What I Wish I'd Known About My Termite Bond Before Buying the House
When we bought our first house, the inspection turned up old termite activity, treated years earlier, with a bond already in place. Our agent said the bond was a good thing, the seller said it transferred, and I nodded because everyone around the table seemed to agree it was fine. I did not ask a single useful question, and that turned out to be a mistake.
About a year later we noticed buckling near a baseboard. My first thought was relief, because we had a bond, so surely this was covered. It was not, at least not the way I assumed. The bond we inherited was a retreatment bond. That meant the company would come out and treat the home again for free, which they did, but the repair to the damaged wood was entirely on us. I had spent a year believing we were protected against something the bond never covered.
That experience taught me a few things I now tell anyone buying a home in termite country. First, there are two very different kinds of bond, and the cheaper retreatment version does not pay for repairs. If you want damage covered, you need a repair bond, and you have to ask for it specifically. Second, a transferred bond is only as good as the conditions attached to it. We later discovered there were inspection requirements we had not been keeping up with, which could have voided the whole thing.
The part that still bothers me is how avoidable it all was. Nobody hid anything from us. The information was there. I just did not know which questions mattered, so I asked none of them. If I could go back, I would have read up on how bonds and warranties actually work before sitting down at that closing table.
If you are buying a home with an existing termite bond, or thinking about getting one, do yourself the favor I did not. Learn the difference between the two bond types and check the fine print on inspections and renewals. This homeowner guide to termite bonds covers exactly the things I wish someone had walked me through before I signed.
