The Texas wood destroying insect report

If you are buying or selling a house in Texas, at some point somebody will ask for a termite inspection, and what they actually mean is a Texas Official Wood Destroying Insect Report, form SPCS/T-5.

Almost everyone treats it as a pass or fail. It is not. It is a record of what one licensed person could see, on one day, in the parts of a building that were accessible — and the Texas rules are unusually explicit that a great many parts of a building are not required to be examined at all.

Understanding the exclusions is worth more than understanding the findings, and almost nobody explains them. That is what this page is for.

Rule 4 TAC §7.175(a) is specific: inspections for the purpose of issuing a WDI report must be conducted by a licensed certified applicator or technician in the Termite and Wood Destroying Insect Control category.

Note the category. A general Pest Control licence does not cover it. The termite category is separately examined and separately maintained under 4 TAC §7.124, and it is the one that matters here. The licence page explains how to verify that somebody holds it, which takes about two minutes and is worth doing before you rely on a report.

Trainees must be named. The same subsection requires the printed name and registration or licence number of any employees receiving training who were present for the inspection to be listed on the report. If somebody was there learning, it says so.

And there is an independence attestation on the form itself. Section 7A of the T-5 carries the statement: "Neither I nor the company for which I am acting have had, presently have, or contemplate having any interest in the purchase or sale of this property." That is a conflict-of-interest declaration, and it is signed.

One form-number caution. The current form is SPCS/T-5. The older T-4 is superseded, and it still circulates on third-party form-hosting sites. If you are handed a T-4, it is the wrong document.

This is the section to read twice, and it is the reason a clear report should not be read as an all-clear. Rule 4 TAC §7.175(b) recognises these as inaccessible or obstructed:

Inaccessible attics.

Hollow wall interiors, and the spaces between a floor or porch deck and the ceiling or soffit below. Which is to say: the inside of your walls. Subterranean termites work below grade and inside structure, so the place they are most likely to be is definitionally not required to be examined.

Porte cocheres, enclosed bay windows, buttresses and similar areas to which there is no access without defacing or tearing out lumber, masonry or finished work.

Areas behind or beneath stoves, refrigerators, furniture, built-in cabinets, insulation and floor coverings. On an occupied house being sold, that is a substantial share of the floor area and most of the kitchen.

And areas where storage conditions or locks make inspection impracticable. A garage stacked to the roof, a locked shop, a crawl space hatch buried under boxes.

What to do with that as a buyer. Read the inaccessible-areas section of the report before you read the findings. If the crawl space was locked, the attic was inaccessible and the garage was full, you have a document that tells you very little — and you are entitled to ask for those areas to be made accessible and the inspection completed.

What to do as a seller. Clear the access before the inspection. Move stored material off the crawl space hatch and away from the perimeter, unlock the outbuildings, and pull items back from the walls in the garage. An inspection that can actually see the structure produces a report that is worth something to a buyer, and an inspection full of exclusions invites a renegotiation.

The form is prescribed and may not be changed. Rule 4 TAC §7.176(a): all inspection reports issued regarding the visible presence or absence of termites, other wood destroying insects and conditions conducive, in connection with a real estate transaction, must be made on a form prescribed by the department — and no alterations or revisions to that form are permitted. Larger graphs, photos or other supporting documentation may be attached as an addendum.

There must be a diagram. Under §7.175(c) the report describes the structure, gives the address or location, and includes a diagram showing approximate numerical perimeter measurements — the rule says it does not have to be to scale — along with construction details needed for clarity, areas of current activity, areas of previous activity, areas of conditions conducive, and the inaccessible or obstructed areas.

A lender's own form does not replace it. Section 7.176(b): lending providers such as the Department of Veterans Affairs may require the results on another form; that form is supplemental to the required department form and must be kept in the inspection file. Both get completed.

Copies and retention. Under §7.176(d), copies must be prepared for the person who ordered the inspection and for the business files of the licensee issuing the report. Under §7.176(e), the business licensee must retain records of inspection reports for a minimum of two years.

And note who is entitled to a copy. The form's "Forwarded To" section lists the title company, mortgagee, purchaser of service, seller's agent and buyer — but only the purchaser of the service is required to receive one. If you are the buyer and the seller ordered the report, ask for it directly rather than assuming it reaches you.

There will be a sticker. Rule 4 TAC §7.177 requires the licensee, on completing an inspection for a WDI report, to post a durable sticker on the wall adjacent to the water heater, the electric breaker box, or beneath the kitchen sink, giving the name and licence number of the licensee, the date of the inspection, and a statement that it should not be removed. It is a violation for any licensee to remove or deface one.

Which makes those stickers a free history of the building. If you are buying, go and look beside the water heater before you close. You may find a record of every inspection and treatment the house has had, with dates and licence numbers, that nobody mentioned.

If you are buying. Read the inaccessible-areas section before the findings. Check who ordered the report and therefore whose interests it was produced for. Look at the diagram — it shows where activity and conducive conditions actually are on the structure. Go and look for the §7.177 sticker by the water heater. And treat conducive conditions as a repair list rather than a dealbreaker.

If you are selling. Clear the access first — crawl space hatch, garage perimeter, locked outbuildings, storage against walls. An inspection that can see the structure produces a report a buyer can rely on; one full of exclusions invites a renegotiation you did not need. If you know there has been previous treatment, have the paperwork ready, because evidence of previous infestation without evidence of prior treatment reads very differently from the same evidence with it.

If you are a realtor or a lender. Confirm the inspector holds the Termite and Wood Destroying Insect Control category rather than a general pest licence, and confirm the report is on the current SPCS/T-5 rather than the superseded T-4. Both checks take moments and both have failed transactions before.

And if the report is clear but the house is in this region, do not read that as confirmation of the local folklore that West Texas is too dry for termites. No extension source supports that belief, AgriLife's own guidance says the opposite where moisture is available, and a clear report only ever described the accessible areas on the day.

This is a plain-language summary of published Texas rules and of the department's own form, compiled for property owners, buyers and sellers. It is not legal advice. Rules are amended — §7.175 and §7.176 were both amended in January 2023 — so the citations are printed to let you read the current text rather than trust a summary on a pest control website.