Let’s be honest They aren’t assessing risk, they are looking for any way possible to drop coverage

I find this disturbing. Just the idea that an insurer is actively spying on people looking for excuses to cancel on them is really sketchy.

They backtracked when they realized they probably used an unlicensed employee to fly the drone.

The government say you have to have insurance, but the insurance doesn't want to insure you. Makes sense

"We prefer the business model where we collect premiums forever, never pay a claim, and drop customers once we've milked enough money from them."

Never filled a single claim in 15 years - that right there describes how ridiculous home insurance is. You pay and pay and pay and pay but then out of the blue they cancel you for no good reason.

Insurance reform needs to happen fast. They're getting super rich by barely paying out. Car and home insurance are absolutely ridiculous nowadays.

Travelers claimed significant damage to our roof and demanded we replace it within 35 days right before Christmas in New England. Roofer said they were full of shit but they refused to reconsider. We talked to a broker and ended up saving a couple hundred a year with a new company. I reported the incident to our Department of Insurance and got basically the same useless response. The whole system is a scam.

It was nice of them to name the insurance company. Bad publicity gives that company lots of coverage, pun not intended.

They are policing their customers. This is actually sickening

My dad lost his insurance due to "weeds" in the yard. It was ornamental grass and sunflower stalks next to a patio he built. The guy showed up unannounced and trespassed without permission to get into the backyard. Dad cleared it out and they still wouldn't reinstate the insurance. So he said fine and signed up with another company. For a cheaper price. I swear some house insurance is like cable companies. The longer you're with them the worst the service and rates become. And the only way to get better coverage is to shop around every so often.

He didn't even get a chance to speak to any one, No chance to clear out what the insurance deemed "a hazard". As it normal should go is like this: "Hi I'm insurance [X] We like to inspect your property for hazards, as per our policy to inspect once every [Y] years of insurance" Insurance company deems certain assets in his backyard to dangerous, please remove/store elsewhere. You got [Z] weeks to comply, else we have to cancel the insurance. Home owner removes items, insurance makes a second checkup...succeeds. And we can go on. But this is just ridiculous, from 1 photo they deemed this guy a lost cause. And goodbye. And the fact they keep hiding the proof of evidence makes me suspicious they are actually infringing on some legal boundaries.

There needs to be laws against this. This is so incredibly backhanded and dishonest.

Thank you for letting homeowners know that terminating insurance provided by CSAA probably is an exceptionally good idea.

This behavior needs to be illegal. And the CEO needs to go to jail.

Years ago I read of a couple who got so angry after filing an insurance claim and being denied funds by the company they had been paying for years, they quit that company and began a program of self-insurance. The money they had previously mailed in every month for their insurance they now deposited into a savings account. They admit it was a risky move and it took awhile to build the account to a level to offer them any real protection should they suffer a loss, but were surprised that it didn't take as long as they had feared. They eventually surpassed the value of their home, but kept depositing the money as they were now in the habit of "saving" for an emergency. They've since built themselveds a nice little nest egg above the value of their property.

If you're denied credit, by law you're entitled to know why - this insurance denial should be no different. I hope the insurance company gets sued and compelled to disclose the evidence

For heavens sake, give homeowners fair warning of what is considered a risk BEFORE beginning this creepy surveillance action.

This is beyond disturbing and even feels like an infringement of privacy.

Something must be going on if insurance companies are dropping customers and banks are hardly lending money at high interest rates!

If insurance companies can just cancel their policies at a moments notice then we should have the right to opt out of mandatory insurance. Why pay thousands for insurance if when you finally need it they won’t insure you?

The fact that the insurance company issued no "order to cure" tells you that they wanted to cancel him no matter what, probably red lining certain areas, which is against the law.

I had a guy I met at the gas station in Boise, Idaho June 2022 tell me a very similar story. He claimed that a member of code enforcement flew a drone over his house and then notified his insurance company which then dropped his insurance. His MORTGAGE insurance. And he claimed that since he did not have insurance, the mortgage company said they were going to foreclose on the loan. I don't know whatever happened. Very scary stuff. Allstate dropped me from my car insurance because of a credit check. I got a form letter from the VP of Allstate Auto insurance. Mom, dad and all 6 of us kids had Allstate since us kids could drive. We also had the very same agent. Since then I vowed to never buy from Allstate ever again in this lifetime and never have. That was 33 years ago.

