How Drones Could Become Part of the Insurance Claim Process
If your home becomes the victim of flood damage, fire damage or is devastated by other natural disasters like hail or a tornado, you will most likely want to file a claim with your homeowner’s insurance company so you can receive financial compensation for repairing this damage.
And filing these claims might become easier and more expedited than ever — with the help of drones.
According to a February 4 Real Estate Weekly article, a drone, equipped with a camera, would be able to fly over the property in question and gather footage and evidence of the damage that took place. This could all be done within just a few hours of the house becoming damaged, and would make it easier for insurance companies to process claims; representatives would no longer have to travel to the home to witness the damage first-hand.
Many insurance companies and real estate firms are already looking into purchasing drones for this very purpose.
Currently, drones are used for a wide variety of different purposes, such as monitoring agriculture, protecting public safety, observing environmental changes and much more, Real Estate Weekly reports. Using drones could significantly shorten the processing time it takes for insurance companies to close claims.
However, that isn’t to say that drones would effectively remove the need for things like public adjuster services, which help homeowners get a fair claim if their insurance company has denied it.
And currently, widespread adoption of these devices by the insurance industry is largely being held back by regulations from the Federal Aviation Administration; the FAA doesn’t yet legally allow drones to be used for this purpose.
What do you think about the possibility of drones capturing evidence of damage to a home for flood and fire damage claims? Do you think this would make public adjuster services unnecessary, or are they still needed for filing claims? Let us know what you think in the comments below. See this reference for more.