A California homeowner claims his longtime insurance company has dropped him after he allegedly used a drone to take images of his property while renovating it.
Joan Van Craen was notified by the CSAA that it was terminating the insurance on her Modesto home because of “unsafe” construction work that was causing “clutter” in her yard, said the outraged homeowner. CBS News.
Van Craen, who said he has had CSAA home insurance for nearly 40 years, said he has been renovating his home over the past three years, spending more than $200,000 in the process.
The homeowners revealed that the work took “forever” but involved extensive renovations to the house, including refurbishing the kitchen, bathrooms and driveway.
But she claims that with work on her home nearly complete, she received a letter from CSAA citing the “hazards” they found and unsanitary conditions on her property as liability.
Van Craen, who said he’d paid about $80,000 for home and auto insurance with CSAA over about 40 years, decided to call the insurance company to find out why he’d been removed from the plan.
“She said they flew a drone over the house,” the bewildered homeowner claimed a CSAA representative told her over the phone.
These feelings now make her feel unsafe even in her own home.
“When someone tells you they’ve flown a drone over your house and are looking at you, it feels like they’re looking through your window. It’s like, wow,” she told the outlet.
According to CBS, CSAA denied flying drones over customers’ homes.
However, the insurer revealed that it uses “multiple sources of information” to assess the condition of its clients’ properties, including “aerial imagery taken by third-party fixed-wing aircraft and satellites,” the news outlet reported.
Van Curen claims that the CSAA told her that aerial photographs showed very little debris on the left side of the home, where the final renovations to the home were taking place.
The Post has reached out to the CSAA for comment.
Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a nonprofit that provides insurance information and resources to insurers and policyholders in all 50 states, said that when dealing with a problem similar to Van Curen’s experience, policyholders should always ask for the specific image used to cancel the policy.
“Sometimes these images are blurred,” an attorney for the consumer advocacy group told CBS, “so people believe they are seeing a damaged roof, when in fact it’s just a roof with skylights or solar panels.”
Bach told the media that because insurers are not immune to mistakes, policyholders can ask their insurers to send them images of citations when cancelling their policies.
But while Van Curen claims he has requested those images, the CSAA has yet to send them.
CSAA told CBS that anyone who disagrees with the company’s findings when their policy is cancelled can submit photos or documentation that contradicts the findings.
Insurance companies must give California customers 75 days’ notice before cancelling their policies. State Law.
in new yorkInsurance companies have 45 to 60 days to give you notice and explain why they are not renewing your policy before terminating it.
As for Van Curen’s CSAA auto insurance, he decided that if they quickly canceled his home insurance, he would respond by canceling his auto insurance policy as well.
“The man said to me, ‘Is there anything I can tell you to keep you?'” Van Curen alleged a CSAA representative told her.
“I told him, ‘There’s absolutely no way that’s possible.’