Going to go spell out something really inappropriate in my backyard for the drone people!😂

What's scary is he can lose his home over not being insured. California homeowners are SCREWED

Anyone think that the insurance company found out that their drone operator or sub contractor didn’t comply with FAA rules and regs, that is why they tap danced on where the pictures came from? I hope that tv station knows the rules.

Take the money...then drop the policy...sounds typical to me.

We live in Florida and after Ivan hit my parents filed a claim for a new roof. Shortly after they got dropped by State Farm and the reason listed was “livestock exposure.” My mom called and asked what that meant because we don’t own any livestock. When they couldn’t answer that part she asked are we in danger from livestock, are we in a stampede zone or something because none of neighbors owned livestock either. They never gave her an explication of what it meant and simply told her it was final and there was nothing they could do but it was most certainly NOT because they filed a claim for a new roof after a hurricane because that’s against the law in Florida…

As someone from Florida, I've had 4 insurance companies cancel on me in a year and a half. I've had 7 insurance cancerizations on two rental properties also in Florida. I have never made a claim. I am currently paying over 15k a year for 3 houses that are just normal well kept homes. They want your money, they don't want to pay when you need them, and they don't want to take on any risk what-so-ever.

This is disturbing, and a violation of privacy they should pay him back the 15 years of money he paid

This happened to my parents a few months ago. A drone took pics of my house, that is under construction and they miss IDed the address as my parents that live next door. Nationwide Canceled there home insurance after 40 years of coverage with them and refused to even consider reinstating it or even listening to them that it was not there house. they have never filed a claim ever just crooked.

That's crazy. If someone would take drone photos of other peoples yard here in Germany or even just fly over houses (without talking photos) they'd already have several lawsuits because of disregarding privacy protection laws.

Well I wonder if insurance companies will not mind me just walking into their offices and looking through their files.

I had a man knocking on my door, trying to look inside the windows, and attempting to unlock my driveway gate from an unmarked vehicle. I had no idea until I called my insurance agent that they went out for a policy overview of the yard. They had my number on file…why not just call instead of trying to gain access to my backyard?!!

After having AAA insurance (auto and home) for decades, I got cancelled after the Paradise fire many miles away from my house. I keep trees and shrubs cut back for defensible space, but this was strictly a zip code or other metric cancellation. We are not even in a “high severity” fire zone. Like all insurance companies, good at collecting premiums, but bad at taking care of their customers.

An insurance company trying to get out of having to provide the service that they're hired for. Surprise, surprise.

that's not only an invasion of privacy but they're also turning into an HOA which they have no jurisdiction on. i would demand my money back from them. they were never going to pay a claim to begin with. total scam.

Interesting. I had trees removed from my property. Some were close to the home and had to come out for a new ATT septic system, mandated by county law that required this special system, others were just overgrown and a fire hazard. The property had not been cleared in many years. When I asked my insurance if they could give me a discount for doing the work I was told no. Even though the fire risk was significantly reduced, I still pay the same rates. But if they snoop around with a drone they can drop you. We need to revolt against this BS

we were insured by State Farm for 29 years. A pipe Burts in the bathroom and flooded the kitchen. State Farm sent their own guy to assess the damage and did the repair. After the repair was done. They cancelled our insurance. almost 30 years of paying monthly and filed 1 claim. They have no problem collecting money from us for 29 yrs then when it comes to actually use our insurance, they grudgingly paid and dropped us

There should be laws set into place to protect homeowners from being dropped from their policy when they always paid the premium and never made a claim. Laws that would make insurance companies pay back a percentage to the customer so they would have the money to get a new provider.

We saw this attitude from insurance companies that tell you that if you put a telemeter in your car you can get a discount. What it really was was a way for the insurance company to build evidence for cancellation of anyone that is in the wrong actuarial column, but was not classified as a risk by the actuary.

Had a house insurance that tried to drop us over a swimming pool. Was an above ground pool that would have taken a water truck to fill it in a day. Their issue was that the walls were leaning in. We had the pool set up for winter, which we would drain about three quarters of the water, and the walls would lean in. When the pool was full, the water was actually what held the walls up. Even after explaining, they insisted it was an issue. When did home insurance start being run by HOA

Several insurance companies, including Farmers and CSAA are doing this. They are sending out cancellation notices based on Google Earth imagery left and right, because they are losing money in the state. This happened to me, but because I keep excellent documentary photos and was able to take addditional photos to dispute their claim, I not only reversed the cancellation, but I got a 'Wildfire Prevention Discount' with the renewal. They had photos of the debris during the replacement of my roof with a fire resistant roof.

