It may sound unbelievable but it is totally true for homeowners that live in California. In this article I will expose what only a few California home owners know about using the State's free resources, The California State Consumer affairs in conjunction with the Structural Pest Control Board and the State attorney generals office, for attaining complete termite treatment and repair on their homes at no cost to the owner. Yes you heard right, at no cost to the homeowner and without limits to the extent of treatment and repairs requested performed by the homeowner. At this point as the reader, you are probably saying how can that be? It all sounds too illogical. Well, it will all be clear to you once I explain how the States Administrative law procedures work and how California homeowners also aware of the way they operate, continually take advantage of the free available service. Every day of the year, termite companies throughout the State of California are forced, co horsed and demanded to perform homeowner requested termite treatment, structural repairs and even non-termite related home repair and renovation ascetics for free. The underlying secret is in the written administrative code of the state Structural Pest Control Act Rules and Regulations. Don't worry, you don't have to read it or know anything about its laws to benefit as a California Homeowner. The pest control act is simply the governing rules for all termite & pest firms doing business in California to follow. According to it's specific administrative rules, if any firm is accused of any violation of the act or wrongdoing, they are considered by the State to be guilty. No ifs ands or butts. There is a hearing request option available for those that contest allegations but when requested the hearing is performed for the sole prosecution of alleged allegations by the State attorney generals office. It is a violation of the act in itself, to request the hearing to defend allegations and to not correct the homeowners requested treatments and repairs within 60 days of request while waiting a hearing date. With this being the case, hopefully you get the idea here, that this is clearly a catch 22 or as you might say ,Dammed if you do and damned if you don't, or also commonly referred to as a Lose Lose Situation, for any California Termite control firm accused of any wrong doing such as not finding termites or anything else the homeowner accuses them of weather truthful or not. Hopefully I have explained and clarified why these administrative laws benefit the homeowner. Now to explain how this is used daily by California Homeowners to get termite treatment and repairs performed for free by legitimate legally licensed Pest Firms. This is how one such scenario is played out by a homeowner aware of how to benefit from the catch 22 state termite regulations. Jane cleans her house daily and has been cleaning up termite evidence at two different areas inside windowsills for the past few months. She brings this to the attention of her husband Dick, who tells her to call a local pest company for a termite inspection and leaves her strict instructions to have the interior of house extra clean inside and out especially at areas where she has been cleaning up suspected termite evidence. He also tells her not to make note of any areas of suspected termites to the inspector because if there are termites, the inspector should find them regardless. Meantime Dick has his friend a gifted handyman come over and repair some wood at the exterior eaves located at the outside areas of the windowsills where Jane has noted inside termite evidence. His friend also has filled some wood imperfections perfectly with wood filler and paints all areas nicely to match. When finished as usual, It appears no work at all has been performed on the structure just as Dick likes it. The following day the Scheduled termite inspector arrives and performs a complete standard termite inspection. Upon completion of the inspection he advises Jane that no evidence of termites were found at the visible areas inspected and that she will receive a written report in the mail as to the properties inspected findings and recommendations. When Dick comes home from work that evening he is pleased with the report information given to Jane and life goes on daily as usual except! About 3 weeks later, Jane again finds termite evidence at the windowsills during her house cleaning and leaves it for Dick to see when he comes home. Dick looks at the evidence and tells Jane to leave it for his friend and handy man to look at during the weekend. That week the handyman looks at the evidence and suggests opening the wall up at areas of evidence to research further. Dick agrees, so the handyman commences to remove the wall coverings and in doing so is amazed at the revealing of thousands of live termites and significant wall framing and header damage. The handy man tells Dick to call the Termite Company that recently inspected the property and demand that they repair and treat the termites they missed finding during the recent inspection. At this point, you know and I know that the owners knew all along that they had termites and did not tell the inspector that they covered up the evidence. But that does not matter, upon demand by the owners that the termite company who checked the residence treat and repair everything, The said company will have no choice but to comply with the homeowners wishes. Their only other recourse is to allow the owner to file a state complaint of which will only force them to correct it anyway and additionally subject them to allegation prosecution by the Attorney Generals office which can only further lead to license suspension cancellation and severe fine penalties. Dick and Jane are happy with their newly renovated living room that now has new bay windows, wall coverings, paint, trim along with new drapes and matching carpets that were all complements of the Local termite company that also tented their home and supplied them with 5 Star Hotel accommodations including meals for the 4 days they needed to stay out of the home during the fumigation process. Additional they were also provided with 5 star lodging and meals for the 5 days during the remodeling repairs. Total cost to Dick and Jane was zero. Total cost to local termite company was $55,000.00. None of which was reimburse by any insurance company because the Pest industry liability insurance carriers do not pay for any damages incurred to customers unless proven liable in a court of law and that of course almost never occurs because of the licensing risks of alleged allegations according to the Pest Control Act. As the author of this article, I have 30 years plus experience working professionally as a California State Licensed Termite and Pest Control Operator. This insider information is in no way fictional. It is completely true, relevant and practiced daily. In most cases the free repair requests are made by Homeowners who have the money to treat their own termites and also pay for their own repairs but they feel that since the free corrections are so readily available and encouraged by the state that they prefer to take advantage of it. Their justification in most cases being, I pay my fair share of taxes so why shouldn't I be entitled to some free benefits? This is Part one of two on this subject. For further detailed information and step by step instruction of how a California homeowner can personally take advantage of the benefit of free termite treatment and structural repairs, simply read on below.
