What A Termite Warranty Actually Covers

A termite warranty is a promise about service, not a promise that your house will never have termites again. Oklahoma State University Extension says it in a single line: a warranty is a guarantee of service, not a guarantee of an effective termite barrier. What yours is worth is decided by what the document says about coverage, exclusions, renewal and the things you can do to cancel it yourself.

Most people in Stark and Summit County meet this paperwork twice. Once when they arrange treatment, and once when a house changes hands and a folder turns up with an agreement somebody else started. Our termite control work in Ohio is built around eastern subterranean termites, and so is everything below.

A Guarantee Of Service, Not Of A Termite Free House

The EPA's homeowner guidance shows the shape of the thing. EPA says termite control work is generally guaranteed for one to five years, and tells homeowners to ask what the guarantee covers, whether there is a yearly inspection, and whether the company is responsible for structural damage if the treatment fails. It also says to ask for an inspection and a written control program you can evaluate before signing anything.

None of that language promises an outcome. It promises that a licensed company will come back and do defined work under defined conditions. EPA puts the housekeeping around it too: firms offering termite services must be licensed by the state, and you can ask to see the license and a copy of the product label. Looking up an Ohio license takes about two minutes, and we walked through where the records sit in how to check an Ohio pest control license.

If you are reading national pages, you will see the same document called a termite bond. That name is mostly a southern habit. Clemson Cooperative Extension's guidance to homeowners who hold one is to read the most recent version of the contract and then call the company that holds it, to find out which subterranean termites are covered and what damage, if any, is covered. In Ohio the words on the page are usually service agreement or termite warranty. The questions are identical.

Retreatment, Repair, Or Both

This is the line that decides what the paper is worth, and it is the line people assume rather than read. Oklahoma State University Extension's checklist tells homeowners to confirm the excluded areas, the length of the warranty period, what renewal involves, the company's obligation to re-treat or to repair termite damage, and the conditions that would void coverage because of something the owner did.

Some agreements cover retreatment only. The company comes back and treats again, and rebuilding chewed framing is yours to pay for. That a repair clause has to be asked for is the tell: Penn State Extension's advice is to get a damage replacement clause whenever possible, and to start from a thorough pre-treatment inspection with a documented record of past termite activity. That record is what any later argument about damage gets measured against. Clemson adds that some firms limit their liability for damage done to a house after treatment, and others exclude damage by particular termite species.

Species exclusions matter less here than they do on the Gulf coast, because the termite doing the damage in Northeast Ohio is the eastern subterranean, which we sorted out alongside the other wood destroying insects in which wood destroyers are actually in Ohio. Coverage type is the whole question in an Ohio agreement. And if the plan is to let the other policy in the drawer cover the repair, what home insurance does with pest damage explains why that rarely works.

That last row is the one nobody asks for. Clemson says an operator should make a map of your house highlighting areas where damage has been found and any structural or drainage problems, and should note any areas that were not accessible for inspection. An area marked inaccessible is an area the coverage is likely to treat differently, and it is far easier to clear a crawl space hatch now than to argue about it later.

The Projects That Void It Without Anybody Noticing

Virginia Cooperative Extension is direct about this: a termite guarantee can be invalidated if you alter the treated building without notifying the company, and many companies require an annual inspection or a maintenance contract to keep the guarantee in force. EPA says the same thing about structural alterations made without telling the company. Penn State adds the version that catches additions, noting that companies may limit liability where alterations have disturbed the soil next to the foundation, or where an addition was never treated.

On a liquid job the treated thing is the soil, so the list of ordinary projects that disturb it is longer than people expect. We wrote that list out in is an old termite treatment still protecting the house, and it is worth reading once with your own back yard in mind. The habit that protects the coverage is smaller than the list. Before a contractor digs along the foundation, tell the company holding the termite warranty, in writing, and keep the reply with the agreement.

Renewal Is Where Coverage Quietly Ends

What a lapse costs depends on which kind of treatment the house had. Mississippi State University Extension describes a bait system as protection that ends with the contract, because the company stops inspecting and maintaining the stations and the stations come out. With a liquid treatment the termiticide is probably still in the soil, so protection does not end on the day the agreement does. What ends is the annual inspection, which is the part that would have told you when the soil treatment had aged out.

Our Sentricon colony elimination system carries a one year renewable termite warranty, and it is monitored by our own technicians rather than installed and forgotten. That is the trade a bait system asks for. It works continuously, so it has to be serviced continuously.

If The House Is Changing Hands

A wood destroying insect report is not coverage. It is one inspector's opinion of one house on one day, recorded on the NPMA-33 form, and we went through what it does and does not promise in what the NPMA-33 termite report means. If a seller mentions an existing termite agreement, that is a separate document with separate answers, and Clemson's advice applies: read the current version, then call the company that holds it. Four questions settle it before closing.

1. Is it active today, and when is the next renewal date?
2. Does it cover retreatment only, or retreatment and repair?
3. Does it transfer to a new owner, and what does the company require in order to transfer it?
4. What does the file show as inaccessible, previously damaged, or excluded?

Sellers have their own version of this conversation, including what has to be disclosed in Ohio, which we covered in selling a house that has had termites. Buyers who want the inspection side handled properly can start with our real estate termite inspections.

What Ours Says, In Plain Words

State Termite has been working on Ohio houses since 1933, and we try to keep the paperwork as short as the explanation. The Sentricon system carries a one year renewable termite warranty, and that is the only warranty we have. Liquid barriers are the other route, and which one fits depends on the house and what the inspection finds.

Our State Shield Essential plan is a different thing, and it is not a termite warranty. It is quarterly, four visits a year spaced to break egg cycles, it does not cover termites, and what it promises is simple to say out loud: if pests come back between treatments, so do we, at no cost.

If you want a termite inspection in Stark, Summit, Portage, Wayne or Tuscarawas County, or you have an agreement from another company and want to know what it actually says, schedule an inspection through our request form or call 330-494-6199. The inspection fee is waived when you go with us for treatment.