When was the original report? Did you just buy this house? What type of contract do you have with a pest control company for termite prevention?

Why does insurance not cover termite damage?

kitasei-

Homeowner's insurance is not intended to cover every thing that can go wrong in the course of home ownership. It's principally intended to cover sudden, unexpected catastrophes and perils, like a burst pipe, a fire, a windstorm, lightning, vandalism, an accident, an earthquake or flood (if you have those riders), a tree falling on your house, a burglary, etc. It's not intended to cover events that develop slowly, over the longterm, such as a plumbing drip that may cause damage, a roof that is slowly rotting, or termites that are slowly gnawing. Many things that are not covered by insurance are maintenance items or things don't cause immediate, calamitous damage, or that the owner should possibly have noticed at some point before significant damage had accumulated. There is some variability between companies: some, for example may cover a sewer backing up and others may not. But I've never heard of one that covers termite damage.

Because insurance doesn’t cover things that rest on the shoulders of the homeowner to prevent. You are required to maintain your property and not create any hazardous conditions or attractive nuisances that could injure visitors to your home. No swimming pools without fences, or stairs without railings, or houses without termite contracts with a pest control company.

"You are required to maintain your property and not create any hazardous conditions or attractive nuisances ... No ... houses without termite contracts
with a pest control company."

Maybe this is meant for dramatic effect, but in all due respect, this is one of the most puzzling statements I've ever read on this board. Especially the "you are required" part. Exactly WHO is requiring me to maintain a termite contract on MY OWN property? Where on earth did that come from?

NO HOMEOWNER I KNOW has a standing contract with any pest control company, termite or other.

That kind of stuff is mostly for apartment building owners, and I'd argue that even there, it's not a good thing. Frequent unnecessary "preventative" pest control treatment speeds up the development of pesticide resistance.

IMO, it's also dubious as far as the occupants' health is concerned. In my rentals, I only contract for pest control when it's necessary to maintain a healthy place for my tenants to live.

I'll agree that sensible home buyers should have a termite inspection before the closing. (Isn't this law in some places?) I've done so with all my home purchases, personal or income. But if no active infestation is found, I see no reason to line their pockets with some kind of long term contract.

Check your foundation every spring for mud tubes, maybe bring in the inspectors every 10 years or so if you're really worried, but I don't see the need to (in effect) pay rent on freedom from termites.

This damage was done before we bought the house, we didn't have termites after we bought the house.
The inspector should have disclosed the damage and he didn't, so I feel he is responsible, we're talking about up $40,000.00 or more, they have to remove the roof and replace all the support boards

Would the termite damage have been visible before the ceiling caved in? Our termite inspection had a clause stating which areas were not inspected because they were not accessible. If that is the case with yours the inspector probably can’t be blamed.

Do you mean a termite inspection or a general home inspection?

Not to make excuses for home inspectors, and certainly they vary in their competence and experience, but home inspection isn't an exact science. For one thing, it depends on the previous owners' or tenants' cooperation so the inspector can get access to everything. That cooperation isn't always forthcoming. Cellars and attics full of stored stuff can limit what they see.

Inspectors also can't open up walls and get behind finishing materials, so they can't see hidden damage. They can only look for hints or clues that such damage might exist,. Those clues are often pretty easy for an owner to hide, should he or she choose to do so.

In my experience, home inspectors usually have disclaimers in the paperwork you sign, to protect themselves in such cases. If you signed such a disclaimer, you may not have any legal standing to go after the inspector.

I've used home inspectors for most of my house purchases. They've found some problems and they've missed some. I understood and accepted the limitations. Inspection is still better than buying blind, IMO.

Unfortunately, owning a home can bring you unexpected large expenses that insurance doesn't cover. Many times no one is to blame, it's just bad luck.

This is not a termite inspector, this is the house inspector and yes he would have seen it, he went up in the attic

The owner had moved out and there wasn't anything in the attic, this much damage could have been seen,

You’re going to be limited to being reimbursed the cost of the home inspection.

Who lives below the Mason Dixon and doesn’t have a contact with a pest control company for termite prevention? A couple of hundred dollars is all it costs. And I live in a home that had the soul around the slab treated with Chlordane as a preventative because it’s that old.

