Briefly, Florida Pest Control tried everything they could to avoid fulfilling the obligations of their termite bond. They have been deceitful in claiming that there was no damage, and in refusing—until presented with incontrovertible evidence—to properly examine for damage. Their repeated delays have left my 86-year-old housebound uncle living under the stress of having half his living room wall ripped open, revealing termite-shredded studs and grotesque termite nests. For weeks we have tried to get repairs made, and the company continues to impose delays, telling us we must now wait several more weeks for repairs to even begin.
Detailed chronology:
When we found termites flying out of the walls in Spring of 2013, we called our termite bond company, Florida Pest Control, and they came out and treated the infestation. They told us we needed to wait several months before they could repair the termite damage, in order for the treatment to fully kill all the termites.
On November 20 I called the company and set an appointment for someone to come to the house on November 27 to discuss the repairs that would be needed. No one showed up. I called the company and they rescheduled for 10 am on November 29.
On November 29th, Florida Pest Control’s Branch Manager KJ Loveland and two other company employees arrived about fifteen minutes early for our scheduled appointment, and had finished their examination by the time I reached the house at 10. They assured me that they had tapped the walls and that there was no damage to the structure of the house. They proposed to patch the visible termite exit holes on the exterior of the drywall. When I pointed out that there were termite casings doting the wall from the floor up to the ceiling, and that termites must have infested the entire wall interior, Mr. Loveland assured me that these termites were NOT wood eating termites, and that they had traveled through the wall’s interior without touching the wood or the drywall. Another employee also notified me that it was not the company’s policy “to open walls to check for damage.” When I insisted that patching and painting would not be satisfactory, they agreed to return a week later with a scope to examine the wall interiors. After the men left, I began to poke around the termite holes I could reach, and my finger punched through the wallboard and through the stud behind it, which had been chewed into sawdust by termites. I called the company and told them what I found, and advised that when they returned, they needed to come prepared to make repairs to the wood structure of the walls.
On 12/6 Mr. Loveland and yet another Florida Pest Control employee returned and examined the hole I had punched in the wall with my finger. Mr. Loveland walked around the outside the house, and pointed up at the junction of the roof and the chimney, telling me I had a leak in the roof, which had caused the pesticide application to fail, and therefore Florida Pest Control was not responsible for the repairs. I explained that I would leave that determination to a court of law. Mr. Loveland scheduled an appointment for 12/11 to return with a carpenter.
On 12/11 Mr. Loveland and the company carpenter (Mike) opened the walls for examination. Mr. Loveland repeatedly asked the carpenter if he could find any signs of water damage—they could find no evidence of a leak or any evidence that water had infiltrated the walls, and Mr. Loveland finally acknowledged that Florida Pest Control would be responsible for the repairs.
I did not hear from Mr. Loveland the rest of the week. I called him on 12/16 and asked when the repairs would begin, and he told me that he was waiting for the carpenter’s contract to be approved by his supervisor, Chris (Reynolds? Richards?). I called daily—Christmas was coming up and we didn't want a huge hole in the wall, with dead termite nests as our Christmas decor for the family dinner, but I was put off again and again by Mr. Loveland. Finally, on 12/23 Mr. Loveland told me that his manager didn't like the bid offered by their carpenter, and wanted to work with a different contractor.
This second carpenter (Dwayne) came out and inspected the damage on Thursday, 12/26. I heard nothing from Florida Pest Control before the weekend, and called Mr. Loveland on Monday the 30th. On the 31st he was still waiting for approval from Chris (Reynolds?) to move forward. Finally, on January 2nd, Mr. Loveland told me that Florida Pest Control had accepted Dwayne’s bid to make the repairs. I asked Mr. Loveland to call Dwayne immediately to schedule the repairs, but Mr. Loveland said he was unable to reach Dwayne. I asked for Dwayne’s phone number and left a message for Dwayne asking him to return my call as soon as possible so we could get the repairs started quickly. Dwayne returned my call at 6 pm—he was busy with meetings all day, he told me—and said that the earliest date he had available to BEGIN the repairs was January 15.
So, after two months of evasion and misinformation, Florida Pest Control will finally BEGIN making the repairs they had known would be needed since they treated the infestation in the Spring.