We too had our insurance canceled (non-renewal) due to "clutter" in our yard here in Galt California. When we asked Farmers Insurance for specifics they sent us a blurry drone picture that was at least a year old. We could tell because our pool had the old cover on it that we got rid of after last summer. We could not get anywhere with Farmers, they were set on canceling us. It was so frustrating and now we have nothing good to say about Farmers Insurance. By the way our agent could not get anywhere with the parent company either and has been wonderful in finding us a new policy with a different company.

We built our home in 2012, we have always paid more for the best home owner’s coverage. Not a single claim until Aug. 2020 when a rare Deracho (Land Hurricane) hit almost the whole state of Iowa. It was a constant battle with insurance agents over the contractor estimates ( and per them we got multiple) We pay so much money to guarantee our homes or automobiles are covered and when we DO need it, they fight you tooth and nail!

Nationwide is now doing this same thing. I was told by an agent that they fly over peoples' houses; searching for reasons to cancel policies.

Bunkers are definitely gonna become a popular house option now

Sounds like they lost a good customer. He's a do it yourself type of person who probably does all the maintenance on his house and doesn't need to pull like a roof replacement scam.

F the insurance company. I was in the same situation when they said I had stuff on the side of the house when I was remodeling a room. All they had to do was to call and ask why I had a staging area instead of just coming to a direct assumption.

Any time someone uses the word "Clutter" as a description means that they are not serious about whatever it is. Have you ever heard someone say that word after walking into a kitchen? I have. Many times I have heard someone accuse me of having clutter in my kitchen. Do you know what I had in my kitchen? A toaster, butter, and a microwave.... they told me I should put them away. Kitchens are supposed to have kitchen things. It is not clutter. Walk into any workplace, and you will see a whole ton of tools everywhere. Clutter? No... it is a work space. People who use their homes as work spaces are allowed. that insurance company committed an act of trespass and then violated the terms of their contract.

Imagine having nothing better to do at work than sit at your desk and meticulously scrutinize the items inside of someones yard... Technically, the drone could be trespassing.... according to "Air rights", in the US, you own the airspace 500 ft from ground level, or 360 feet above tallest structure in rural areas.

I think its time to get some legislation going on these insurance companies.

I'm so glad the homeowner went to the press with this. It's beyond creepy that he was spied on when he hadn't even filed a claim. This lets other homeowners know to drop CSAA asap. I hope the homeowner is able to find decent insurance quickly.

A back yard, especially a fenced in yard, is where people are allowed a "reasonable expectation of privacy" and usage of any photos or videos procured without consent and used in such manner are a clear violation of their privacy and he should file charges against the company and those that procured them.

Drones in backyards should be illegal. People expect a level of privacy away from the public street and it’s nearly possible to create that from the aerial view. I do hear you can ask google to blur your property.

Imagine if you were in the middle of a project when they decided to take pictures and judge you out of context…with no way to appeal…

People should fly drones right outside the insurance companies window and video the office workers especially the supervisors who are likely making these decisions. Use telephoto lenses if possible and post the results online. I had an insurance company deny me for having a sand box and little tykes toys in my back yard when my kids were little, these were the little plastic cars that kids would either pedal or push themselves along with foot power. I had never had insurance with that company and it still pissed me off a bit, had they dropped me after years it really would have pissed me off.

Stay away from CSAA. What a horrible company! Spread the word. People need to start leaving companies that do this or this will be happening to us all.

This guy seems so fun to hang out with

This happened to my sister. She took insurance with the bank her mortgage is with. They were flooded twice due to faulty dam management in Queensland Australia, and this last premium they were advised they were no longer going to cover them. They still haven’t fixed foundation issues from the first flood.

This happened to my co-worker as well. He got a call while at work saying a drone saw tools sitting in the backyard and it was unacceptable risk and that his coverage was canceled. He was not happy that day.

