How Drones are Assisting Insurance Adjusters With Construction Claims

Oct 29, 2019 | Construction Litigation

Technology has provided us the opportunity to capture critical information within the workplace to make informed decisions in an effective and efficient manner.

Since 2016, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) rolled back regulations on the commercial use of drones. Arguably no industry has benefited more than the construction field. Drones have drastically changed the construction landscape and will continue to impact how daily operations are performed in the foreseeable future.

Here are a few observations on how drones have helped an adjuster’s ability to evaluate construction related claims:

Pre-Insurance Site Inspections

Drones can be extremely useful to access otherwise difficult projects due to challenging terrain or other geographical limitations. For example, mountainous regions, commercial agricultural crop farms, and urban high-rise projects are much easier to access from the sky versus by land. Not only do drones provide imaging that cannot be captured by the human eye, but they also reduce the risk and time related costs associated with the inspections.

Catastrophic Loss Inspections

Construction professionals routinely utilize drones to investigate catastrophic losses related to construction  claims. Specifically, drones are particularly useful when investigating damage related to roofs, floods, fire and other work-related incidents. Depending on the claim, certain inspections not only present accessibility challenges, but also pose extremely dangerous conditions. Post hurricane or fire related roof inspections are a prime example of dangerous inspections that adjusters often experience.  To avoid risk of injury, insurance adjusters, engineers, and architects alike are utilizing drones equipped with cameras to assess the condition of the damage to the existing structure and capture the necessary imaging to evaluate the claim.

Construction Improvements

Drones also provide an opportunity for developers to evaluate and access large scale projects such as high-rise structures, or hundreds of acres of vacant land prior to undergoing residential community developments. The opportunity to compile such data accurately, and quickly, is undeniably a game changing cost saving measure that must be taken advantage of in an industry where time and costs are always under scrutiny.

Improved Overall Safety and Security

The daily use of drones on construction sites have been proven to increase safety awareness and reduce the risk of costs associated with site accidents, theft and vandalism. Moreover, time associated with human patrolled security surveillance is vastly less effective and cost deficient when compared to that of aerial drones. Drones can not only provide real time video, but also cover more area space than that of human patrol.

Overall, the benefits associated with utilizing drones will help insurers reduce costs associated with investigating claims. Such value gained from utilizing technological advances such as drones, will allow adjusters to focus their resources on evaluating the heart of the claim and resolving the matter in a more effective and efficient manner.

CMBG3 Law’s attorneys have years of combined experience handling construction defect cases in multiple jurisdictions relating to various sized projects, including commercial structures, massive residential subdivisions, condominiums, and single-family residences. Our attorneys have successfully defended issues involving hot/corrosive soils, proper pipe insulation, foundation cracks, subsoil grading, siding, windows, flashing, rough framing, waterproofing membranes, roofing, plumbing, and drywall. In addition, we have experience dealing with indemnification disputes, tenders of liability, local building codes, ASTM standards, AWWA standards, as well as other nuanced issues in construction litigation. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Anthony daFonseca (email him or 617-279-8241).

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