U.S. News

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.