- FHA does not require a termite inspection on every existing Nevada home. Handbook 4000.1 makes the appraiser's own observation the trigger. If the appraiser sees evidence of infestation, or is told about one, the appraisal goes out subject to inspection by a qualified pest control specialist, and only then does a report become mandatory.
- A prior treatment counts as evidence. HUD's wording is "evidence or notification of infestation, including a prior treatment." A house that was treated years ago and has been clean since can still send the appraisal out subject to inspection, which surprises most Las Vegas buyers.
- New construction is the opposite, and this is the part almost nobody states correctly. HUD's Termite Treatment Exception Areas list names sixteen states with counties that are excused. Nevada is not one of them, and the table's closing row reads "Remainder of States: Required," so a Wood Infestation Report is required on FHA new construction in every Nevada county, Clark included.
- Nevada mandates the FORM, not the INSPECTION, and the mandate is in the regulation itself. NAC 555.430 requires the report to be on a numbered form supplied by the Nevada Department of Agriculture, or an approved electronic form carrying a unique Department number, which rules out the national NPMA-33. The same section requires the report to carry the FHA or VA escrow or mortgage number. What no part of NRS or NAC Chapter 555 does is require an inspection to happen as a condition of a sale.
- The confusion in search results is really an FHA-versus-VA mix-up. VA publishes a county list, and Clark County is on it, so wood destroying insect information is required for a VA purchase here. FHA publishes no such list for existing homes. Pages that say "Nevada requires a termite inspection for FHA and VA loans" are right about VA and wrong about FHA.
FHA does not require a termite inspection on every Nevada home. On an existing property, HUD Handbook 4000.1 triggers one only when the appraiser sees or is told of evidence, or when your lender asks.
New construction is the opposite. Nevada appears nowhere on HUD's Termite Treatment Exception Areas list, last revised 11/03/2021, so a Wood Infestation Report is required in every Nevada county, Clark included.
That split is the whole answer, and it is the reason two honest sources can look like they contradict each other. The rule that governs an existing Las Vegas resale and the rule that governs a brand new house in Skye Canyon are written in different parts of the same handbook and point in opposite directions.
Everything below is read out of the current edition of HUD's handbook, out of the Nevada Administrative Code as it stands today, out of the Nevada Department of Agriculture's own published position, and out of the Department of Veterans Affairs' county list. Where a widely repeated claim did not survive that reading, this page says so and shows the text.
- Existing home: no automatic inspection. The FHA appraiser observes the foundation and perimeter, and only escalates if there is evidence.
- New construction: a Wood Infestation Report is required, because Nevada has no counties on HUD's exception list.
- The form: Nevada's own Wood Destroying Pests Inspection Report, not the national NPMA-33. HUD's handbook expressly accepts "the state mandated infestation report."
- Nevada law: NAC 555.430 dictates the form, the deadlines and the thirteen required contents of the report. It does not require an inspection to be done at sale.
- If something is found: the property has to be free of wood destroying insects and organisms before the loan closes, and your lender must hold evidence of the treatment.
Does FHA require a termite inspection in Nevada?
No, not automatically. FHA requires that the property be free of wood destroying insects and organisms; it does not require that every existing home be inspected to prove it.
The current Handbook 4000.1, last revised August 12, 2026, puts the decision in the appraiser's hands, and the mortgagee's obligation only bites once the appraiser has escalated.
Here is the rule that governs an existing Nevada home, in HUD's own words:
For existing Properties, the Mortgagee must confirm that the Property is free of wood destroying insects and organisms. If the appraisal is made subject to inspection by a qualified pest control specialist, the Mortgagee must obtain such inspection and evidence of any required treatment to confirm the Property is free of wood destroying insects and organisms.HUD, FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1, II.A.3, Underwriting the Property, (Q) Termites, page 197 · hud.gov
Read that carefully, because the conditional in the second sentence is doing the work. The obligation to obtain an inspection is not free-standing. It attaches only "if the appraisal is made subject to inspection." No trigger, no required report.
That is a meaningfully different rule from the one most articles describe, and it matters in a market like ours. A clean Clark County resale with no visible evidence, bought with an FHA loan, can and routinely does close without a wood destroying insect report at all. Your lender may still choose to order one, which is a separate matter covered below.
