The Six Things a Florida Termite Warranty Must Say

The Six Required Items, Checked in Two Minutes

Read the agreement before the treatment, not after. Florida requires this document in writing and requires it to contain at least six specific things. If even one is missing, that's reason enough to stop and ask questions.

Tallahassee homeowners rarely see this paperwork until money is already spent, and location changes what's worth checking. A house near Killearn Lakes with a slab addition, a place off the SR 20 corridor toward Fort Braden with pier-and-beam framing, or a property closer to St. Marks with high groundwater each face different structural risk, which is exactly why the warranty has to name the treated structure and its coverage limits in writing, not gesture at "the property" in general.

• The licensee's full legal name and business address, plus the address being treated
• Whether the work is treating an existing infestation or preventing one
• The location of any visibly damaged timbers, marked on a diagram
• Whether re-inspections are included, and roughly how often
• The specific conditions under which re-treatments happen
• The total price charged for the treatment service

The Diagram Everyone Skips Over

That list is the single most useful thing on this page, and no company in this market publishes it voluntarily. Bring it to the kitchen table alongside the paperwork and check the six off one by one. A company that can't produce a diagram, or won't put re-treatment conditions in writing, is telling you exactly what its warranty is worth.

The renewal fee sounds like boilerplate, but it's the opposite. Florida requires the contract to state the exact annual figure, because renewal is what keeps the re-treatment obligation alive at all, and a lapsed bond takes the whole promise down with it. Without that figure written down, a renewal invoice three years out is just somebody else's number against your memory.

It also has to state active or inactive, and that single word decides exactly what you're buying. Active means treatment starts now. Inactive means evidence of something no longer active, which is common here and often calls for correcting conditions rather than a full treatment. One related requirement worth knowing: when evidence turns up or a proposal gets issued, the technician has to measure the structure and graph or sketch it, so the application rate and price come from the actual building. Anyone quoting from the driveway without a tape measure skipped that step entirely.

That diagram matters as much in Tallahassee as anywhere the pros we connect you with cover, but the building underneath it changes by neighborhood. A slab off Velda Dairy Road in Killearn Estates measures differently than a raised foundation nearer Betton Hills, and homes ringing Lake Killarney or backing onto Shannon Lakes add moisture the sketch has to account for. Out toward Bradfordville, where Meridian Road's canopy shades the soil year-round, that same graph can call for a different rate entirely.

The Three Agreement Types, Compared

The names sound similar; the products aren't. This is where real money gets won and lost, usually years after the signature dries.

Re-Treatment Only, Explained Plainly

This is standard industry practice, and most agreements of this type run one year following the initial treatment, renewable afterward. If termites turn up during the agreement period, the company treats again. There's no obligation to repair anything at all.

The honest way to describe it: it buys you another treatment, not a joist. If termites come back and eat through a sill plate, the company owes you the treatment and you own the carpentry bill. That can still be the right product, particularly on a slab home where structural wood is easier to reach and inspect, making an early catch likely.

What makes it genuinely worth holding is the re-inspection interval written into it. A yearly look from somebody who already knows the house, with a written report every time, is what turns a re-treatment warranty from a piece of paper into an actual early warning system.

Damage Repair Coverage, and the Criteria Nobody Mentions by Phone

A re-treatment and damage repair agreement obligates the company to repair, replace or correct damage up to a stated amount, for damage occurring after the initial treatment. Read both halves of that carefully. There's a cap, and it doesn't cover whatever was already eaten before they arrived -- exactly why the diagram showing visibly damaged timbers matters so much.

Not every company offers it, and the structure typically has to meet certain criteria to qualify at all. In practice that means accessible areas, wood clear of soil, moisture under control, and conducive conditions already corrected. A house with a crawl space reading 20 percent wood moisture or higher probably won't qualify until that moisture gets addressed, and that's a reasonable position, not a dodge.

If it's offered, ask for the stated amount in actual figures, ask what's excluded, and ask what happens at renewal. On an older frame house over a crawl space, the extra premium often makes sense. On a slab home just treated with conditions already corrected, re-treatment only may be all you actually need.

No Guarantee at All, and Why That Absence Must Be Written Down

The third type is no guarantee or warranty whatsoever, and Florida requires that absence to be clearly stated in the agreement. That's a genuine protection -- it means a company can't quietly sell you a treatment you believe is covered while counting on you never actually reading the document.

There are legitimate reasons to buy an uncovered treatment. A localized job on a detached structure, or a spot treatment where the owner's decided to correct conditions themselves, can be perfectly sensible. What isn't sensible is discovering in year two that the word warranty was never in the paperwork to begin with.

So the question worth asking before anything gets signed is short: which of the three am I buying, and where does it say that? A clear answer takes ten seconds. A vague answer is itself the answer.

The Proposal, the 30-Day Clock, and What Baits Cost Long-Term

A proposal is meant to be more than just a price tag. It should include the initial inspection, a detailed treatment proposal, a complete treatment plan, a walkthrough of the agreement's provisions, and the continuing agreement or warranty itself. If what landed in your inbox is a single dollar figure, most of the actual document is missing.

On re-treatment, the obligation runs within 30 days of written notice under Chapter 5E-14, Florida Administrative Code. Written is the key word there. A phone call to the office doesn't count as notice. Send an email or letter, keep a copy, and note the date -- that date is what starts the clock the rules attach to.

One more thing worth pricing with eyes wide open: maintaining a bait system agreement normally costs more than maintaining a conventional treatment warranty. Baits earn their keep where a well sits on the property, where an area simply can't be reached, or where the owner has genuine concerns about soil treatment. They don't create a barrier and generally don't deliver quick control. That's a real trade-off, and it should be a deliberate decision rather than a default choice.