We just inspected a former customer home for termites. They were in need of a wood destroying letter for their real estate paperwork. They wanted to list their house for sale and the agent told them they needed a termite bond. We had the house under warranty but in 2012 the family decided not to renew their termite protection.
There was an Advance termite baiting system installed around the house but once the renewal had expired we stop the quarterly checks and the yearly check of the crawl space. It has been 2 years almost to the day since they let their warranty expire and the inspector found live termites in 5 locations in the crawl space.
If the warranty had been kept in place the inspector would have found the activity much sooner and been able to treat at the first sign. Luckily the termites never made it off the concrete foundation to do any damage to the house but they were on the way up.
The inspector discovered that wood used to make the form that the foundation concrete was poured into was left behind. This wood along with an untreated 2 by 4 attracted the termites.
We advise customers that it is cheaper to pay the annual renewal than to play the odds that you do not get termites. It will cost more to have your house retreated later down the line. By maintaining their warranty they would have not had to pay for the WDO Letter or the new treatment. I listed pictures below of some of the termite activity that we found.
Termites found a left over piece of wood.
Live termite workers
Form board attracting termites
