspections are so inexpensive and because of the attitudes in the industry, many inspectors fail to find either. If you found live termites after a home inspection the odds are great that your inspector didn’t do the job right.
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