State farm cancelled my insurance because we had just moved into the new house which came with 2nd unit(tiny home) and the previous owner had left a washing machine inside the main house. So as we were settling down, we took the old washing machine out and placed it outside the house temporarily and was gonna throw it away after we settled down. This washing machine was not blocking any pathways or windows/doors by the wsy. Also, its a house deep in the country and the dump station was about an hour & 30mins away. The agent that was sent came that same day as scheduled via appointment and we informed him that we're just moving in so he told us its fine, he just needs to take some pictures of the whole house and he'll be on his way. We found it odd that he took pictures of the main house but not the tiny home. We asked why he didnt and he said he was told only to take pictures of the main house and hes done his job. He left with sort of a weirdness. Now we had the house insured a year prior same company but man the house was beat up and ugly color. We decided to renovate the place by doing alot of work inside and out. However, we never took the washing machine out while working on the house. New paint, new roof, new windows, new floors, inside the home all the walls was painted and completely remodeled as well as a old deck. The fact that we remodeled it, it changed the way the house looked so insurance agent had to take a current picture to update the insurance. This renovation had increase our home from 275k to 450k for both units. A month went by and we got a letter in the mail saying we were in violation and the insurance is cancelled. I was pissed and called my agent who handled my insurance policy and she said upper management decided to cancel it because theres "clutter" on the sides of the house. After reviewing the photos.. the only "clutter" picture was the washing machine that was on the side of the house! I explained to my agent how upset I was about it and informed her the washing machine was been moved the next following day and I can take new pictures. She put me on hold and said sorry, based on their policy they had to go by what was taken at the time and if we wanted to renew the insurance, the insurance policy was going to be $9800 in which the previous year we paid only $4600 and we even was informed by the agent it would not increase by much due to renovation. It f***** doubled ! Ridiculous!!! My neighbors house with 28acres and a bigger home valued at 680k pays only 6k for her insurance with the same company!!!

Was there ANYTHING in the contract saying the insurer could inspect FROM the AIR?

My money is on the solar panels. A lot of homeowners insurance companies are dropping people over that and for pretty much no good reason. More greed!

Car guy respect for still having your first car. And I recognize the waver in his voice when he tells people about it. 45 bucks at Autozone for a cover every 2 years goes a long way. I also recognize the car parts in the yard thing and wish him the best.

They should see the farms around my area of Australia. Particularly the Australian desert where no scrapmetal services exist. Dead cars EVERYWHERE. I had a non bank lender for my last mortgage and they told me the government was using helicopters to check if people had POOL FENCES. One of their borrowers got a notice from them in the mail to put one up.

Neighborhoods against drone activity..N.A.D.A

See how these Insurance companies treat even their most ideal and loyal customers.

We had state farm drop us the day after a heavy hail storm that did considerable damage to our roof. Their reason for dropping us, because our roof was damaged and needed repair. Photos revealed damage to the roof from hail damage after a “catastrophic storm”. So they still had to foot the bill to replace it even though we had to get new insurance.

In Missouri you need consent from both parties to fly a drone over private property. If it’s not stated in the contract it’s illegal.

Just so y'all know, you own the airspace 300 feet above your property. There's a 100 foot buffer above that. Then it becomes regulated space 400 feet and above. Sounds to me like someone could have been trespassing. Did they have FAA approval? What's the wing number for that drone? Was the pilot licenced?

My insurance company did the same to me but sent me the google earth photos they used and gave me 30 days to remove the debris and said it was a liability if anyone walking through my yard got hurt on the debris. I sent them photos to show them one pile of debris was an old hand dug well. They were looking straight down at the well cover. So it looked like plywood or a pallet. Second pile was like in this guy's video, all useful stuff but not being used right now. It is in the backyard in a section that is uneven and rocky so I let grow wild and let the animals have it. Property next to mine stores his stuff there because it is also rocky and uneven and he lets it grow wild. Behind the area is the rear of a commercial property that is required by the town to have have trees and bushes as a privacy screen between my property and theirs, so they let it grow wild. I showed the insurance company that nobody is going to be walking throught there and if the did they would get hurt on my neighbor's property long before they reached my property and they backed off. Half the country keeps a yard like this guy does. As long as it is not attracting rats or stinks or you needgoigle earth to see it, why do insurance companies think it is a liability?

The State Dept of insurance basically works in favor of the insurance companies. 🤔

This happened to one of my neighbors. But, his insurance company gave him thirty days to get it cleared up. So they did. Several trips to the dump and a large debris box and the insurance company came out and checked.

My neighbor lost his home owners insurance because he added solar panels and a battery setup to his house. Granted it's his own fault because he didn't notify the company, they dropped him because they were not notified of renovations done to the home.