The condition standard the appraiser is applying here is the same one that governs roofs, wiring, and handrails, and it is worth reading alongside our guide to FHA appraisal requirements in Nevada, which covers what else that visit is looking for.
What actually triggers an FHA wood destroying pest inspection?
The FHA appraiser's observation is the trigger. Handbook 4000.1 tells the appraiser to look at the foundation and perimeter, and to escalate on evidence or notification of infestation, expressly including a prior treatment. The lender may also require a report on its own initiative.
The Appraiser must observe the foundation and perimeter of the buildings for evidence of wood destroying pests. The Appraiser's observation is not required to be at the same level as a qualified pest control specialist. If there is evidence or notification of infestation, including a prior treatment, the Appraiser must mark the evidence of infestation box in the "Improvements" section of the appraisal and make the appraisal subject to inspection by a qualified pest control specialist.HUD, FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1, II.D.3.m.iii, Wood Destroying Insects/Organisms/Termites, page 829 · hud.gov
Three things in that passage decide real Las Vegas files.
- "Including a prior treatment." This is the sentence buyers get caught by. A seller disclosure that mentions a termite treatment in 2019, a warranty sticker in the garage, or an old bait station in the side yard is notification. The appraiser is not being difficult by marking the box; the handbook tells them to.
- "Not required to be at the same level as a qualified pest control specialist." The appraiser is not a pest inspector and is not expected to find hidden activity. They are doing a visual pass on the foundation and perimeter. This is exactly why a passing appraisal is not a clean bill of health, and why an independent FHA inspection checklist for Las Vegas buyers is worth working through separately.
- The box on the appraisal form. "Evidence of infestation" is a checkbox in the Improvements section of the appraisal report. Once it is ticked, the appraisal is delivered subject to inspection, and the lender's obligation from the previous section switches on.
There is a fourth trigger that has nothing to do with HUD: your lender. Investors and individual mortgagees are free to impose overlays that are stricter than FHA's floor, and a lender that wants a wood destroying insect report on every file in a termite-active market is entitled to ask for one.
That is a lender requirement, not an FHA requirement, and it is a fair question to ask before you choose who to work with.
Watch this oneA widely repeated line says FHA requires an inspection "if there is evidence of active infestation, if mandated by the state or local jurisdiction, if customary to the area, or at the lender's discretion." That framing comes from HUD's HOC Reference Guide, a page HUD itself stamped "Content Archived: November 2, 2012." The word "customary" appears nowhere near wood destroying pests in the current handbook. Useful history, not the live rule.
Which edition you read decides the answer, and that is not a hypothetical worry on this topic. The four documents that govern a Nevada FHA file each carry their own revision stamp:
HUD Handbook 4000.1
Update 18. Every page of the edition read for this article is stamped 08/12/26. The superseded 2019 snapshot is still widely cited and triggers form HUD-NPMA-99-B on a narrower set of treatments.
Termite Treatment Exception Areas
FHA Office of Single Family Housing, last revised 11/03/21. Sixteen states have excused counties on it. Nevada appears nowhere in the table.
NAC 555.430
Last amended by LCB File No. R077-21, effective 12/29/22, on top of a 1959 department rule. Anything describing this section as unchanged since 2002 is reading a superseded edition.
VA Circular 26-22-11
Issued 06/15/22 and valid until rescinded. This one governs the VA comparison later on the page, and it is not an FHA rule.
Does Nevada law require a termite inspection to sell a home?
No. Nevada law imposes no such duty: nothing in NRS or NAC Chapter 555 requires a wood destroying pest inspection as a condition of a sale, a transfer, or a mortgage. What Nevada regulates is what a licensee must put in a report once an inspection or a pesticide application actually happens.
This is where a lot of published advice goes wrong, and the error runs in both directions. Nevada does have a strong, specific rule about wood destroying pests. It regulates the report, the form it goes on and the deadlines around it, and it does not manufacture a requirement that an inspection happen at all.
