NPMA-33, Box by Box

Form NPMA-33 is the two-page wood destroying insect report your lender asked for, and it records what one inspector could see in the parts of your house they could physically get to, on one day. Section IV is where it names the parts they could not.

Your copy has six printed fields at the top, two boxes in the middle, a numbered key most inspectors answer with bare digits, and two signature lines. Here is what each of them holds, and who wrote it.

What does “Structure(s) Inspected” cover?

Whatever is typed on that line, and nothing else.

Section I is the block across the top of page 1, and it carries six printed fields: “Inspection Company, Address & Phone”, “Company’s Pest Control Business Lic. No.”, “Date of Inspection”, “Address of Property Inspected”, “Inspector’s Name, Signature & Certification, Registration, or Lic. #”, and “Structure(s) Inspected”.

That last one is a write-in line, and nothing printed on the form requires it to name every building on the lot. If you’re buying a place with a detached garage, a shed or a workshop, that line is where you find out whether anybody looked at them.

Two license numbers appear on a completed report, not one. The company gets a pest control business license number, and the individual inspector signs with their own certification, registration or license number beside their name. The EPA’s position is that firms offering termite services must be licensed by your state, and it tells homeowners to ask to see that license and call the state pesticide regulatory agency if anything concerns them. Both numbers are already on your copy, so you can check them without asking anyone.

“Date of Inspection” is the date every clock on this form runs from.

What are the three lines under Box B?

Three different findings, and the form keeps them apart on purpose.

Section II gives the inspector two boxes. Box A reads “No visible evidence of wood destroying insects was observed.” Box B reads “Visible evidence of wood destroying insects was observed as follows:” and it is one checkbox with three numbered write-in lines beneath it. Line 1 is live insects. Line 2 is dead insects, insect parts, frass, which is insect droppings, shelter tubes, the mud tunnels they travel in, exit holes or staining. Line 3 is visible damage.

Only line 3 records damage, and the form says twice that the person filling it in is not the person to evaluate that damage. A note printed directly under the lines calls this “not a structural damage report” and points interested parties to a qualified structural professional. Page 2 puts it plainly: the inspector’s training and experience do not qualify the inspector in damage evaluation or any other building construction technology and repair.

What a filled-in box B means for your purchase is a separate question, and I’ve gone through it in what a WDI report means.

Why is there no price on the form?

Because no field on either page asks for one.

Section III holds two printed choices. The first is “No action and/or treatment recommended: (Explain if Box B in Section II is checked)”. The second is “Recommend action(s) and/or treatment(s) for the control of:”. A recommendation goes on the form. A number never does, anywhere on it.

The rule behind that recommendation is printed on page 2, under the heading “Treatment Recommendation Guidelines Regarding Subterranean Termites”. Live termites mean treatment should be recommended. Evidence of infestation with no documented previous treatment means treatment should be recommended too, even with nothing alive on the property. Where a previous treatment is documented, treatment may be recommended, unless the structure is under warranty or covered by a service agreement with a licensed company.

Read that heading again, because it names one insect. The form defines wood destroying insects as four things: termites, carpenter ants, carpenter bees and reinfesting wood boring beetles. For the other three, page 2 sends the inspector to the NPMA suggested guidelines, a separate document that is not part of the two pages you were handed. So a box B finding on carpenter bees arrives with no printed rule beside it telling you whether a recommendation was expected.

What do the numbers in Section IV mean?

They are shorthand for what got in the inspector’s way, drawn from an optional key of 26 printed on the form.

Section IV starts with nine area checkboxes: Basement, Crawlspace, Main Level, Attic, Garage, Exterior, Porch, Addition and Other. Beside them the form says the inspector may write out obstructions or use the key. The key is numeric, so a completed Section IV can be a row of digits that means nothing to you until you have this list:

1. Fixed ceiling
2. Suspended ceiling
3. Fixed wall covering
4. Floor covering
5. Insulation
6. Cabinets or shelving
7. Stored items
8. Furnishings
9. Appliances
10. No access or entry
11. Limited access
12. No access beneath
13. Only visual access
14. Cluttered condition
15. Standing water
16. Dense vegetation
17. Exterior siding
18. Window well covers
19. Wood pile
20. Snow
21. Unsafe conditions
22. Rigid foam board
23. Synthetic stucco
24. Duct work, wiring, and/or plumbing
25. Spray foam insulation
26. Equipment

Three groups in there are worth pulling out. Items 10 through 13 are four separate grades of not looking: no access or entry, limited access, no access beneath, only visual access. Items 5, 7, 8, 9 and 14 describe an ordinary furnished house, and a seller can clear most of them in an afternoon. Items 22, 23 and 25 are building materials, so nobody is moving those for a second look.

My read is that the difference between those last two groups is the one to act on. A 7 over the crawlspace is a conversation with the seller. A 23 over the exterior is a permanent limit on what this report could ever have told you.

What makes an area inaccessible?

Small openings, low clearances, and anything the inspector would have had to take apart.

Page 2 sets out what nobody did: no inspection was made in areas requiring the breaking apart or into, dismantling or removal of any object, and it lists moldings, floor coverings, wall coverings, siding, fixed ceilings, insulation, furniture, appliances and personal possessions. Your furniture stayed where it was.

Two limits decide whether the crawlspace and the attic were entered at all. An area may be deemed inaccessible if the opening is not large enough for the inspector to get through, or if a ladder was needed to reach it. A crawlspace, or any part of one, may also be deemed inaccessible if there is less than 24 inches of clearance from the bottom of the floor joists to the surface below.

