Lifehacker – and What to Do About It – “If you own a home, you know that homeowners insurance usually requires inspections—at least once, when you initially take out the policy, and often periodically when the renewal comes around. You usually can’t avoid this—the insurer has a right to ensure that they’re not taking on excessive risk. They don’t want to be on the hook for a huge repair bill because you didn’t bother maintaining your roof properly, after all. Normally, you know when those inspections are coming, so you can prepare your home. But increasingly, insurance companies are using less visible tools to check out the exterior of your home, employing drones and satellite imagery to check that your roof is in good shape, that you’re doing proper maintenance to the exterior walls and landscaping, and that you’re not using your property in a manner that conflicts with your policy agreement. And you need to worry about this because it changes the core dynamic around home inspections. Here’s what you need to know—and how to react. There are several reasons why drone and satellite-powered inspections are problematic for you as a homeowner:

• Unreliable. The images secured via drone and satellite are usually pretty low-quality. A man living in Florida had his insurance canceled when a drone photographed his roof—he described the photo as looking “like it was taken in 1936.” These images are often plagued by shadows and artifacts that are misinterpreted as damage, and insurers are sometimes picking up satellite images that are years out of date and using them to justify rate increases or policy cancellations.
• Unpredictable. Unlike a scheduled inspection, a drone can fly over and around your house at any time. That means if you’re in the process of repairing some aspect of the home’s exterior or have the work scheduled, the photos can show an inaccurate glimpse of the state of the property. That can lead to false accusations of deferred maintenance or damage, leading to unfair rate hikes or cancelations.
• Lack of warning. These inspections often happen without your knowledge, so the first time you hear about them might be when you receive a notice that your rates are rising or your policy won’t be renewed. At that point, it might be much more difficult to fight the decision if the physical state of your house has changed. And it removes your chance to make adjustments in advance of the inspection if you’re doing something with the property you know could be misunderstood or misconstrued…”