Here is the operative part of the current text:
Each person who: (a) Makes an inspection for wood-destroying pests; (b) Gives any oral or written statement relating to such an inspection; or (c) After the construction of a structure, makes an application of a pesticide to eradicate wood-destroying pests, shall write and deliver a report of the inspection or the application of a pesticide to the person requesting the inspection or application, or a designated agent thereof, not later than 5 days after the inspection or the application. The report must be on a numbered form supplied by the Department or an electronic form approved by the Department which includes a unique number obtained from the Department.Nevada Administrative Code, NAC 555.430(1), Inspection or application of pesticide for wood-destroying pests: Report; restriction on application · leg.state.nv.us
Three things follow from that, all read off the Nevada Legislature's published text rather than a summary of it.
First, the form mandate is regulatory, not merely departmental policy. The report has to be on a numbered Department form, or an approved electronic form carrying a unique Department number.
That is what actually excludes a generic national form in this state, and it is why the answer holds today rather than resting on twenty-year-old correspondence.
Second, the regulation is written with FHA and VA files in mind. Subsection 3 lists thirteen required contents, lettered (a) through (m), and item (b) is "The number assigned to the escrow or mortgage by the Federal Housing Administration or the Department of Veterans Affairs, if applicable and obtainable."
A Nevada wood destroying pests report has a field for your FHA case number because the state wrote one in.
Those thirteen items are more demanding than most buyers expect. Alongside the licensee and property details, the report must say whether there is evidence of active or inactive infestation, and whether any condition conducive to infestation exists.
The regulation then defines those conditions numerically, which is unusually concrete for a state rule:
- Contact of wood with the earth: cellulose less than 3 inches above soil level and touching the structure.
- Faulty grade: a floor joist less than 12 inches above soil level, or a foundation top less than 3 inches above the adjacent soil.
- Insufficient ventilation: less than 1 square foot of ventilation per 300 square feet of crawlspace.
The report must also carry diagrams of the foundation and of any area the inspector could not reach.
Third, none of it requires an inspection to occur. Every duty in NAC 555.430 is conditional on someone already having made an inspection, given a statement about one, or applied a pesticide.
Nevada tells the inspector what to do here; it does not tell the buyer to hire one.
The deadlines are worth knowing because they can bite a fast closing. The report must be delivered to whoever requested it within 5 days, a legible copy must be filed with the Department's district or subdistrict office within 15 days, and the licensee must keep a copy for at least 3 years.
Which termite inspection form does Nevada use, and is the NPMA-33 allowed?
Nevada uses its own Wood Destroying Pests Inspection Report, and the Nevada Department of Agriculture's published position is that no other form may be used in this state. That rules out the national NPMA-33 that FHA and VA files use almost everywhere else. HUD's current handbook accommodates this directly.
The accommodation is written into Handbook 4000.1, in the mortgagee's file review, and it is the single cleanest resolution of the whole question:
The Mortgagee must confirm that the file contains the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) form NPMA-33, Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report, or the state mandated infestation report, as applicable.HUD, FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1, xvii. Form NPMA-33, Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report, page 379 · hud.gov
The phrase "or the state mandated infestation report, as applicable" is what lets a Nevada file close on a Nevada form. The same wording appears a second time in the handbook's case binder stipulation list, as "Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report or state mandated report," so it is not a stray sentence.
On the Nevada side the exclusion comes from two places that agree with each other.
The first is the regulation itself, already quoted above; a generic NPMA-33 printed off a national website does not meet its numbered-form bar.
The second is the Nevada Department of Agriculture, which licenses pest control operators here and states the consequence in plain words: under NAC 555.430(1) it "prohibits the use of any form other than the Nevada WOOD DESTROYING PESTS INSPECTION REPORT within this state."
The correspondence behind that page includes a memo dated February 11, 2005 titled "The Forbidden Use of HUD's New NPMA-33 Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report," and a February 4, 2005 letter about the mandated use of the Nevada report, identified there as form DA-PD 2.
Be precise about the vintage, because it is the thing people get wrong in the other direction. The Department's correspondence is twenty years old, and if that memo were the only authority you would be right to ask whether it still holds.
It is not the only authority. The numbered-form requirement sits in the regulation, and the regulation was last amended at the end of 2022, so the rule is current on its own terms. For a buyer the practical answer is the same either way: a Nevada-licensed applicator hands you a Nevada report, and HUD accepts it.
HUD acknowledged Nevada's position from its own side, too. The archived HOC Reference Guide, in its list of states with mandated alternative forms, names Nevada alongside Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas.
