The WDI Report Form, Section by Section
Why this matters
A wood destroying insect (WDI) report is the one document a pest company signs that a stranger will rely on for a purchase decision. The buyer reads it, the lender files it, and if a termite colony shows up behind the drywall eight months after closing, an attorney reads it line by line asking what the inspector committed to. Most claims against WDI inspectors are not about missing termites; they are about a form that said more than the inspector saw, or said less about what he could not see. This card walks the form section by section and names what each box commits you to. The inspection itself is covered in Wood Destroying Insect Report Inspection.
Which form, and what every version shares
Use the form your state or the lender requires. Several states prescribe their own WDI form and make its use mandatory for licensed inspectors; elsewhere lenders and loan programs name a form, and a widely used industry form fills the gap. Check your state lead agency for whether a state form is required and which license category may sign it. The office should keep the current version on file and retire old ones the day a revision is published, because a superseded form can be rejected at closing.
Every version shares the same skeleton: who and where, what was inspected, what was not and why, what was visibly found, whether there is evidence of previous treatment, and who signs. The commitments below hold across versions even where the box labels differ.
The mock form
The example is a 1970s single-story home over a crawlspace with an attached garage, inspected for a purchase.
WOOD DESTROYING INSECT INSPECTION REPORT
-----------------------------------------------------
SECTION 1 PROPERTY AND PARTIES
Address: 418 Alder Lane
Structures inspected: house, attached garage
Not included: detached shed (not requested)
Inspection date: 10/14 Report date: 10/14
Requested by: buyer's agent
Company / license no. / inspector license no.
SECTION 2 AREAS NOT INSPECTED AND WHY
Crawlspace NE quadrant: duct trunk blocks access,
clearance under 12 in
Garage W wall: stored boxes floor to ceiling
Attic: blown insulation covers ceiling joists
SECTION 3 FINDINGS (visible evidence only)
[ ] A. No visible evidence of WDI observed
[X] B. Visible evidence observed:
[ ] live insects [ ] dead insects or parts
[X] damage: sill plate, N wall, 6 ft from NE
corner; subterranean termite galleries
[ ] frass or exit holes
SECTION 4 EVIDENCE OF PREVIOUS TREATMENT
[X] Yes: patched drill holes in garage slab
along house wall
Company and date of treatment: unknown
SECTION 5 RECOMMENDATIONS / REMARKS
Damage noted; extent not determined. Refer to a
qualified contractor for evaluation.
See attached graph.
SECTION 6 SIGNATURES
Inspector signature and license no.
Receipt acknowledged (buyer), date
-----------------------------------------------------
Section 1: property and parties
What it commits you to: that you inspected these structures at this address on this date, and only these. List every structure you inspected and every structure on the lot you did not, with the reason ("not requested"). A detached shed, a deck, a fence or a garage apartment left off the form will be argued to have been inspected and found clear.
The inspection date is the anchor for everything else. The form reports conditions on that date. If the report is issued days later, both dates go on it, and nothing observed after the inspection date belongs on this form; it belongs on a new inspection.
Section 2: areas not inspected, and why
This is the section that protects the inspector, and the one most often filled in lazily. A blank here says, in effect, "I saw everything." Each inaccessible area gets three things: where it is, why you could not see it, and enough detail that a reader could arrange access and re-inspect.
Good: "Crawlspace NE quadrant: duct trunk blocks access, clearance under 12 in." The reader knows exactly which quarter of the crawl is unknown and why.
Bad: "Some areas inaccessible due to storage." It names no area, so it protects nothing, and it reads like boilerplate a court will discount.
Finished walls, floor coverings, insulation, stored goods, exterior siding and below-grade surfaces are all routine obstructions. A visual inspection does not move furniture or open walls; your form's general terms usually say so, but the specific list is what a reader relies on. Note where you probed and sounded as well, because "inaccessible" and "accessible but not probed" are different claims. See related: How to Probe and Sound Wood for Hidden Termite Damage.
Section 3: findings, visible evidence only
What it commits you to: that on the inspection date, in the areas you inspected, you did or did not see the listed evidence. It does not certify the structure is free of insects, and it does not guarantee nothing is hidden. The words "visible" and "observed" carry the whole legal weight of this section; do not replace them with "no termites" or "no infestation" in your remarks.
