Brian C
United States of America#2UPDATE Employee
Sun, March 21, 2010
I am an Inspector for Antimite, I have been doing this for a long time. When we do a termite inspection, it is a visual inspection only.
No one is able to see inside of walls, unless we rip the drywall out. Inside the wall is considered to be inaccessible. This kind of thing happens frequently with every company. Someone buys a house that is in great condition, they get in there and remodel, they start ripping out walls, they see termite damage. The first one they blame is the termite company. The homeowner then gets angry that the inspector DOES NOT have x-ray vision. HYMMMMMMM. I also found no evidence in this report that there were live termites.
This rip off report by this homeowner is completely unfair, damaging to the company, and he should issue an apology.
Brian
Chris
Poway,#3Author of original report
Mon, September 25, 2006
Please replace the original report with this updated/condensed version. I purchased a home on 06/24/05 that had a full termite inspection report done by Antimite that cleared the home of any termite infestation; the date of the report was 05/27/05. On 05/05/06, I found what I believed was termite damage in my living room wall, so I contacted Antimite to discuss the matter. They told me that the inspection results were not under warrantee, however that they did tell me that they did some spot treatment (Thermal treatment) in 2004 which would be covered if it were in the area of treatment, but the area I found (of course) was not an area they spot treated, however they said they would be happy to send an inspector to check the damage in a few weeks. I found this un-acceptable, so I called Terminix and they sent someone the next day (5/8/06) who said that the living room wall damage was definitely termite damage as well as some in the garage (where Antimite spot treated). For the safety of my home, I scheduled Terminix to come out to fumigate my home, I have just did not have confidence in Antimite. The State board believes that Antimite or their insurance company should have to reimburse me for the cost of the completed treatment of this termite damage which is $2086 and was done the weekend of 5/19/06, however they do not have jurisdiction over money matters so they gave me the contact information of Antimite's bond company, HCC Surety Group. I contacted them and they looked into the matter and declined payment based on Antimite's refusal to approve it. Antimite's response thru the BBB: In response to the summary, ANTIMITE was not given an opportunity to reinspect and address the accusations against our company. The new owner chose to contract work with another company and now expects compensation. This matter was already looked into by the Structural Pest Control Board of California, which is the regulatory agency for our industry. They found the case was not correctly addressed by the complainant i.e..for not allowing ANTIMITE to reinspect the property before contracting work with another company. Because of the fore mentioned reasons ANTIMITE feels this case is closed. Sincerely, Drew Moore District Manager, North County San Diego HCC Surety Group response thru the BBB: Company has declined to cover the claim filed against bond #131759 by the consumer under directive from Antimite. My response thru the BBB: That's untrue and I have proof and so does ANTIMITE. I gave ANTIMITE the first opportunity to inspect the damage, I called on 5/506 to schedule an appointment, they gave me an unacceptable date of 5/16/06, which was not only too close to the 5/27/06 year of treatment date to be acceptable, there was also noticeable damage to my wall as well, I'm not going to sacrifice my $800,000 home to appease ANTIMITE. Also the Structural Pest Control Board does hold ANTIMITE responsible, however they have no jurisdiction in money matters (I have the letter), that's why they gave me the name of ANTIMITE'S insurance company, HCC SURETY GROUP.