Does a home inspector have a right to make holes wood/wall to check for termites?
No.
Not sure of the circumstances as I am guessing it caused damage and you are the seller.
So do you have Termites?
A home inspector has NO RIGHTS, per say, to your home. But I am assuming you agreed to sell your residence and did allow the inspection to take place. Should he damage your house? The answer is no. But there have been a few occasions when looking for temites I have tapped on a trim board and BOOM, a hole appeared. It was not intentional to cause damage, but the normal inspection process and the extreme softness of the wood made it impossible to perform my job effectively and this damage did occur. I guess you could ask to have the wood to be replaced to give the termites something new to eat.
I would wonder if this was simply a home inspection or if it was also a termite inspection.
I would say no they do not have the right to “intentionally” put holes in a structure. Now, some things just happen under testing circumstance like Russell mentioned, which would indicate an existing problem. Also, if you hired the inspector and agreed to invasive testing would come into play. Did you hire or is this a home you are selling, where a buyer had an inspector come in? We need to know more to give yo any real advice, is what I’m really trying to say here.
In NC, an inspector is required to confirm the presence of decay by “probing”. Sort of hard to probe without doing some degree of damage. The damage need not be severe, however, to confirm decay (or termites).
If probing causes damage, then you already had damage. If you had previously caulked over the damage and the inspector revealed the damage you have no complaint and should be glad since buyers can sue sellers for hiding problems with houses.
Don’t blame the Termite Inspector as we (as stated earlier) probe but when you touch the paint & it falls through the sheetrock, damage has been there quite some time. But every Termite Inspector knows how deep to probe.