Lynne Schueler of Topsfield, Massachusetts, was shocked to receive the notice and terrified of the implications.

She told CBS News: “It was very invasive, because they had taken a picture of my house without me knowing, which was really kind of crazy.

“They were cancelling my insurance.

“They had shown a drone coming over the house at some point and there were some tree branches hovering over my house that they wanted removed.

“I was very nervous. I’m like, ‘How much is this going to cost and can I find somebody to take these branches down?’

“And, plus, I was losing branches on a beautiful tree.”

Schueler revealed that her policy was renewed for another year, but the company told her that it could use another drone in the future.

The company said that it can do this without offering a new policy.

But experts have warned that insurance companies are using drone technology to determine whether to renew a customer’s policy.

Amy Bach, the Executive Director at United Policyholders, told WBZ: “People are getting dropped on the basis of, ‘We see mold on your roof,’ or ‘We see damaged roof tiles,’ or ‘There’s trees touching your house,’ risk factors that insurance companies are increasingly on the lookout for.

“We are pushing for there to be some reasonable limits on insurance companies’ ability to take these photos and use them, but of course, insurance companies are pushing back.”

A bill has been introduced in the House to tackle this kind of practice by insurance companies.

David LeBoeuf, a Democrat from Worcester, brought the bill, and told the outlet: “It gives you the right, if your homeowner’s insurance policy is not renewed because of the use of an aerial image, to actually see that image, to know when it was taken, to have the defects identified and to create an appeals and cures process.”