Wood Destroying Insects & Termite Inspections
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Wood Destroying Insect Inspections are offered as a Stand-Alone inspection, or for an additional fee added to the home inspection. Often times, home loans that are being serviced by the Veteran’s Administration (VA) require a wood destroying insect inspection to be performed, at the Seller’s expense.
Many times the Buyer’s Realtor will advise the Buyer to ask the Inspector if they will “keep a look out” for WDI’s during the regular home inspection so the Buyer doesn’t have to pay the extra WDI inspection fee if the Buyer is not getting a VA loan. Since an Inspector must have a seperate license and insurance to perform WDI Inspections in the state of Ohio, most inspectors will charge extra for the WDI report (required by the state if one is performing a WDI inspection for a real estate transaction) since they would become liable for any error or ommission related to the WDI inspection.
If the Inspector was not hired to perform a WDI inspection along with the home inspection and it is later discovered that observable evidence of WDIs are present and/or have caused structural damage whether they are present or not, the Buyer now owner has a weak case to go back on the Inspector for financial reimbursement since the state of Ohio residential home inspection standard and scope does not include inspecting for or “keeping a look out” for WDIs.
A Wood Destroying Insect inspection consists of inspecting a property to determine if there is visible past or present evidence of Termites, Carpenter Ants, Carpenter Bees, or Powder Post Beetles which are the 4 WDIs found in Ohio. These insects either consume or bore through wood for various reasons and functions of their life cycles and can therefore cause structural damage to a home.
A point to consider, if you are a Seller in a VA Loan Buyer offer on your home, hiring a home inspector to perform the WDI inspection is advised over hiring a pest control company to do it. Why? Because the home inspector is not interested in also getting paid to treat the home for WDI’s (present or not) because we are not in that business – where a pest control company is. So is every black ant you come across in a home a Carpenter Ant? Of course not – but if the pest control company marks it down on the WDI report and its submitted to the Title company, guess who has to pay $450 for Carpenter Ant treatment? You do!