That page is archived, so it is history rather than live policy, but it shows the accommodation is long-standing and not a local improvisation.
| Existing home | New construction | |
|---|---|---|
| What HUD calls it | Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report | Wood Infestation Report |
| National form | NPMA-33 | HUD-NPMA-99-A, plus HUD-NPMA-99-B when treated |
| Used in Nevada? | No. Nevada Wood Destroying Pests Inspection Report instead | Yes. These are HUD forms completed by the builder and the applicator |
| Required in Nevada? | Only when triggered by the appraiser or required by the lender | Yes, in every county. Nevada is not on the exception list |
| Who completes it | A Nevada-licensed pest control applicator | The builder signs 99-A; the applicator completes 99-B |
| Handbook authority | II.A.3 (Q) Termites; II.D.3.m.iii; file review xvii | II.A.8, Programs and Products, New Construction |
Does a newly built Nevada home need a termite report for FHA?
Yes. On FHA new construction, a Wood Infestation Report is required unless the property sits in a county HUD has excused, and HUD has excused no county in Nevada. The exception list is a published table, and Nevada is simply not in it.
Handbook 4000.1 states the requirement for the case binder like this: a "Wood Infestation Report, unless the Property is located in a county listed as not required on HUD's 'Termite Treatment Exception Areas' list." That list is a two-page table published by FHA's Office of Single Family Housing, last revised 11/03/2021.
It names sixteen states with excused counties, in alphabetical order from Alaska to Wyoming, and then closes with a single catch-all row:
Remainder of States: Required.FHA Office of Single Family Housing, Termite Treatment Exception Areas, final table row, last revised 11/03/2021 · hud.gov
Nevada is not among those sixteen states. Neither Clark County nor any other Nevada county appears anywhere in the table. So the catch-all row governs, and the report is required on every FHA new construction file in this state.
That is one of the few FHA property rules that genuinely is statewide rather than county by county, which is worth holding onto if you are also weighing limits and program mechanics in our complete FHA loan guide for Nevada.
Two forms carry it, and they are not interchangeable:
- Form HUD-NPMA-99-A, Subterranean Termite Protection Builder's Guarantee, is required for all new construction. There is one narrow relief: if the building is constructed with steel, masonry, or concrete components with only minor interior wood trim and roof sheathing, no treatment is needed, and the builder must note on the form that the construction is masonry, steel, or concrete.
- Form HUD-NPMA-99-B, New Construction Subterranean Termite Service Record, is required when the property is treated. Update 18 broadened this trigger, and the current text lists a Termite Bait System, Field Applied Wood Treatment, soil chemical termiticide, or an installed Physical Barrier System, as reflected on form HUD-NPMA-99-A.
Factory-built housing raises the same question in a different form, since a modular or manufactured home set on a new foundation is still new construction as far as the case binder is concerned, and the program mechanics for those files sit in our guide to manufactured and modular home loans in Las Vegas.
One prohibition is worth memorising if you are buying new in the valley. HUD instructs the mortgagee to reject the use of post construction soil treatment when the termiticide is applied only around the perimeter of the foundation.
A perimeter-only spray after the slab is down does not satisfy FHA on a new build. If a builder offers that as the treatment of record, it is a problem to raise before you are at the closing table, not after.
Existing resale or new build, appraiser-triggered or lender-required, Nevada form or HUD form: which one applies turns on facts about the specific property and the specific file.
A local loan officer can read the contract, the disclosures and the builder's paperwork with you before the appraisal is ordered, which is when a surprise is still cheap to fix. Soft credit check to start, no impact to your score. All loans are subject to credit, income, property, and underwriting approval.
Check my eligibilityHow do FHA, VA, and conventional loans compare on termite inspections?
VA is the strict one in Clark County, FHA is conditional, and conventional financing has no government pest rule at all. This is the single most useful thing to understand, because the FHA-versus-VA difference is what generates almost all of the conflicting advice you will find on this topic.
VA publishes a state-by-state list of local requirements for appraisers, and it is unusually blunt about how to read it: "Only states requiring a wood-destroying insect inspection are included below. If a state is not listed below, then a wood-destroying insect inspection is not required unless specific issues are noted in the VA appraisal report."
