What does a pest control guarantee actually cover?
The short answer
Ask four things: how long it runs, what it obliges the company to do — return and re-treat, refund, or repair damage — what voids it, and whether it survives a change of ownership. Most residential guarantees are a re-treatment promise, not a damage promise, and for termites that distinction is the whole value.
The three kinds you will be offered
- Re-treatment. The company returns and treats again at no charge within the period. This is the common residential guarantee.
- Refund or re-service. Less common, usually shorter, and worth reading for the conditions attached.
- Repair or damage coverage, offered on some termite agreements. It is the most valuable and the most conditional, and it typically requires annual renewal and unimpeded access for inspections.
What commonly voids one
- Missing an annual renewal or inspection.
- Alterations to the structure or the treated zone — landscaping, a new deck, a slab extension, a French drain cut through a treated area.
- Conducive conditions the owner was told to fix and did not, such as a leak or wood-to-soil contact.
- Another company treating the property in the interim.
Get the guarantee document itself, not a summary in an email. The terms that matter are the exclusions, and they are never in the sales conversation.
Also asked
- Does a termite guarantee transfer when I sell the house?
- Sometimes, often for a fee, and sometimes not at all. It is worth establishing before you buy the agreement if you expect to sell, and worth asking the seller about if you are buying a house that has one.
Read next
- Should I buy a one-off treatment or an ongoing plan?Buy a one-off job for a problem that has an end: a wasp nest, a single rodent entry sealed and trapped down, a…
- What does a termite inspection actually cover?It is a visual, non-invasive inspection of the accessible parts of the structure: the perimeter, the crawl spa…
- What should I ask a pest control company before booking?Ask what species they have identified and how, how many visits the job needs and whether they are included, wh…
- How do I check a pest control company is licensed?Ask for the company's licence number and the name it is held under, then check it with your own state or provi…
General information about pest problems and about hiring, not advice about your specific property. Pest control licensing, wildlife protection and landlord and tenant law are all set state by state and province by province across the United States and Canada, so your own regulator is the current answer. How we read the data.