What a Pest Inspection Report Should Contain

The header and the scope

The first part of the report identifies the property, the date, the technician and the licence, and states what was inspected.

The scope is the most important part of the report for a later reader. A caller who needs to show an insurer or a buyer what was looked at relies on it. An area that is marked as not inspected is a fair result; an area that is silently missing is a problem.

• The property address, the building type and the date of the inspection
• The technician's name, the credential held and the licence covering the work
• The areas inspected, including the exterior perimeter, the crawl space or cellar and the interior rooms
• The areas not inspected, and the reason for each, such as a sealed wall or a closed space
• The conditions on the day, such as recent rain, which affect how the readings should be read

Findings by location

Each finding is written against a location, with the evidence and the way it was confirmed.

A finding such as mud tubes on the north sill beside the downspout is useful. A finding such as termites found is not, because it does not say where or how it was confirmed. Each entry should name the location, the evidence and the method, whether that was a visual check, a probe, a specimen or a moisture reading.

The report should separate active evidence from old evidence. Fresh mud tubes, live insects and recent frass are different from a dry tube that has not been disturbed, and the difference matters for the treatment decision.

Photographs, readings and the record

Photographs and readings are the evidence an insurer, a lender or a buyer will ask for, and they should be taken at the same spots as the findings.

A photograph should show the location and the evidence together, with a scale such as a coin or a ruler. A moisture reading should be recorded with its location and the time. The two should match, so that a reader can see the reading and the photograph for each spot.

A household should keep the report, the photographs and the readings in one place, with the date. A second inspection can then be compared directly, which is the only reliable way to see whether a colony or a moisture problem is growing or has been stopped.

Options, limits and what the report recommends

A report sets out the options, says what each one can and cannot reach, and recommends a step with its reason.

A caller is entitled to see the options and their limits before choosing. A report that recommends a single treatment without explaining why the others are less suitable is one the household should question.

• The option, its method and the area it covers
• What the option will not reach, such as a sealed wall cavity or a joist that is not accessible
• Any repair needed to the wood or the structure, listed separately from the pest work
• The moisture or drainage change recommended, and who is responsible for it
• The alternative the household may consider, and the reason it is not the first choice

The monitoring plan and the next visit

A report ends with a monitoring plan and a date for the next check, so that the result is judged on evidence rather than on a single visit.

The plan names what will be checked, where and when, such as monitoring stations, moisture readings and the follow-up inspection. It says what result would show success and what result would prompt a change of plan.

The date of the next visit should be written on the report and confirmed by the caller. A report with no follow-up date is incomplete, because the work it describes is not finished until the result is checked.

A sample wording for a finding

A finding is most useful when it is written in plain words that say where the evidence was, what it was and how it was confirmed.

Compare two versions of the same finding. The first reads: termites found in the wall. The second reads: active mud tubes, about pencil width, running up the north face of the foundation from the soil at the downspout, confirmed by probe and by a fresh frass pile at the base. The second version tells a reader where to look, what to expect and how sure the technician is. It is the version a household should ask for.

The language should also say what the finding does not show. A tube that was found and not followed to a colony is a finding of a tube, not a finding of an infestation of the whole building. Saying so is part of an honest report, and it protects the household from acting on more than the evidence supports.

Common gaps in pest reports

Several gaps show up again and again in reports that are later questioned, and a household can check for each of them.

A report that avoids these gaps is not guaranteed to be right, but it is much easier to check, to question and to rely on. A household that finds one of the gaps should ask the company to add it before accepting the report.

• No list of the areas not inspected, so a closed space looks as if it was cleared
• Findings with no location, which cannot be compared with a later visit
• Photographs that are not labeled, so the reader cannot tell which spot each one shows
• No licence or credential named, which leaves the question of authority open
• No follow-up date, so the result is never judged against anything
• Recommendations with no alternative, so the household cannot compare the options

What to do with the report once it arrives

A household should read the report with a calendar in hand, file it in one place and make the decisions it asks for in order.

Read the report once for the findings and a second time for the recommendations. Mark the follow-up date on the calendar. File the report with the photographs and the readings in a single folder, and keep a copy in another place. If a repair is recommended, get the repair quoted separately, because the pest work and the repair are different jobs.

If the household has questions, write them down and send them to the company in writing. A written answer goes into the file with the report, and it can be read by a later technician, an insurer or a buyer.

Reports for landlords and commercial clients

A landlord or a commercial owner needs a report that works across several units or sites, with a summary and a section for each place.

The report for a rental building should have a summary page that lists every unit and its status, followed by a section for each unit with its findings. Shared areas such as the bin store, the stairwell and the roof space get their own sections. The summary lets the owner see the whole building at a glance, and the sections let a manager find the detail for a single unit.

A commercial report adds the receiving area, the perimeter and the monitoring points, with their numbers on a site plan. The log is kept with the report, so each visit can be compared with the one before. A franchise, a landlord or an inspector can then read the record without needing a briefing from the technician.

Reading a report as a buyer or lender would

A buyer or lender reads a pest report for what it covers, what it does not, and whether the findings are recent, so the report should answer those questions on its face.

A buyer's reader will look for the scope first, then for any active findings, then for the recommendations and the repairs. A report that says nothing about the areas not inspected is harder to rely on, and a report that says only that the building is clear, with no list of what was looked at, will be questioned.

A household that expects a sale or a refinancing should ask for the report in a form that states the scope, the licence and the date. The record should be complete at the time it is written, because a later request for detail is hard to meet after the technician has moved on to other jobs.

Requesting a second opinion on a report

A household can ask a second company to read the same report, and the first company should expect the request and provide what is needed.

The second reader needs the full report, the photographs, the readings and the scope. A report that is complete will let a second technician see what the first one saw, and to say where they agree and where they do not. A household that asks for the material in an organized file, rather than piecing it together, will get a faster and clearer second opinion.

A second reader is not a judge of the first company's licence or conduct. The question is whether the findings and the recommendations follow from the evidence, and the answer is a useful check before a treatment or a repair is booked.