Nevada is listed. Here is the entry:
Wood-destroying insect information is only required for the following counties: Carson City, Churchill, Clark, Douglas, Esmeralda, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Pershing, Storey, Washoe, and White Pine.U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Local Requirements for appraisers, Nevada entry · benefits.va.gov
That is thirteen of Nevada's seventeen county-level jurisdictions, and Clark County is on it. The four not named are Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, and Lander.
So for a VA purchase in Las Vegas, wood destroying insect information is a standing requirement rather than something the appraiser has to trigger. VA frames it as a Minimum Property Requirement tied to areas of the Termite Infestation Probability Map where probability is "very heavy" or "moderate to heavy."
Since VA Circular 26-22-11 of June 15, 2022, the veteran is also permitted to pay the inspection fee where the Notice of Value requires one.
Set the three programs side by side and the picture is clear:
| Question | FHA | VA | Conventional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Report required on a Clark County resale? | Only if triggered | Yes, county is listed | No agency rule |
| What triggers it | Appraiser observation, or lender requirement | Published county list, plus appraisal findings | Lender or investor choice, or the contract |
| Report required on new construction? | Yes, statewide | Per the county list and the NOV | No agency rule |
| Form used in Nevada | Nevada Wood Destroying Pests Inspection Report | Nevada Wood Destroying Pests Inspection Report | Whatever the lender accepts |
| Can the buyer pay the fee? | Not addressed by HUD; a contract term | Yes, per Circular 26-22-11 | A contract term |
| Must the property be pest-free to close? | Yes | Yes, MPR repairs before guaranty | Lender's call |
If you qualify for both programs, this difference belongs in the decision rather than as an afterthought, and our side-by-side comparison of FHA and VA loans in Nevada works through the rest of it. Veterans weighing the same choice from the VA side can read our team's VA home loan guidance for Nevada buyers.
Who is allowed to perform a wood destroying pest inspection in Nevada?
A licensed applicator. Nevada Revised Statutes require a person to hold an applicator's license to engage in pest control work for hire, and the Nevada Department of Agriculture is the licensing body. Your FHA appraiser is not a substitute, and neither is a general home inspector.
NRS 555.285 is the provision that reaches this work directly. It says a natural person may not make an inspection to identify infestations of wood destroying pests in a household or other structure, and may not make or alter an inspection report about one, without an applicator's license issued by the Director.
The broader pest control licensing rule in NRS 555.280 sits behind it. Neither section carves out the person inspecting a house before a sale. The only exception either one names is the temporary trainee exemption the Department writes by regulation under NRS 555.2777.
The Department licenses and monitors both pest control companies and the individuals who work for them, and it publishes a searchable list of licensed operators.
That licensing chain is why the form question in the previous section has teeth. The report your lender needs comes from a licensee, the licensee is regulated by the Department of Agriculture, and the Department tells its licensees which report to use. HUD's handbook then accepts that report by name as "the state mandated infestation report."
HUD's own term for who has to do the work is a qualified pest control specialist. The handbook uses that phrase in both places it matters, in the appraiser's escalation instruction and in the mortgagee's obligation to obtain the inspection, and it appears nowhere else in the handbook.
Valley West takeThe moment that decides this is the appraisal order, not the inspection. If the seller's disclosure mentions any past treatment, assume the appraiser marks the box, and get a licensed applicator out first. Sequenced that way the report is already in the file when the appraisal arrives subject to inspection. Discovered the other way round, you are adding days a contract may not have. Buying a fixer anyway? An FHA 203k renovation loan puts a consultant on the property who must confirm there is no rodent, dry rot or termite infestation.
What happens if the inspector finds active termites before closing?
FHA requires the property to be treated, and your lender to hold evidence of it, before the loan can close. HUD's standard is that the mortgagee must confirm the property is free of wood destroying insects and organisms, and where an inspection was ordered, the mortgagee must obtain both the inspection and evidence of any required treatment.
In practice that becomes a short, ordinary sequence:
- The licensed applicator issues the Nevada report identifying what was found and where.
- Treatment is performed. Who pays is a term of your purchase contract, not something HUD assigns on an existing home, so it is negotiated the same way any other repair is.
- The applicator documents the treatment, and that documentation goes into the loan file as the evidence HUD's rule calls for.
