"No active termites found" — does that mean the property is clear?
It means no live termite activity was detected during that inspection, in the accessible areas. It is not a statement that the property has no termites, and it says nothing about past damage or future risk.
Timber pest inspections in Australia are generally carried out to AS 4349.3, which is a visual inspection of accessible areas. The standard itself is explicit that it is limited. The report will say so; buyers read the headline and stop.
Three separate things get collapsed into "clear" in a buyer's mind:
- No ACTIVE termites — none alive and working, today, where the inspector looked.
- No EVIDENCE of past activity — a different finding, and a much stronger one.
- No CONDUCIVE conditions — no damp, no timber-to-soil contact, no blocked weepholes. This is about future risk, and it is where most reports have something to say.
A report can truthfully say no active termites were found and still describe extensive past damage, or conditions that make an infestation likely. Read the whole thing, not the summary line.
Pay particular attention to what the inspector could NOT access: subfloor, roof void, inside walls, behind stored goods, a locked garage. Termites are not usually in the places that are easy to inspect. A report listing several inaccessible areas is telling you the inspection was partial.
For strata, there is an extra wrinkle: a timber pest inspection of your lot says nothing about the common property. Damage to a shared pergola, fence or subfloor is the owners corporation's problem to fund — which makes it partly yours.
What to ask
Copy these into an email. The people below can answer them; we can’t.
- To your building and pest inspector: which areas could you not access, and what would it take to inspect them?
- To your building and pest inspector: is there evidence of past treatment or past damage, and are there conducive conditions that should be fixed?
Want this found in your own documents?
Home Decoded reads your building, pest, strata and contract reports and pulls out what matters — with the exact quote and page behind every finding, so you can check it against the original.
Related
General information about what these documents say — not legal, building or financial advice, and not a substitute for your conveyancer, solicitor or licensed inspector. Law and practice change, schemes differ, and your contract may say something different from the general position described here.