The following is detailed information and step-by-step instruction of how a California homeowner can personally take advantage of the benefit of State Supported and Consumer Affairs enforced free termite treatment and structural repairs performed by any State Licensed Termite Control firm.
Step One: If you have termites or think you have termites the bottom line is you need to know where they are and destroy all of their evidence that can be clearly seen and identified by a professional state licensed termite inspector. To find out where they are don’t call a pest control firm for a termite inspection. That will be one of the last steps. If you do call one first then any termites they find will go on a report filed with consumer affairs and you won’t be able to benefit from free treatment and repairs. So for now get a complete inspection for termites without having a report filed. You can do this by calling a local maintenance repair or contracting firm and asking for an estimate to repair homeowner structural damage that may be present. Have them check for any visible damage and give you a verbal report. Have them check the entire attic and all substructures in addition to all exterior eaves and siding. If your home has wood floors and they won’t crawl under the house to check then call someone who will that is not a licensed termite inspector.
Step Two: After you have all verbal estimates to repair areas damaged by termites from contractors and/or maintenance repair firms, then commence to vacuum all termite evidence at all areas where you have been told they are. Additionally fill areas of damage with a wood filler and paint to cover up damage or hide the area of damage by covering up with paneling or any other sufficient method that will prevent the areas of known termites and/or damage from being visually seen during a professional termite inspection. You can do this yourself or pay a freelance repairman to do work and cover up in the dirty areas but make sure they do it and inspect their work to be sure it is done good.
Step Three: Call 3 local termite control companies and schedule a free termite inspection with each to be performed the same day with each appointment 2 hrs apart. Advise the companies that you have no termites you can see and you just need a termite inspection prior to listing your home for sale. Tell them you will also be getting a home inspection soon. Allow all three companies to check the house and request that each mail their report of findings to you for review with your real estate agent.
Step Four: If you did your Termite evidence and damage removal and cover up correctly there should be no evidence of termites found by any of the inspection firms, however if one or even two of the inspection firms find some termite evidence then the third one that found nothing can be called back out to check, repair and correct with treatment at no charge the areas of termites and damage missed. If none of the Termite inspections noted any evidence of termites or evidence then commence to un-hide the areas of termites and/or damage previously covered up and then call each company back out and request that they correct at no charge the conditions they missed during their recent inspection.
Step Five: If none of the companies treat and repair to your satisfaction at no cost to you then call state consumer affairs structural pest control board and request complaint forms be mailed to you. From that point on the State Pest Control Board will guide you in getting your complaint resolved.
Conclusion: One main important point: Do not tell anyone you have been following these guidelines. These tactics are reserved for the political elite only. You can relax and feel good about getting your termite work and/or treatment performed for free because you have simply exercised your rights to a professional inspection governed by state licensees that most of the time perform incorrectly. In doing so you are enlightening the knowledge base of the professional licensees and aiding them to stay on their toes and do a diligent job as they are licensed too.
Additional Point of interest: California Termite control firms profit by up to 10000 %. That means for every $1 cost they charge $100.00 to the customer.
Hope you enjoy this free insider information.
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