re: So, insurance companies now send drones to assess your stuff?

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How does me wanting to underinsure my home hurt honest customers? I think I should be able to choose how much insurance I want, especially on a house with no mortgage.

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The problem is the portion you don’t insure will never be damaged unless the house is a total loss.

You don’t have to insure it for the total value they evaluate it at. You can insure it for what it’s really worth and what is an acceptable risk for you.

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You don’t have to insure it for the total value they evaluate it at.

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You aren't setting underwriting guidelines bro. They are.

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You can insure it for what it’s really worth and what is an acceptable risk for you.

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Policies are made to insure for coverage to get replacement. Not just what its worth. There's too much confusion with the blurred lines of real estate value vs replacement cost value.

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friend's wife told me the insurance company raised their premiums after they sent a drone to their house to assess the total value of their house, shed and other small structures. She said it went as low as head level and took extensive video, which cause the company to raise the total value of their house, thus necessitating a higher level of total coverage.

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Well this is a pretty routine thing companies do every couple years with policy renewals.. Most good HO3(your pretty standard policy) have inflation gaurds built into them and value typically raises with normal inflation..

Drones are also used to assess roof condition, home condition and to see if anything like a shed, pool, Etc has been added since the last inspection because that can cause and increase in risk and/or value..

Drones are also good for these inspectors because they typically show up unannounced anyway so it allows them to do their job without pissing off a homeowner, getting bit by a dog or not being able to access the rear yard..

Not sure why you're all bent out of shape about this

Drones are pretty common to use for routine new policy inspections nowadays. Easier to get good views of the roof and they can get pics of the rear of the home and backyard without needing someone to be home. Adjusters are using drones more often too, especially for roof claims.

Increases in coverage post-inspection has been happening way before drone use. Probably has to do with a discrepancy in square footage between what was listed on the policy application vs what the inspection came up with. Easy to dispute with something like an appraisal if you think the inspector was wrong.

Not new and they do this other ways by either sending someone to inspect or making you download an app and taking the photos yourself

I just switched carriers because my old carrier had sent an inspector a few weeks before my renewal and they raised my replacement value to about 30% higher than what it would be and my interior contents to $500K. I don't have $500K worth of stuff inside my house. When I asked them how they came up with that number they said a house my size can easily fit $500K worth of stuff. In other words it was fugazi. It would have raised my rates by $4500 more this year.

If I could get away with it, I should have burned it down and called their bluff.

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You don’t have to insure it for the total value they evaluate it at. You can insure it for what it’s really worth and what is an acceptable risk for you.

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If the carrier's underwriting rules say they'll only insure it for 100% of replacement value, then you can either insure it for what they estimate the replacement value at or you can find a different insurance company who will let you under-insure. You don't have to agree to their underwriting rules and they don't have to agree to insure your house.

The vast majority of homeowners insurance companies only write replacement cost policies, which means they're going to make you insure for full replacement value.

Some companies will write ACV policies that don't require you to insure for replacement cost and let you decide how much you want to insure it for. The issue with that is that if you decide you only want to insure the house for 200K and the true replacement cost is actually 400K, then you're going to be viewed as self-insuring for 50% of the risk (aka co-insurance). So when you make a claim, the insurance company is only covering 50% of damage at ACV and then subtracting your deductible from that. The percentage of co-insurance will be based on the percentage of what you insured the house for vs what its replacement value is prior to the loss. Its a piece of shite policy, which is why most companies don't offer it. They don't want the headaches because a high number of those claims will inevitably end up with the company having to defend lawsuits when policy holders are surprised to find out that claims don't work the same way on under-insured ACV policies as they do on RCV policies insured to value.

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Not sure why you're all bent out of shape about this

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you dont understand why it's a little jarring to be filmed by a flying robot on your property with no warning? how do you even know it's an insurance drone and not some pervert down the street?

Yep.

You aren’t gonna upgrade your house and not tell the insurance company.

Why you might ask?

Cause frick you that’s why

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. She said it went as low as head level and took extensive video,

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I see a drone on my property like that I am going to shoot it down.