How to Read Florida's Wood-Destroying Organisms Report

An email from the closing attorney asks for a termite letter. No such document actually exists in this state. What is really being requested is the Florida Wood-Destroying Organisms Inspection Report, form DACS-13645, adopted by the Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control, and it is the one form legally allowed for the job. It gets required on nearly every residential sale in Florida, which means most people run into it exactly once in their lives, under time pressure, and never actually learn what it says.

Who is allowed to sign one

The report has to come from somebody licensed through the FDACS Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control, or from a technician working under that license. A home inspector cannot issue one, no matter how thorough their own report happens to be. If the two get mixed up somewhere in the transaction, ask directly which document the lender needs in the file, because a general home inspection is not a substitute.

What actually gets inspected

It amounts to a careful visual look at every accessible area, plus sounding of accessible structural members near slab areas touching masonry walls and any other spot particularly exposed to attack. Accessible is the word doing all the work. A crawl space stuffed with stored boxes, a locked utility room or a finished wall all limit what can actually be seen, and the report notes exactly that.

Decks, porches and storage sheds that are permanently attached get included. A shed standing on its own at the back of the lot is not inspected as a matter of routine unless somebody asks for it, so ask if it matters to you.

Termites are not the whole story

Subterranean termites get top billing, but the report routinely notes powderpost beetles, old house borers and carpenter ants, and occasionally carpenter bees too. Evidence means activity, present or past, visible in, on or under the structure, or in the debris underneath it. An infestation treated twenty years ago still counts as evidence and still goes on the page.

Conducive conditions get written up, damage does not have to be

This is the part that catches buyers off guard. Conditions conducive to subterranean termites have to be reported, and at minimum that covers wood touching soil directly, cellulose debris under the structure, and excessively wet wood, meaning moisture sitting at twenty percent or above. Insufficient clearance between wood and soil, excess crawl space moisture, construction flaws, poor grading and wood-decay fungi can all show up on the same list.

Structural damage is a separate question entirely. The WDO is not a structural damage report, nothing requires damage itself to be reported, and the form has nothing to say about wood-decay fungi damage or wildlife problems. Anybody who needs to know what a joist can still carry should be talking to an engineer or a builder, not reading this form.

Nothing on this form is a clearance

People at closing tables across the state call it a clearance letter or a termite letter, and it is neither. It clears nothing, and it covers considerably more ground than termites alone. It is not a warranty either. Where treatment was carried out, a copy of the written agreement and warranty has to be attached to the report, and that attachment, not the form itself, is where any actual promise lives.

A clear report is neither expected nor required

This is the single most useful fact on the whole subject, and hardly anybody ever passes it along. FDACS says outright that most Florida homes over ten to fifteen years old will carry some evidence of wood-destroying organisms. Seeking out a clear report is not the goal, and one is not required to close a sale.

So a note on the form is not a deal breaker, and it is not something to panic over. What actually matters is what the evidence turns out to be, whether it is active or inactive, and what a written treatment proposal has to say about it. Leaning on an inspector for a friendlier version is a bad idea from every angle, since issuing a later no-evidence report after evidence was already found breaks the rules and can amount to fraud.

Timing, and reading the fine print

Order the report early in the transaction rather than three days out from closing, and actually read the conditions printed on the back, where the limits of the inspection get spelled out plainly. Also worth knowing: nothing in the state guidance puts an expiration date on a WDO report. If somebody in the deal claims it expires, ask them to show you where that requirement lives, because it may be their own policy rather than any rule.

The report itself is a fairly small line item locally, often running an estimated $60 to $95, and that is a guide figure rather than a quote. Sellers around Killearn Estates or Lake Jackson who would sooner avoid surprises can order one before listing and deal with any conducive conditions on their own timeline instead of the buyer's.