Box A and box B are mutually exclusive. If any evidence category in B is checked, A is not. An inspector who checks A and then writes "old damage at sill" in remarks has issued a contradiction, and the reader will be told to resolve it against you.
Name the insect and the location for each item. "Damage: sill plate, N wall, 6 ft from NE corner; subterranean termite galleries" lets a contractor find it. The insect identification matters because the forms typically list several insect groups (subterranean and drywood termites, carpenter ants, carpenter bees and reinfesting wood-boring beetles are common), and treatment differs by group. Use the field signs in Pest Activity Signs Reference and the tube reading in Mud Tubes: Working, Exploratory, Drop and Swarm.
Live insects get their own box for a reason. Live termites in a tube, or live beetles emerging, mean active infestation on the inspection date. Damage alone does not. Do not check "live insects" on damage that merely looks fresh; and do not infer "inactive" from no live insects seen. The form reports what you saw, and active versus inactive is a judgment the form usually does not ask you to make. The case where old damage and no live termites meet is worked in The WDI Inspection With Old Damage and No Live Termites.
Damage is noted, not measured. Write "extent not determined" unless the form asks you to estimate and you are qualified to. A WDI inspector is not a structural engineer. Saying "minor damage" commits you to a structural opinion; saying "damage observed, extent not determined, refer for evaluation" commits you only to what you saw.
Section 4: evidence of previous treatment
What it commits you to: that you saw signs a structure was treated before, not that the treatment worked, when it happened, or who did it. Patched drill holes in a slab, bait station caps in the soil, treatment stickers in an electrical panel or under a sink, and service records the seller produced all count. Write the evidence specifically, and write "unknown" for company and date unless a document in hand says otherwise.
A previous-treatment finding often sits alongside damage, as in the mock: the drill holes suggest the damage may predate a treatment. That inference is reasonable but not yours to put on the form. The lender and buyer decide what to do with it, often by asking for the prior company's records or a treatment warranty transfer.
Section 5: recommendations and remarks
Remarks should add specificity, not opinion. Good remarks point to the attached graph, clarify a finding's location, or state a referral. Avoid three things: guarantees ("no further action needed"), structural judgments ("damage is cosmetic"), and conditional findings ("possible old activity"). If you are not sure an item is WDI damage, either probe until you are, or note what you saw and that you could not confirm it.
A treatment recommendation is a business statement. Some forms ask whether treatment is recommended. Recommend treatment when visible evidence of an active infestation is present or where your state's rules for the form require it; where the evidence is old and previous treatment is documented, the honest answer may be that no treatment is recommended by this report, with a referral to the prior company's warranty. Do not recommend treatment to sell a job, and do not withhold a recommendation to avoid a conflict with the seller's agent.
Moisture and conducive conditions (wood-to-soil contact, standing water in the crawl, leaking plumbing) may have a box on your form or may belong on a separate document. Do not let them leak into the findings section as if they were insect evidence. See related: Moisture and Conducive Condition Report.
Section 6: signatures and license lines
What it commits you to: that a properly licensed person performed the inspection and stands behind the report. The signer must be the inspector who did the work, or a person your state permits to sign under supervision, holding the license category your state requires for WDI inspections. Check your state lead agency; a report signed by an uncredentialed tech can void the whole document.
The buyer's acknowledgment line, where your form has one, proves the report reached the person relying on it. Get it signed or record how and when the report was delivered.
How to verify the form before it goes out
Read it as the opposing attorney will, in this order:
- Every structure on the lot appears in Section 1, as inspected or excluded with a reason.
- Every obstruction you met during the inspection appears in Section 2 with location and reason. Compare against your field notes and photos, not memory.
- Section 3 has exactly one of A or B checked, and every checked category has an insect and a location.
- Remarks contain no guarantee, no structural opinion and no finding contradicting a checkbox.
- The graph matches the findings: every damage location in Section 3 appears on the graph with the same wall and distance. See related: How to Draw the WDI Inspection Graph.
- The signer holds the right license, and both dates are present.
On the mock, item 5 would catch a graph that marked damage on the east wall when the finding says north. The office review that runs these checks before issue is set out in The WDI Report Review and Issue SOP.
References
- See related: Wood Destroying Insect Report Inspection
- See related: How to Draw the WDI Inspection Graph
- See related: The WDI Report Review and Issue SOP
- See related: Moisture and Conducive Condition Report
- Your state lead agency for pesticide regulation: required WDI form, licensing category and signature rules