- If there is structural damage rather than just activity, the appraiser's repair requirements come into play, and the repair has to be completed and verified before closing.
One method restriction is worth knowing, because it is unusual and it is absolute in the handbook's own phrasing: soil poisoning is an unacceptable method for treating termites unless the mortgagee obtains satisfactory assurance that the treatment will not endanger the quality of the water supply.
That sits directly under the Termites heading in the property acceptability rules.
Damage, as distinct from activity, is where a deal can genuinely change shape. A Nevada report will tell you what was found; it is not a structural damage assessment, and the national form says so on its face, noting that it "is not a structural damage report."
If the report suggests real damage, the sensible next call is a structural professional, and depending on what they find, a renovation loan may be a better structure than a repair addendum.
Do not assume the repair bill lands on an insurer either. Pest damage is generally treated as a maintenance matter rather than a sudden covered peril, which is part of why the lender wants it resolved at the appraisal stage.
What a Las Vegas policy actually covers is worth confirming with a licensed agent before closing. Our sister agency's guide to homeowners insurance in Las Vegas is a reasonable place to start.
Why do Clark County homes get termites in the first place?
Clark County termites live on irrigation water rather than on rainfall. Subterranean termites need consistent soil moisture, and in a valley this dry almost all of it comes from landscape irrigation, pool and spa plumbing, and drip lines rather than from rain.
That is why termite pressure in Las Vegas tracks landscaping and plumbing far more closely than it tracks rainfall.
Nevada has both subterranean and drywood termites, and dampwood termites are present as well although they are far less likely to damage a structure.
Subterranean species are the ones that produce the classic evidence an appraiser is told to look for at the foundation and perimeter: mud shelter tubes running up a stem wall, discarded wings after a swarm, and the frass and exit holes the national inspection form lists as visible evidence.
For a Las Vegas buyer, the practical translation is a short list of things to look at with your own eyes on the second walk-through:
- Drip irrigation emitters running against the stem wall, or a valve box that never dries out.
- Pool or spa equipment pads with a persistent damp patch, and any irrigation line crossing under a slab.
- Wood-to-soil contact: fence posts, planter boxes, patio cover posts set directly into the ground.
- Stored lumber, firewood, or cardboard stacked against the house on the side yard, which is where most Clark County lots hide things.
- Mud tubes on the foundation, in the garage, or inside a rarely-opened side gate.
None of that is a substitute for a licensed inspection. It is a way to know before you write the offer whether you are likely to be in the triggered lane or the clean lane, which is exactly the fork this page is about.
Which FHA termite rule applies to your Nevada purchase?
Answer three questions. This tool reports the published rule; it is not a loan decision and not a property assessment.
Choose the three options above to see which published rule governs your file.
Clark County is used as the reference county because it is named on VA's Nevada list and because no Nevada county appears on HUD's Termite Treatment Exception Areas list. General information drawn from HUD Handbook 4000.1 Update 18 and VA Local Requirements. Not a quote, offer, or commitment to lend, and not a substitute for a licensed inspection.
Fork 1
New construction? Stop here. A Wood Infestation Report is required in every Nevada county, and the builder owes you form HUD-NPMA-99-A.
Fork 2
Existing home, and nobody has mentioned evidence or a prior treatment? No FHA report is required unless your lender asks for one.
Fork 3
Existing home with evidence, a disclosure, or any prior treatment? Assume the appraisal comes back subject to inspection, and book a licensed applicator early.
Frequently asked questions
Does a prior termite treatment trigger an FHA inspection in Nevada?
Yes. A prior FHA termite treatment can trigger an inspection, and this is the trigger buyers least expect. Handbook 4000.1 tells the appraiser to escalate on "evidence or notification of infestation, including a prior treatment." A seller disclosure that mentions a treatment years ago, a warranty document, or visible old bait stations all count as notification. The appraiser marks the evidence of infestation box and delivers the appraisal subject to inspection by a qualified pest control specialist, and at that point the lender must obtain the inspection.
Does the FHA appraiser perform the termite inspection?
No. The appraiser observes the foundation and perimeter for evidence of wood destroying pests, and HUD says expressly that the appraiser's observation "is not required to be at the same level as a qualified pest control specialist." The appraiser's job is to spot evidence and escalate. The inspection itself must come from a licensed pest control applicator, who in Nevada is licensed by the Nevada Department of Agriculture under NRS Chapter 555.