They didn't find "clutter", they found solar panels on his roof. Many insurance companies are dropping customers who have solar panels. If the panels get damaged, they are expensive to replace, and if the house ever needs a new roof due to hail damage, the solar panels have to be removed and then reinstalled after the new roof is on, which really drives up the cost of a new roof.

In my opinion, a housing market crash is imminent due to the high number of individuals who purchased homes above the asking price despite the low interest rates. These buyers find themselves in precarious situations as housing prices decline, leaving them without any equity. If they become unable to afford their homes, foreclosure becomes a likely outcome. Even attempting to sell would not yield any profits. This scenario is expected to impact a significant number of people, particularly in light of the anticipated surge in layoffs and the rapid increase in the cost of living.

None of that would damage his house even if it was in his yard. Also, they could be sued for invasion of privacy. I doubt his contract says they can drone him. The self installed solar panel is the biggest risk, but could be inspected to ensure it was done right.

He cleand it up before TV team was there 😂

That Corvair is an inoperative stored vehicle that is not apparently under restoration. Many insures have clauses against vehicles like that. Where do they draw the line between storage and junk yard?

This is going to make drone jamming/shooting more and more popular until the government or Wall Street takes privacy seriously (not likely), or until insurers start collapsing because they've cut off too many customers. And I remember when AAA was a respectable company that did great stuff for their customers, but now they've bought into the business ethos: "It's nothing personal, it's just business."

Definitely sounds like a lawsuit in his favor!! I hope he will be able to have time to work on his projects!! Don’t let them bring you down❤

I had the same problem with statefarm saying I had dead trees and my roof is missing a bunch of shingles. They didn't want to show me the photos as well, and I don't have any dead trees or missing shingles, and then they change there story any say other things that weren't in the letters.

It’s not clutter. It’s the solar panels on the roof.

Home insurance sounds crazy in the USA. In the UK I can enter my address into a website and get offers from 20 companies to insure my home. Just helped my daughter set up hers on a £300,000 ($384,000) home and it was £15 ($19) a month for buildings and contents cover.

So they can send a drone without authorization from the owner and take pictures of that person's property. How is that legal?

By law landlords MUST give notice before entering your home and This is this guy's OWN HOME. If he gets creative he can charge them will illegal tresspass, theft, voyeurism, etc etc. Screw sueing over the drop of insurance. Forget that. Sue over invasion of privacy , voyeurism, tresspass etc etc.

This says a lot about the government how much does the insurance company pay under the table each year.

They should have given him a warning to clear clutter.

Something similar happened here, the home owner didn't even blink, he sued the insurer, and won every dime he'd paid over decades back from the insurer. I wonder if they learned anything?

CSAA didn't really cancel his policy. They sent him a letter of nonrenewal. They did the same to me because of the age of the roof and deferred maintenance. They said they used aerial surveillance. They would not reconsider even if I sent them proof I had replaced the roof. They also seemed to have me flagged in a data base that insurance companies use.

They use Google. They don't send their own drones or planes. But you can "correct" issues and upload images to Google to get insurance elsewhere. It's really bad. They take someone's money for years and years and then cancel or refuse to pay a legitimate claim.

Insurance is a bet: you're betting you'll need it .... They're betting you won't.

The issue is that insurance companies are looking to drop coverage. That suggests that they expect claims in his area.

I have a thought on why they ended up saying it wasn’t a drone taking pictures. Federal law (FAA) requires for the drone operator to be in-line of sight of the drone. (Meaning the person flying the drone must be able to see the drone the entire time its in the air) This company could be facing federal charges if they have to admit where the drone operator was at the time the drone was flying over the owners property.

My cousin works for a company that provides this service to insurers. They don’t use drones that I know of, they use small airplanes that take high resolution aerial photos. They use an apparatus where multiple high-end consumer grade digital cameras are attached together. These cameras take a bunch of pictures that are then stitched together by computer. Then an AI looks for things like swimming pools, and then it is gone over again by human reviewers. If someone didn’t claim the pool on their insurance, they may have their rate increased or lose coverage.

I got dropped by CSAA and I would never use them. I always tell people not to go with them.

AAA is not the only insurer that does this. Even Citizens does not allow inoperable motor vehicles in the yard. Most carriers require your home to reflect "pride of ownership". When you sign the application for insurance you agree to inspection.

everyone should walk away from that insurance company

1:24 What's up with those garbage bags, though? Did he just pack up all the clutter right before the cameras arrived? I would like to see the aerial photos that triggered this.