How To Read The NPMA-33 Termite Report On An Ohio Home Sale

The NPMA-33 answers one narrow question: on the day of the inspection, was there visible evidence of termites or other wood destroying insects, and visible damage from them, in the parts of the house the inspector could actually reach. That is the whole scope. It is not a home inspection, and the form itself says it is not a structural damage report.

Knowing where that line sits is the difference between a report that moves a closing along and a report two parties argue about for a week. Here is what each part of the page means, who is allowed to sign it in Ohio, and the sentence buyers most often read backwards.

What The NPMA-33 Is And Why Your Lender Wants It

It is the standardized wood destroying insect inspection report published by the National Pest Management Association. The Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes the same form on its own site, and it is approved for FHA and VA loans, which is why an FHA file, a VA file and a conventional file all tend to land on the same single page. Ohio State University Extension's Pesticide Safety Education Program is direct about it: findings from a wood destroying insect inspection in Ohio are required to be reported on the NPMA-33.

So when an agent says the lender needs "the termite letter," this is the document. Our WDI inspection page covers how we schedule one around a closing date in Stark, Summit and Portage counties.

What Each Block On The Page Actually Means

Read the form in five pieces. Most of the confusion at closing comes from treating the whole page as one verdict when it is really a set of separate statements, each with its own limits.

Why "No Visible Evidence" Is Not The Same As "No Termites"

This is the sentence that causes the most trouble. A clean Section I means the inspector found no visible evidence, in accessible areas, on that date. It is an honest statement about what was in front of a trained set of eyes. It is not a promise about what is inside a wall.

Eastern subterranean termites are the species that matters in Northeast Ohio, and they are built to be missed. They travel through soil, enter where soil or mulch meets wood, and feed inside a board rather than on the surface of it. A sill plate can be hollow behind paint that looks perfect. That is exactly why the form carries the line that it is not a structural damage report, and why the inspection is defined as visual and limited to what can be reached. If you want to know what the evidence looks like when it does show, our termite identification page lays out mud tubes, discarded wings and damaged wood side by side.

Who Is Allowed To Sign One In Ohio

Ohio treats this as regulated work in its own right, which is worth knowing if you are handed a report by someone who "also does inspections." Ohio State University Extension's Pesticide Safety Education Program sets it out plainly:

• It is a licensed category: Category 12 is Wood Destroying Insect Diagnostic Inspection. Anyone performing one is considered a commercial applicator in Ohio even if they never apply a pesticide.
• The training is mandatory and specific: applicants have to complete training provided by Ohio State University Extension, a five hour wood destroying insect inspection program, offered twice a year in spring and fall at the Ohio Department of Agriculture in Reynoldsburg.
• The license has to be kept current: five hours of recertification credit every three years, one hour of core plus four hours in any category, on top of annual renewal with the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
• The business carries coverage for it: under Ohio's pesticide business rules, a business licensed in the wood destroying insect category has to hold a liability policy or an endorsement covering claims that arise from errors or omissions in its WDI inspections.

What that means for a buyer or an agent: the license information on the form is not decoration. If it is blank, the report is not finished.

When Does A Lender Require The Report In Ohio?

For VA financing, it comes down to a map. The Lender's Handbook (VA Pamphlet 26-7), in its chapter on minimum property requirements, requires a wood destroying insect inspection report on the Notice of Value when the property sits in an area the Termite Infestation Probability Map rates "very heavy" or "moderate to heavy." That map is based on USDA Forest Service Home and Garden Bulletin 64, revised in 2006.

Ohio falls in the moderate to heavy band, which is why buyers here see the form treated as routine rather than optional. VA recognizes a wood destroying insect inspection for up to 90 days, so a report that was fine in July is not automatically fine for a closing that slid into October. Conventional and FHA files often ask for one too, and an appraiser who notes apparent evidence of infestation can trigger the requirement on a file that did not start with it.

Section I Came Back Checked. What Happens Next?

First, read which box. Active and previous are two very different conversations. Evidence of an active infestation usually means the lender wants treatment completed and documented before the file closes, on a deadline nobody set with you in mind. Evidence of a previous infestation, old mud tubes or a treatment noted on the form, is history rather than an emergency, and the honest question becomes whether the conditions that let it happen are still there.

Either way the fix is the same family of options: a bait system in the soil around the structure, or a liquid barrier, depending on the house and the soil. Our termite control page explains both, and the Sentricon page covers colony elimination without drilling or trenching, which matters when a finished basement is involved.

A Five Minute Check Before You File It

• The date: count forward and make sure the report is still inside the window your lender works to.
• The license information: present, legible, and belonging to the person who actually walked the house.
• Section I and Section II, read separately: insects and damage are two findings, not one, and a report can carry one without the other.
• The obstructions list: a crawlspace that could not be entered or a finished basement wall changes how much of the house the report speaks for.
• The previous treatment note: if the house was treated before, ask what was done and when.
• Your purchase agreement: settle who handles remediation if evidence turns up before the report lands, not after.

If you have a closing date in Stark, Summit, Portage, Wayne or Tuscarawas County and you need the report done properly, call the office at 330-494-6199 with the date and we will tell you straight whether we can meet it. You can also start with our request form. If you are not in a transaction at all and simply want to know whether your own house has a problem, that is a free termite inspection, and it is a different errand from this one.