Im fixing some termite damage right now in a lean to behind the barn. Old creosote timbers that evidently didn’t get enough pressure to get to the heartwood. Gotta rebuild the whole thing. Looks fine from the exterior. Until we had a sag in the roof. The barn wasn’t on the contract, unfortunately. Didn’t think creosote and pressure treated needed to be.

> this much damage could have been seen,

You would think so, but termites hollow out framing members. The wood can be pretty badly weakened and still look sound.

If a past infestation has been stopped and the evidence of active infestation is gone, an inspector might not have reason to suspect anything.

If the inspector suspects present or past infestations, he might be able to probe for hidden damage with pointy tools. However, he would first have to suspect. Then he would have to get permission from the owner of record, because probing is a destructive test.

Inspectapedia on termite inspectionIn this case, maybe your inspector wasn't thorough enough, maybe the owner wasn't cooperative enough, or maybe it just wasn't possible to detect it. The way your ceiling looks now doesn't really tell you how it looked when you had it inspected, so I don't know if anybody can say one way or the other what responsibility your inspector might bear for this.

But it probably doesn't matter anyway, because chances are you signed away any rights to those kinds of damages in your contract with the inspector. Here is what I read in a couple that I have in my own records.

From one inspector, who I thought did a pretty good job: "Client acknowledges and agrees that if [company] shall be found liable for loss or damage due to its breach of this contract or its negligence, [company's] liability shall be limited to a sum equal to 10% of the fee for services, or $50.00, whichever is greater."

Another inspector writes in his contract, "No expressed or implied warranty of future performance, condition, or suitability is given," and "The following items are not included in the inspection or report: ... termite or other wood infestation."

As the song says, what the bold print giveth, the fine print taketh away.

You might have a better shot at collecting damages from the previous owners, IF you can prove that they knew of the termite damage and didn't disclose it at the sale. I honestly don't know how you'd prove that, but maybe an attorney could tell you more.

When these kinds of disasters happen, everybody wants it to be somebody else's fault, so that somebody else has to pay for it. But often, stuff just happens, nobody's fault, uninsured. Could be anything, from deteriorating foundation block to a collapsing roof.

You hear a lot of "Why rent, when you could be building equity?" I'll give you one good reason. When you own a home, you have to maintain some kind of reserve fund or credit line, so you're prepared for these expensive disasters. Not everybody can or wants to. For some people, being able to just call up a landlord and say "fix it" might be a good thing.

IMO in some ways home ownership has been oversold. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that we as a nation haven't yet come to grips with the fact that with the decline of the middle class, the percentage of people who can genuinely afford to own homes is not what it was 40, 50, 60 years ago.

Good luck. I hope you find a way to make your house safe again.

I’m with Sophie on this one...one of the FIRST things I did at my then new (to me) home was a termite inspection and SERVICE. They come a couple times a year to bait traps, and have some kind of policy that pays for structural repair if termites get in somehow. Less than $300/yr. Cheap insurance.

DavidR, I live in CA, in an area that was previously an orchard. Hundreds of square miles in my area, used to be orchards. As a result, my area has subterranean termites. Almost all homes are tented (fumigated) after a sale, and then those homes often carry a contract. The contract is not expensive.

Termites are a known pest in Santa Clara County.

I bought the house 3 yrs ago, I didn't have termite, the previous owner had termites, and she didn't fix the damage from the termites, and so when we bought the house the inspector didn't disclose the damage, so when the insurance sent out a engineer and contractor to find out what caused the ceiling to collapsed, and that's when we found out how bad it is

3 years with no inspection or treatment for termites when there is a known problem is all on you. And it’s more than enough time for the damage that you have to occur, and the previous report to be accurate about the damage level at that time.

There will be pictures from that report that you received. Compare the current conditions with the conditions that existed in the inspection record.

And this is why you have a termite contract. Especially on any property that has had previous damage. If you had a contract, the pest control company would be on the hook.

Termite can literally eat away your most significant investment. Whether you are purchasing a new home or are an existing owner, hiring a professional pest inspection service is essential in both cases to check termite or pest related problems. Contact us.