The WDO report: What a Florida Termite Letter Really Says

The official name, the rule behind it, and who may sign

The full title is the Florida Wood-Destroying Organisms Inspection Report, form DACS-13645. It was adopted by the Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control and the requirement sits at Chapter 5E-14, Florida Administrative Code. It is the only form legal for this purpose in Florida, and it is required on almost every residential structure sold in the state.

It has to be issued by someone licensed by the FDACS Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control, or by a technician working for that licensee. A home inspector cannot sign one. That distinction catches people out here, because a home inspection and a wood-destroying organism inspection often happen in the same week and end up in the same folder.

If you have moved to Tallahassee from another state you may be looking for a different form with a different name. Florida does not use those. There is one form, it has one number, and asking for it by that number saves a week of email.

Which office signs that form often comes down to who already holds the file on a house. A lender closing on a place near Killearn Estates or off Velda Dairy Road wants the same company that inspected it back for the follow-up, and out toward Bradfordville and Bannerman Crossing, where new construction keeps pulling inspectors north, the pros we connect you with track which license number covers which subdivision rather than assuming one franchise reaches every corner of Tallahassee.

What the inspection covers, and what accessible means

The inspection is a careful visual examination of all accessible areas, plus sounding of accessible structural members adjacent to slab areas in contact with masonry walls and other areas particularly susceptible to attack. That sentence carries more weight than it looks. Accessible sets the boundary of the entire document, and sounding is the only part of the process that finds damage inside wood whose surface looks sound.

Evidence means present and past activity visible in, on or under the structure, or in or on debris under it. A pile of dropped wings on a window sill counts. A dry mud tube on a pier counts. Frass under a joist counts. Nothing in the wording lets an inspector leave old evidence off because it looks finished.

Permanently attached decks, porches and storage sheds are part of the structure and are included. Detached outbuildings are not routinely inspected. If the workshop at the end of the drive matters to you, ask for it when you book and expect it priced as an addition.

Accessibility gets tested against real terrain once Tallahassee inspectors head out past the loop, and distance changes what "accessible" even means. A pier-and-beam place near Killearn Lakes with a tight, low crawl space demands different tools than a slab home off Bannerman Road. Farther out toward Lloyd, along the US 90 corridor, detached tank sheds and outbuildings near Lloyd Creek get flagged the same way — noted, not opened, unless someone asked ahead and paid for it.

The insects the form names

Subterranean termites are the headline and, in Florida, by far the most common finding. There are at least three native species behaving in much the same way, with the eastern subterranean termite doing most of the work. Swarming here runs from late winter into September or October, in daylight, usually on warm days after rain, so an inspection in June is not out of season.

The form covers a good deal more than termites, which is one reason the termite letter nickname misleads. Powderpost beetles, old house borers and carpenter ants are commonly noted, and carpenter bees turn up as well, usually in fascia, a deck rail or a porch ceiling where bare softwood was left facing the weather.

One line on a report worth reading twice is the species. Florida has the native eastern subterranean termite, which is what most Leon County houses meet, and it also has the Formosan subterranean termite, which has worked its way through most of the state's major cities over the past forty years and into the Panhandle. Those two are treated differently and a Formosan colony moves faster, so a report that says 'subterranean termites' and stops has not finished. Drywood termites are a third thing again and need no contact with soil at all, which is why a house can have them with a perfectly good soil treatment in the ground.

Conditions conducive, and the 20 percent number

Conditions conducive to subterranean termites must be reported. This is the part of the form that changes what you actually do next, because a condition is something you can correct, usually for less than a treatment costs.

• Wood sitting in direct contact with soil
• Cellulose debris under the structure, including scrap and old form boards
• Excessively wet wood, meaning a moisture content of 20 percent or greater
• Not enough clearance between wood and soil
• Excessive moisture in the crawl space itself
• Structural or construction flaws
• Improper grading that runs water toward the structure

What the form does and does not cover

Wood-decay fungi may also be listed as a conducive condition, and the difference there is worth holding on to: the presence of the fungi can be listed, while the damage it has done is not part of the report at all.

The 20 percent figure is worth writing on the back of your hand. It is measured rather than judged, and it is the line at which wood is called excessively wet on a Florida report. In the Big Bend that matters more than it sounds, because the surface drains fast while the ground beneath holds damp, so a crawl space can sit above that number for months under a yard that looks bone dry.

Why nobody should be chasing a clear report

This is the most useful thing FDACS publishes on the subject and almost nobody in this market repeats it: a clear report is not to be sought and is not required to close. The reason given is straightforward. Most Florida homes over 10 to 15 years old will show some evidence of wood-destroying organisms.

Which makes a report with entries on it the normal outcome rather than a red flag. A 1970s ranch in Betton Hills with an old mud tube on a pier and a note about mulch against the siding is an ordinary house, correctly reported. Treat that document as a failure and you will spend real money proving nothing.

The pressure to produce a clean sheet has an ugly end. Issuing a later report showing no evidence, after evidence was found, violates the rules and could be considered fraud. If somebody offers to take another look and write it up more helpfully, that is the offer being made, and it puts the license of the person signing at risk along with your transaction.

Not a warranty, and clearance letter is wrong twice

Two nicknames follow this form around and both mislead. Clearance letter is wrong twice over, because the form clears nothing and because it covers more than the thing people mean by clearance. Termite letter is wrong because the report names beetles, borers, ants and sometimes bees as well.

It is also not a warranty. A report describes what an inspector saw on one day. A warranty is a separate written agreement with obligations in it, and in Florida that agreement has to carry the licensee's name and business address, the buildings covered, the period and the renewal option, the organisms by name, whether it treats or prevents, the inspection intervals, the conditions for re-treatment and repairs, and the total maximum price with the exact annual renewal fee.

When a treatment is done, a copy of that written agreement and warranty must be attached to the report. If you are handed a WDO report that references a treatment with nothing attached, the file is incomplete, and the missing pages are the only ones with obligations in them.

Timing, and why there is no expiry date to quote

Nothing in the state's material puts a validity period on this form. If you have heard that these reports expire after thirty days, that is another state's rule for another state's paperwork. Do not repeat it and do not pay for a second inspection because somebody told you a clock ran out.

The reason a buyer or lender might still want a fresh look has nothing to do with paperwork. Termites need a crack of about 1/32 inch and build shelter tubes at roughly two and a half inches an hour, so a structure with conditions conducive left uncorrected can produce visible evidence within days of an inspection that found none. The document does not go stale. The house changes.

A workable sequence for a sale here: book the report early, read the conditions printed on the reverse, get any treatment proposal in writing with the warranty type stated on it, and keep every page together. A complete file is worth more at the closing table than a short one.