If you open one of those areas up later, the form says the company may be contacted for another inspection and that an additional fee may apply. Worth raising before closing rather than after. What the inspector is doing in the areas they can reach is on my page about the termite inspection itself.

What goes in Section V?

Anything specific to your address that isn’t a box, plus whatever came stapled to it.

The heading reads “Section V. Additional Comments and Attachments (these are an integral part of the report)”, with a separate line for attachments. The parenthesis is doing real work: a document named there belongs to the report, so a report referring to an attachment you never received is incomplete.

There is one list on the form that looks like a finding and is not. Page 2 carries a Consumer Maintenance Advisory naming factors that may lead to infestation: earth to wood contact, foam insulation at the foundation in contact with soil, faulty grade, improper drainage, firewood against the structure, insufficient ventilation, moisture, wood debris in the crawlspace, wood mulch or ground cover touching the structure, tree branches touching the structure, landscape timbers and wood decay. That paragraph is preprinted on every blank copy, so its presence tells you nothing about your house. If the inspector actually saw mulch against your siding, it belongs in Section V. What to do about those conditions is termite prevention, and it is a different job from treatment.

What am I signing at the bottom of page 1?

Two different things, depending on which side of the sale you’re on.

The seller’s line reads: “Signature of Seller(s) or Owner(s) if refinancing. Seller discloses to the buyer all information, to their knowledge, regarding W.D.I. infestation, damage, repair, and treatment history.” That is a disclosure of what they know about past infestation, damage, repairs and treatment.

The buyer’s line reads: “Signature of Buyer. The undersigned hereby acknowledges receipt of a copy of both page 1 and page 2 of this report and understands the information reported.”

You are acknowledging that you got both pages and understood them. Neither signature is an agreement to any treatment, a waiver of anything you negotiated in the contract, or a statement that you accept the findings. If you have only ever seen page 1, you’re being asked to sign for a page you haven’t read. Where a finding leaves your purchase is in what happens after a failed termite inspection, and the fee itself is covered in who pays for a termite inspection.

Is page 2 part of the report, or boilerplate?

Part of the report, and it says so in its own first line: “Please read this entire page as it is part of this report.”

Page 2 is titled “Important Consumer Information Regarding the Scope and Limitations of the Inspection”, and page 1 carries a printed notice pointing you to it. Four of its provisions appear nowhere else on the form.

It sets the scope, limiting the inspection to those four insects and excluding mold, mildew and non-insect wood destroying organisms. It states there is no warranty, express or implied, related to the report unless state regulations require one or a written warranty or service agreement is attached. It separates inspecting from working: the firm is not responsible to repair damage or treat an infestation except by separate contract. And it carries the ninety-day clause that makes the report invalid for securing a mortgage or settling a transfer, which the form immediately says is not a ninety-day warranty.

Page 2 also refers the inspector to the NPMA Suggested Guidelines for instructions on completing the report. Like the guidelines for the other three insects, that document is not attached to your copy.

Does my state use a different form?

Some do, and in those states this form is either an attachment or the wrong document.

California’s Structural Pest Control Board says its WDO Report, form 43M-41, supersedes the NPMA-33 there, and that an inspector who does complete an NPMA-33 must provide it as an attachment to the 43M-41. Texas prescribes its own report, form SPCS/T-5, for real estate transactions, and treats a lender’s form as supplemental to it and something to keep in the inspection file. Georgia’s Structural Pest Control Commission makes the Official Georgia Wood Infestation Inspection Report the instrument for certifying a structure as apparently free of wood destroying organisms for a property transfer. Tennessee prescribes no form of its own and sends inspectors to the forms prescribed by the National Pest Management Association and HUD.

Which applies at your address is worth settling before you argue with anyone about paperwork, and I keep that in state termite letter requirements.

What I’d check first

Section IV, before anything else on the form. A clean box A over a Section IV listing the crawlspace, the attic and half the exterior is a much weaker statement than a clean box A over an empty one, and the two look nearly identical at a glance.

Then the “Structure(s) Inspected” line, because a report on the house says nothing about the garage. Then Section II, and only then Section III.

That order, plus the things only you can check because you were standing there on the day, is on one printable page as the inspection and report check.

I haven’t seen your report or your house, and both matter more than anything I can say here. What I’m confident about is the order: how much was looked at, then what was found, then what anybody wants to charge you for it. Where the report fits into the rest of a purchase is in my guide to termite inspection for home buyers.

Sources

• Form NPMA-33: Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report — National Pest Management Association, hosted by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, form dated 2019-07-01. Accessed 2026-08-06.
• Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Use of the National Pest Management Association’s Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Form (NPMA-33) in California — California Structural Pest Control Board, undated. Accessed 2026-08-06.
• Instructions for the Texas Official Wood Destroying Insect Report (Form SPCS/T-5) — Texas Department of Agriculture, revised 2019-09-01. Accessed 2026-08-06.
• Rules of the Georgia Structural Pest Control Commission, Rule 620-6-.03 — Georgia Department of Agriculture, effective 2026-04-08. Accessed 2026-08-06.
• E&PP Info No. 714, Summary of the Federal and State Pesticide Laws and Regulations — University of Tennessee Extension Pesticide Safety Education Program, undated. Accessed 2026-08-06.
• Termites: How to Identify and Control Them — US Environmental Protection Agency, updated 2025-10-21. Accessed 2026-08-06.