Guarantees
Termite warranties and bonds
What a bond pays for, what quietly ends it, and how to judge whether yours is still worth renewing.
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Written by HyrePest Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The short answer
A termite bond is an agreement, usually renewed each year, under which a company inspects your home and treats again if termites return. Whether it also pays to repair damage depends on the contract.
Ask one question first: does it cover retreatment only, or retreatment and repair of damages? A WDI report from a house sale is not a bond or a warranty.
Key takeaways
Retreatment only sends a technician. Retreatment and repair also pays a builder, up to a stated limit.
A WDI report describes one day. A bond covers a period, with duties on both sides.
A new patio, a lifted bait station or a missed renewal can void it.
You may need a new inspection, and sometimes a new treatment.
HyrePest does not sell, underwrite or administer termite bonds, and this is not legal advice.
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What is the difference between retreatment only and retreatment and repair?
Georgia’s Structural Pest Control Commission requires one of these statements on every wood-destroying organism contract. The wording is the rule’s own.
| Bond type | What the contract must say |
|---|---|
| Retreatment only | “This contract provides for retreatment of a structure but does not provide for the repair of damages caused by wood destroying organisms.” |
| Retreatment and repair | “This contract provides for retreatment of a structure and the repair of damages caused by wood destroying organisms within the limits stated in this contract.” |
Georgia requires whichever statement applies to be printed inside heavy black borders. The rule binds Georgia licensees only. We cite it because the same choice sits in termite bonds everywhere, boxed or not. Source: Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 620-6-.02 (Contracts).
Is a WDI report the same as a warranty?
No. North Carolina’s regulator, which oversees these reports, says so in plain words.
| Document | What it is, and what it is not |
|---|---|
| WDI report | North Carolina’s Department of Agriculture says the report is “not a warranty as to the absence of wood-destroying insects; it is a report of the visible presence or absence of wood-destroying insects at the time of the inspection.” |
| Not a clearance | NCDA also states the report is not a “clearance letter”, in that it does not necessarily clear a structure; not a “termite letter”, in that it addresses more than just termites; and not a structural damage report. |
| Termite bond | An ongoing agreement over a period, with an inspection each year and duties on both sides. A clean report and no bond gives you a record, not protection. |
See termite and WDI inspections for what an inspector looks at.
What should I find out about my termite bond?
Nine questions. The answers are in your agreement, or the company can put them in writing.
This is the whole difference. One sends a technician. The other pays a builder, within a stated limit.
A repair bond usually caps what it pays. A cap well below the cost of a serious structural repair is worth knowing about now.
Live activity confirmed by whom, and on what evidence? Does a new inspection come first, and who pays for it?
This is what you renew each year. Ask what it found in each of the last three years.
Grade below the siding, no wood touching soil, leaks fixed in time, access granted. Breaking these is how cover is lost.
Usually a set list. Landscaping over the treated zone, removing bait stations and a missed renewal are the common ones.
For what fee, and does the buyer get the rest of your term or a new one? The same checks apply to any pest control contract.
A bond runs for years but is quoted one year at a time.
Often you cannot just restart. A new inspection, and sometimes a new treatment at full price, may be needed.
What quietly ends termite cover?
Four things, and a homeowner can do most of them by accident.
A new patio, a French drain, a utility trench, a raised bed or a plumbing repair can cut through a soil treatment. Tell the company before the work, not after the next swarm.
Yours, or a landscaper’s doing. Georgia’s rule requires bait contracts to state: “The removal of the bait or baiting system may result in a lack of termite protection.”
Refusing or putting off access breaks many agreements. It is also the visit that would have caught a problem early.
Once a renewal lapses, the bond usually cannot be picked up where it stopped. Restarting often means a new inspection, and sometimes a new treatment.
Is my termite bond still worth renewing?
Ask the company for the last three yearly inspection findings in writing.
Then weigh three things an inspection cannot change: termite pressure where you live, whether your house makes retreatment easy or costly, and whether you could spot a problem early yourself.
On a slab house in a high-pressure region, the monitoring does real work. Elsewhere, ask the question directly.
What to ask before you sign
Does this bond cover retreatment only, or retreatment and repair of damages?
What is the most it will pay for repairs?
Who confirms live activity, and on what evidence?
What did the yearly inspection find in each of the last three years?
What would void this bond? Can I have the list in writing?
Does it transfer to a buyer, and for what fee?
What does renewal cost, and on what basis can it rise?
What happens if I miss a renewal?
Where this goes wrong
Many bonds pay for retreatment only. If nobody has told you which one you hold, you do not know what you bought.
A report describes one day. Without a bond, you have a record, not protection.
Soil work against the foundation can break the treated zone and void the bond. Termite control explains how soil treatments and baits work.
A bait system is a service, not an installation. Ask in writing what happens to the stations and to your protection afterward.
Your inquiry
Tell us about the work
Three short steps: the job, your home, and how to reach you. Nothing goes to a pest control company unless you agree.
Free, with no obligation: a person at HyrePest reads it and replies. Matching is not live yet, so this is not a quote or a dispatch line. For an active problem today, call local pest control companies directly and check their license first.
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Questions
What is a termite bond?
Does a termite bond cover damage repair?
How much does a termite bond cost to renew?
Does a termite bond transfer when I sell the house?
Is a WDI inspection report the same as a warranty?
What voids a termite bond?
Should I keep paying for a bond on a house with no termite history?
Written and audited by
HyrePest Research Desk
Primary-source research and fact checking
We are not a pest control company. We read the pesticide label rule, the agency guidance and the state board record ourselves, and publish each point with its source and the date we retrieved it.
Where a claim cannot be traced to a primary source, we leave it out and say so. We hold no dataset of pest control prices, so we publish no average price.
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- primary-source pages (EPA, CDC, eCFR, state boards) behind the fact base
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- common claims we checked, could not verify, and do not repeat
- 10
- calculators that use your numbers, not a national average
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- average prices published, because we hold no price data
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. Label law comes from FIFRA and 40 CFR 156, safety guidance from EPA and CDC, licensing from the state board that issues the license. We do not cite an article that cites a source.
- Every figure carries its retrieval date. Agency pages and board rules change. A statement without the date it was read cannot be checked.
- Identify before treating. We describe what separates one pest from another and what a good inspection looks at. We never diagnose a species from a description, and we never give pesticide application instructions.
- What we could not verify is published too. Claims that circulate widely but trace to no current primary source are listed and left out of the pages.
Authorship on this site is organizational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.
Sources & retrieval dates
Information on this page is general and varies by species, region, construction and your own circumstances. It is not pesticide application advice, and a pesticide label is a legally binding instruction that takes precedence over anything written here.
HyrePest is not a pest control company: we inspect nothing, treat nothing, apply no pesticide and bond no structure. This page explains the work so you can read a proposal and judge the company that wrote it.