Who pays for a termite inspection on an FHA loan in Nevada?
HUD's handbook does not assign responsibility on an existing home, so it is a term of your purchase contract and is negotiated like any other inspection or repair item. This differs from the VA program, where VA Circular 26-22-11 of June 15, 2022 expressly authorizes charging the veteran the wood destroying pest inspection fee where the Notice of Value requires one, while encouraging the veteran to negotiate that cost with the seller.
What is the difference between a Wood Infestation Report and a Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report?
They belong to different halves of the FHA program. A Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report is the existing-property document, nationally the NPMA-33 and in Nevada the state's own Wood Destroying Pests Inspection Report, and it is required only when triggered. A Wood Infestation Report is the new-construction requirement, carried by form HUD-NPMA-99-A, the Subterranean Termite Protection Builder's Guarantee, plus form HUD-NPMA-99-B when the property has been treated. New construction in Nevada always needs the second one.
Is soil treatment acceptable to FHA for termites?
Only with a condition attached, and on new construction one common version of it is rejected outright. Handbook 4000.1 states that soil poisoning is an unacceptable method for treating termites unless the mortgagee obtains satisfactory assurance that the treatment will not endanger the quality of the water supply. Separately, on new construction the mortgagee must reject the use of post construction soil treatment when the termiticide is applied only around the perimeter of the foundation.
Is a termite inspection the same as a home inspection in Las Vegas?
No, and neither one replaces the other. A wood destroying pest inspection is performed by a licensed applicator and reports on pest activity, damage, and conditions conducive to infestation, which NAC 555.430 requires the report to list. A home inspection is a broader review of the home's systems and structure. The national inspection form states on its face that it "is not a structural damage report," so if a report suggests real damage, the next call is a structural professional.
The bottom line for Nevada FHA buyers
The honest one-sentence version is that FHA treats an existing Nevada home and a brand new Nevada home under opposite default rules, and almost every confusing article on this topic is describing one of them while sounding like it is describing both.
On a resale, nothing happens automatically. The appraiser looks, and if there is nothing to see and nothing disclosed, the file moves on without a pest report. On a new build, the report is required before the case binder is complete, because HUD excused counties in sixteen states and none of them is here.
Nevada's contribution is narrower than it is usually described. The state mandates the report form, not the inspection, and HUD's current handbook already accepts a state mandated report by name.
And if you have been reading that "Nevada requires a termite inspection for FHA and VA loans," the half that is true is the VA half. Clark County is on VA's published county list, and FHA publishes no equivalent list for existing homes.
If you are working out how the rest of an FHA purchase fits together here, start with the complete guide to FHA loans in Las Vegas, and for the wider view across every Valley West loan program, Valley West Mortgage covers the wider Nevada lending picture.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development · FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1, Update 18, Transmittal issued August 12, 2026, pages marked Last Revised 8/12/2026. Section II.A.3, Underwriting the Property, (Q) Termites at page 197 for the requirement that an existing property be free of wood destroying insects and organisms and for the soil poisoning restriction; section II.D.3.m.iii, Wood Destroying Insects/Organisms/Termites at page 829 for the appraiser's observation duty and the escalation on evidence or notification including a prior treatment; the mortgagee file review item xvii at page 379 for form NPMA-33 "or the state mandated infestation report, as applicable"; and section II.A.8, Programs and Products, New Construction, for the Wood Infestation Report, forms HUD-NPMA-99-A and HUD-NPMA-99-B, and the rejection of perimeter-only post construction soil treatment: hud.gov (downloaded at 14,445,636 bytes, extracted locally to 1,872 pages of text, and read September 9, 2026)
- FHA Office of Single Family Housing · Termite Treatment Exception Areas, the table referenced in SF Handbook section II.A.8.i.iv, last revised 11/03/2021, for the sixteen states with excused counties (Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming), for the absence of Nevada from the table, and for the closing row reading "Remainder of States: Required": hud.gov (downloaded and read in full September 9, 2026)
