Insurance companies using drones to inspect homes without alerting owners. Here's what you should know.
Insurance companies are using drones to fly over and photograph properties that they insure without homeowners knowing. In some cases, they then use those photos to cancel policies, a WBZ-TV I-Team investigation found.
Lynne Schueler of Topsfield, Massachusetts said her insurer gave her just weeks to trim trees or she would lose her coverage.
"It was very invasive, because they had taken a picture of my house without me knowing, which was really kind of crazy," she said.
Weeks later, she got an email with an aerial surveillance photo of her house and a message.
"They were cancelling my insurance. They had showed a drone coming over the house at some point and there was some tree branches hovering over my house that they wanted removed," Schueler said. "I wasn't home because my car wasn't in the driveway."
Schueler said she only had about six weeks to get the limbs removed or they would end her policy.
"I was very nervous. I'm like, 'How much is this going to cost and can I find somebody to take these branches down?' And, plus, I was losing branches on a beautiful tree," she said.
Schueler was also worried it would impact her mortgage if she lost her insurance.
"Becoming very, very common"
"I think it's becoming very, very common," said Amy Bach, the Executive Director at United Policyholders, a consumer advocacy group.
The surveillance photos from the insurance company drones are analyzed by artificial intelligence (AI) and computers.
"People are getting dropped on the basis of, 'We see mold on your roof,' or 'We see damaged roof tiles,' or 'There's trees touching your house,' risk factors that insurance companies are increasingly on the lookout for," Bach said.
Schueler said she was lucky because she was able to get a tree company to remove the branches fast so she could keep her insurance.
"It ended up costing $1,200. I had no choice," she said.
"The fight is on"
"We are pushing for there to be some reasonable limits on insurance companies' ability to take these photos and use them, but of course, insurance companies are pushing back," Bach told WBZ.
It's a fight that Massachusetts state representative David LeBoeuf, a Democrat from Worcester, brought to the State House. He filed a bill to help homeowners.
"It gives you the right, if your homeowner's insurance policy is not renewed because of the use of an aerial image, to actually see that image, to know when it was taken, to have the defects identified and to create an appeals and cures process," he told the I-Team. That legislation could come up for a vote next year.
Schueler's policy was renewed for another year, but she's not out of the woods yet. Her insurance company could use another drone to inspect her property at any time without notifying her, before it offers her a new policy.
"I had insurance with this company for the last 12 years, with no claims," she said. "I've been a good customer to them."
Insurance companies on use of drones
The I-Team reached out to the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA), which represents insurance companies, about the use of drones. Bob Passmore, the department vice president of personal lines, sent this statement:
"Insurers have always inspected insured properties to help identify, prevent, and mitigate potential losses. Drones and similar remote viewing technologies are increasingly utilized as a less invasive and more cost-effective solution for spotting safety risks like roof damage or property hazards.
"To help reduce insurance costs for consumers, insurers are increasingly focused on loss prevention. Insurers are using remote viewing technologies to help improve home inspections and risk mitigation efforts for their policyholders. The technology is helpful as insurers look for ways to mitigate property loss with their customers. Limiting or preventing costly damage to properties is critical to lowering the cost of insurance long-term."
