Terminix Punished for Lying on Home Inspection Report

The Pest Control Giant Must Pay Close to $1 Million for “Wanton Fraud”

Terminix has suffered another loss at the hands of the termite team at Campbell Law PC. This time, the pest control giant will be forced to pay over $950,000 for covering up a beach home’s history of termite infestation and repairs. Included in the arbitration award released on November 30 are $200,000 in damages for the homeowner’s mental anguish and $300,000 in punitive damages to punish Terminix for wanton fraud.

The full details of the case are outlined in the Arbitration Award linked below. However, the gist of the story goes like this:

An active termite infestation was discovered at an Ono Island home under contract with Terminix in late 2013, and Terminix paid for repairs at the home. The pest control company’s records indicate further termite damage in January of 2014. And in June of 2014, Terminix discovered even more termite damage in the Ono Island, Alabama, home.

This Ono Island home is the very same home that the victim in this case purchased in July of 2014. Having lived through a previous ordeal with a home damaged by termites, this woman would never have purchased the home for her father, living siblings, and children to enjoy if she had known of the home’s history (and recent history, at that) of termite infestation, damages, and subsequent repair. She would never have considered completing the purchase. Surely, the Wood Infestation Inspection Report completed by Terminix before the purchase of the home would have given her the information she needed to make a sound decision, right?

Wrong. Wood Infestation Inspection Reports only provide that kind of pertinent information when they are completed truthfully and accurately. On this WIIR, Terminix “indicated no visible evidence of active or previous termite infestation” in the Findings section. And section B of the WIIR–the section that according to the Alabama Code should be a diagram of the home showing “any history of prior infestations, retreatments, and repairs made known to the company through its obligation under any contracts on the property”–wasn’t completed. That’s right: the portion of the WIIR that should have diagrammed and documented all of that termite activity, damage and repair of 2013 and 2014 wasn’t completed.

Despite the fact that Terminix knew very well that the home had been infested with and damaged by termites, despite the evidence that Terminix had that the damage was extensive and repairs were incomplete, despite the legal, contractual, and moral obligation Terminix had to disclose all of this . . . Terminix offered the new homeowner a false WIIR instead of the truth. Why would the pest control giant do such a thing? A momentary lapse in judgment? Greed? A big mixup? Moral bankruptcy? In his award decree, the arbitrator laments, “Terminix has offered no explanation for its failure to disclose on the WIIR the history of prior infestations, retreatments, and repairs on the house obviously known to Terminix in July 2014.” No reasonable excuse, no explanation, no defense. And now that term “wanton fraud” really begins to make sense.

Sadly, the rest of the story plays out for the new homeowner and her Ono Island family home as one would expect. The new homeowner poured money into renovating the property only to discover termite damage in her dream home in May of 2015. Subsequent repairs. A new Terminix baiting system. And then more damage is discovered a year later. Repairs for that damage are halted upon the discovery of more, extensive damage to the home to the tune of over $360,000 worth of termite destruction. The homeowner was swept from dream home to devastation in a matter of two short years.

Luckily the homeowner secured the expertise of the TermiteTom.com team, and after a September arbitration trial in Mobile, Alabama, has emerged victorious.

This $950,000+ judgement is the latest in a string of awards to the company’s victims for Terminix intentionally defrauding its customers. Arbitrators and judges across the southeast have been dialing in on what “Termite Tom” Campbell and his colleagues have been proving again and again: Terminix cheats and lies purposely. Over and over again.

In fact, in this case, the arbitrator explained that the claimant’s attorneys proved–clearly and convincingly–that Terminix acted wantonly. Fraud is pretty bad, right? Wanton fraud is cheating and lying “carried out with a reckless or conscious disregard of the rights and safety of others” according to the Alabama Code. Terminix’s wantonness–purposeful and dangerous–has fueled the fire in TermiteTom.com lawyers’ grit and resolve. This won’t be the last big fraud judgment against Terminix. As the dominoes continue to fall for Terminix, Campbell has no intention of letting up in his pursuit of justice for homeowners wronged by Terminix.

To read the November 30th Arbitration Award in its entirety, visit Scribd here.

Campbell Law PC maintains offices in Mobile and Birmingham and routinely represents homeowners and businesses that have termite damage because their termite companies failed to provide the termite prevention and inspection services correctly.