This company performed what we believed to be (and paid for) a thorough termite inspection and report on a property we were purchasing. The property is very old and we were understandably concerned about old or active termite damage and conveyed this to the company who arranged this inspection as part of a 'package' for pre-purchase home inspections.

I made special note via email of the areas that I was particularly concerned about and was assured that the inspector would thoroughly investigate those areas.

It was only AFTER we had parted with our hard earned money that they supplied a report which was full of disclaimers basically supporting that their report wasn't worth the paper it was written on.

All in all they stated that their inspection was inconclusive as they could not gain access to the roofspace (despite two manholes inside the property), they could not gain access to the underfloor as they are not permitted to touch anything covering man traps and they could not gain access to the perimeter of the property due to vegetation (which were basically weeds) so could not conclude whether there was any evidence of termite activity.

They did however state that there was no live termite activity in the garden or outbuildings.

It was suggested that an additional sum would secure a more thorough inspection (which is what I believed we had already paid for) on the property and that I would be advised to do so. It was at this point that we realised what a sham this whole thing was.

We hesitantly proceeded with the purchase totally blind on whether the place was infested with termites or not.

Immediately following settlement we contacted a reputable termite inspector who came straight out to the property and conducted a full and thorough inspection. He (amazingly) managed to perform a full inspection of the roofspace (via the manholes) and also underfloor. Not only did he crawl around under the house but he also has an electronic device which can detect the movement of termites and any old damage that may be present.

Thankfully, we did not have any live termites or old damage inside the property - a thought which had certainly caused a lot of sleepless nights leading up to settlement.

Within minutes of inspecting the outside of the property, he did locate a live and well established nest in a tree trunk in the back yard. This wasn't something that could have possibly appeared overnight. He also found numerous points with old termite damage and activity which had also not been observed or noted on the previous report.

It really made us wonder whether one, they actually inspected the correct property and two, what they were actually doing whilst they were supposedly inspecting the property.

I only wished that I hadn't trusted the company who was personally recommended to me to arrange this initial pre-purchase inspection.

I would honestly recommend people to do their homework as I managed to find a truly honest and reputable guy to perform the second inspection. Don't trust these all inclusive companies who offer to do all the pre-purchase inspections because you really don't get what you believe you are paying for.

Approximate cost: $200.00