Tracy Gartenmann had no idea the company that insured her home against wildfires, hailstorms and high winds was also spying on her.
Until she got an email.
In January, a representative for Travelers Insurance emailed Gartenmann to say the company would not renew the policy she’d had on her home in Austin for more than a decade.
Trees had edged too close to her roof, a company representative said, endangering the home. How did they know? Attached to the email were two photos from above Gartenmann’s house. The representative said they had gotten the sky-high images from a third-party company.
“I thought it was a scam,” said Gartenmann. Once she realized the email was real, her reaction changed: “It felt like an infringement on my rights.”
KUT News spoke with homeowners, industry experts and insurance watchdogs, and reviewed hundreds of pages of complaints and state filings. Documents obtained through public records requests confirm that insurers in Texas are using aerial photos taken by satellites and aircraft to determine if they want to keep insuring homes.
Prescient story to run into just after the strongest storm I’ve ever experienced rolled through. Thankfully, the warned 3" hail turned out to be marble sized where I’m parked. But the rain was absolutely insane, and 60mph winds in a van isn’t fun.
Which can be done without a method that produces false positives on reasons to terminate coverage. Part of the premium is them doing due diligence. Satellite photos are not that.
Sure, come inspect the house once a year. I’ve no issue with that. Some sort of “AI” deciding it doesn’t like your roof from a photo? Yeah, no.
They should be required to do an in-person inspection before rescinding coverage. Then, they could use AI to decide where the inspection isn’t needed, saving money… but of course they’re greedy and don’t want to do that.