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Hello, everybody, it’s Mike Stewart for the Faith Pest Control podcast here in Jasper, Georgia Ellijay, Georgia Blue Ridge, Georgia Ball Ground, Georgia, Fairmount and Calhoun, Georgia and well let’s go Georgia anywhere in this North Georgia area. Faith pest control is your go to place when it comes to Pest Control services. And today Fred is going to talk about the importance of the termite letter and what you as a homeowner or business owner need to know about that to protect your property. So Fred, tell us about the termite letter. All right, Mikey, the termite letter or what is more formerly known in the bug world anyways, the official ga wood infestation inspection report. This is a critical document in the real estate industry, as it’s the only wood infestation report recognize the state of Georgia for the legal transfer of real property. A tremendous amount of people both in the pest control industry and the real estate industry refer to this simply as the termite letter, but is actually much much more than that. This inspection report can reveal the evidence if any exist of five separate wood destroying organisms, subterranean termites only being one of them. Others include powderpost beetles, wood boring beetles, dry wood, termites, and wood the gay fungus is as well as whether any of the evidence is due to a currently active infestation or previously active infestation. And the report will also tell you any areas that are unobstructed or just totally inaccessible for inspection, as well as any conditions that are present, which may be conducive to any type of wood destroying organism activity. Up here in North Georgia, we do deal with the well the only one of the five, that wood destroying organisms listed on the report that we don’t typically deal with is dry wood termites. I’ve been doing this 20 plus years and I have only seen dry wood termites, I believe three times in every time it’s been in a product, a piece of furniture or a product that has been brought to the north Georgia area from outlying areas typically there Florida, California. In my other time that I saw it was a shipment from Costa Rica actually. Some of the more common conducive conditions that will meet may be less than on a report are inadequate or insufficient ventilation in the crawlspace wood debris inside a crawlspace and wood that is in direct contact with the soul. It just in case you’re wondering, for mail or six mil plastic sheathing is not considered a barrier. As far as wood contact is concerned, there’s wood laying on top of the plastic vapor barrier in the crawlspace is still considered wood wood the ground contact. In my experience the wood the soul contacts by far the most common conducive condition that that we as a company discover during these inspection. And really, I’ve probably 90% of the inspections we do, we will find some conducive condition. So if you ever have a wood infestation inspection report done on your home, either to buy or to sell don’t be offended if you see that on the report it it’s almost houses in Georgia. Now this report is it’s mandatory that this report be completed by a licensed Pest Control professional trained in detecting both active and inactive infestations of the listed organisms in years past.
Actually more prior to the to the real estate crashing away. The realtor would often arrange for wood infestation inspection reports, but it’s been my observation in the recent past realtors are passing this off to the either the property owner or the purchaser. Whichever one may be responsible for acquiring it. That apparently is a negotiable item in the real estate contracts. But it really doesn’t matter who’s responsible for acquiring the report. The purpose of the report is primarily for the benefit of the purchaser. To show them if there’s any wood destroying activity, the extent of the activity, that type of things. And it’s just this inspection is generally one of the items completed during what’s considered the due diligence period of the real estate contract. The report also will reveal to the purchaser if the issuing company, the company that’s issuing the report, if they’ve provided any treatment for any of the listed organisms, if the property is currently under treatment guarantee with them, it will also show specifically if and when the property was treated, what the property was treated for what type of treatment was provided, when the treatment contract expires, and whether or not the treatment guarantee is transferable. The generally speaking, if the home of the property owner already has a relationship with a pest control company, they will just get them to come do this inspection. And they will generally have some type of of treatment contract with the with the homeowner already. why it’s important that they would list on there that they they do or do not have or have or have not treated the property and if there’s still a guarantee in place, probably 75% of all of this, we are dealing with subterranean termites. But but most people don’t understand that there are the other four wood destroying organisms that are recognized by the state. Here at faith pest control, we do offer a free consultation and and about your need for a termite letter or in wood infestation inspection report. If you hire us to prepare your wood infestation report and you’re not 100% happy at the end of 30 days, we we will come back and there’s no treatment involved, but we will try We will do our best to make you happy. As a part of this letter, there are certain protections in place for the beneficiary of the letter which is generally the purchaser as well as liabilities for the issuer of the letter, whether or not any visible evidence of an infestation is found for any of the wood destroying organisms. If an insect infestation occurs within 90 days of issuance of the report, the issuing company is responsible for providing free of charge to the holder of the letter A minimum adequate treatment for control of that infestation in any conducive condition to an infestation that is known to have existed at the time of the inspection and not was not reported in is found within that 90 day period. The the issuing company must correct that conducive condition free of charge to the to the consumer. So we do we do offer a free consultation about the termite letter. And we’ll be more than happy to consult you with on that. If you would please call us and ask to speak to me Fred Talley. I’ll be more than happy to talk with you and answer any questions about the letter that you may have.
Well, Fred, thank you all for all that information. You know, you need to have this when you’re doing a real estate transaction. That’s just peace of mind for all parties concerned. You want to be able to have a peace of mind that you know there’s no wood destroying organisms when you’re doing the real estate transaction. So that’s why the termite letter is a I assume it’s a legal document of give everybody concerned in the transaction protection and assurance that there’s no problem so if you live in the North Georgia area in Jasper Ellijay Blue Ridge, Ball Ground, Fairmount Calhoun and Waleska you know you need to know about Faith Pest Control and you need to share our podcast we we transmit on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify and Amazon if you have an Alexa, all you have to say is Alexa, tune in to the faith Pest Control podcast. share this with your friends, and we will see you next time on the Faith Pest Control podcast.
