#HomeTermiteWarranty #PropertyRights #FloridaHomeowner #TermiteControl
Hey everyone! 🏡 Have you ever had a termite warranty nightmare like mine? I need your advice!
So, we bought our new home in Florida 6 months ago, and now the pest control company wants us to pay to renew a warranty we never signed up for. They’re threatening to come onto our property, dig holes, and remove their termite stations if we don’t comply. Can they do that without our permission? 🤔
Here are some things I’ve been considering:
– Is this legal for them to do without our consent?
– Can we find a way to opt-out of this warranty?
– How can we protect our property rights while still addressing the termite issue?
Any thoughts or similar experiences you can share? Let’s brainstorm some solutions together! 🧐🤝
A warranty doesn’t give them the right to come onto your property and take the thing that’s subject to the warranty at the end of the term. Can you imagine: “Hi, this is Best Buy. Your television’s warranty is about to expire and if you don’t buy our extended warranty, we’re going to come and take your TV back.”?
A response might be “No. When the property was transferred to us, we took title to all of the property in, on or under the property. Any termite station that may be present on our property is legally our property. You are hereby ordered to stay off our property. We suggest you contact the builder with whom you made your arrangement and have that builder pay you for the traps that he sold to us as part of our property.”
[But, check everything that you signed at closing — it might be that one of the sheets of paper you signed was your agreement t let them do this.]
NAL but I am a pest control technician. They’re making it sound scary, but basically those things come out of the ground with a tug. They don’t have to “dig holes” they just remove the cylinders by pulling up. I would never recommend using those guys for service based on how they are acting, but I would recommend having someone checking those stations 3-4 times a year. They tend to get broken, and then you end up with topless termite stations which is basically a hole in your yard that won’t naturally fill itself back in over time. The cellulose cartridges also don’t last forever, so if you end up having termite activity in those stations and they eat all the cellulose, they’re gonna move somewhere else on the property that is unknown until they pop up in your wall.
The other option would just be to pull them out yourself and throw them in a bucket and tell them to come get them, atleast then you have some control over any “damage” that gets done.
Or just tell them to get fucked and leave un maintained pest equipment in the dirt until grass grows over it hope for the best.
Most of the ones I’ve seen came out easily. If they’ll tell you exactly how many are out there could you pull them up? Put them out front and warn them trash is picked up on xx day if they want them back.
Leave a review warning others how they treat people they wanted to retain as clients.
This is how termite companies create residual income. If you didn’t sign the contract, tell them to keep off your property. You’ll probably get a scary sounding letter from Dow Agriscience saying they need their property back, just ask them for the contract with your signature. They’ll back down after that. Then go find a local termite company to do periodic termite inspections, and if they find something, do a traditional trench and chemical treatment. It works better and is cheaper.
This sounds weird. For one this is not how i understand the word warrenty. They are making it sound like leasing the units, like for instance when we get internet for the house and lease the modem. Like all a warranty makes me think is if it poops the bed a year later then they ain’t helping… for free. Not we get to excavate these things.
I liken your yard units to the unit we have from a particular pest control that claims to spread pest b gone within the house’s outside walls. This is a newly built and bought house and pesty contracts with the builder when they make the homes to include such a structure to try to get future businesses. We hired him at first. Fired him the following quarter becau this little thing wasn’t killing shit. Best believe he is not going to come yank the inlets out of our walls. Even if as a lady i weren’t larger than him and i didn’t know how to box. I’m sure these here housessell and some never even call him.
What they are trying to do with you insane. If you think they are serious and i feel you do, could you get web cams for all your yard? If they come act the fool i, nal, Wooton consider it trespass a dr vandalism.
As a homeowner in Louisiana the previous owner of my house had these bait systems installed. We took over the contract because its not that much per year and the previous owner already ate the initial installation fee. We get insane termite swarms in the area and sure as hell dont want them in the house. Our house was built 2018 and is a cookie cutter subdivision surrounded by farm land and rural areas (read wooded).
My parents house in North Florida has always had a pest control contract that included termites but not the bait system.
My advice is to research if termites are a serious threat in your area and see how much the monthly plan costs. If the company that has the traps is legitimate (not one of those that goes door to door drumming up business with the do you know your neighbor Mr X we were in the area and if you sign up today since the truck will be out doing service we can sign you up for cheaper than normal).
What you dont want is if termites are a problem, they come out, remove the traps, then you realize you need the traps and get charged the initial fee again.
What the commenter who was the pest tech said I agree with entirely otherwise. Just thought to give a different perspective.