- State of Nevada · Nevada Administrative Code, NAC 555.430, Inspection or application of pesticide for wood-destroying pests: Report; restriction on application. Subsection 1 for the persons who owe a report, the 5-day delivery deadline and the requirement that the report be on a numbered form supplied by the Department or an approved electronic form carrying a unique Department number; subsection 2 for the 15-day filing duty and the 3-year retention duty; subsection 3 for the thirteen required contents lettered (a) to (m), including (b) the FHA or VA escrow or mortgage number, (i) the active and inactive infestation statement, and (j) the conditions conducive to infestation with their numeric definitions. History note ends R093-15, 3-10-2016; R077-21, 12-29-2022: leg.state.nv.us (read September 9, 2026)
- State of Nevada · Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 555, NRS 555.400 for the Director's regulatory authority, NRS 555.285 for the requirement that a natural person hold an applicator's license to inspect for wood destroying pests and to make or alter an inspection report, and NRS 555.280 for the general pest control licensing rule. Chapter 555 contains no requirement for a wood destroying pest inspection as a condition of sale, transfer, or mortgage: leg.state.nv.us (read September 9, 2026)
- Nevada Department of Agriculture · PC Notices and Letters, including FHA/VA and HUD correspondences, for the Department's published position that under NAC 555.430(1) it prohibits the use of any form other than the Nevada Wood Destroying Pests Inspection Report within this state, and for the underlying correspondence dated January 19, 2005, February 4, 2005 regarding the mandated use of form DA-PD 2, and February 11, 2005 titled "The Forbidden Use of HUD's New NPMA-33 Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report": agri.nv.gov (read September 9, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs · Local Requirements for appraisers, for the statement that only states requiring a wood-destroying insect inspection are listed, and for the Nevada entry naming Carson City, Churchill, Clark, Douglas, Esmeralda, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Pershing, Storey, Washoe, and White Pine: benefits.va.gov (read September 9, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs · Circular 26-22-11, Pest Inspection Fees and Repair Costs, dated June 15, 2022 and valid until rescinded, for VA's Minimum Property Requirement tied to Termite Infestation Probability Map areas of "very heavy" or "moderate to heavy" probability, and for the authorization that veterans may be charged wood destroying pest inspection fees where required by the Notice of Value: benefits.va.gov (extracted and read September 9, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development · Form NPMA-33, Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report, as hosted by HUD, for the report's own statement that it is not to be construed as a guarantee or warranty against latent, concealed, or future infestations, and for the note that "This is not a structural damage report": hud.gov (downloaded and read September 9, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development · HOC Reference Guide, Pest Control, page 1-23, cited only as archived history for the list of states with mandated alternative forms, which includes Nevada. The page carries HUD's own notice "Content Archived: November 2, 2012" and is not current policy: archives.hud.gov (read September 9, 2026)
Article history
- September 9, 2026 · Published, with every HUD rule read out of the current handbook rather than a summary. Handbook 4000.1 Update 18 was downloaded from hud.gov at 14,445,636 bytes, converted locally to 1,872 pages of text, and the Termites rule at page 197, the appraiser's wood destroying pests instruction at page 829, and the file review item at page 379 were read directly.
- September 9, 2026 · A stale edition was caught before it reached this page. An earlier draft was sourced from the handbook PDF at the OCHCO path, which is the August 14, 2019 snapshot. That edition triggers form HUD-NPMA-99-B only on soil chemical termiticide, while Update 18 also lists a Termite Bait System, Field Applied Wood Treatment, and an installed Physical Barrier System. The page was rebuilt on Update 18.
- September 9, 2026 · Two widely repeated claims were tested and corrected. The four-part "evidence, state mandate, customary to the area, or lender discretion" framing traces to a HUD page stamped "Content Archived: November 2, 2012," and the word "customary" appears nowhere near wood destroying pests in the current handbook. Separately, an earlier draft of this page described NAC 555.430 as requiring six report contents and naming no form. That was taken from a summary rather than from the regulation. The section was re-read from the Nevada Legislature's published text: it mandates a numbered Department form, lists thirteen contents, sets 5-day, 15-day and 3-year deadlines, and was last amended by R077-21 effective 12-29-2022. The page now states the form mandate as regulatory, which is both correct and stronger.
Keep reading before your appraisal is ordered. These are the pages that decide how a Clark County FHA purchase holds together: