A woman from California is taking legal action against Liberty Mutual for terminating her home insurance. The reason given was the alleged discovery of mold on her roof through aerial photos that were deemed unreliable.

Maria Badin, 69, accused the provider of trying to ‘maximize profits’ with the decision to revoke coverage on her $1.8 million Poway home.

She filed a class action lawsuit in which she included the photo taken by Liberty, which it claimed showed evidence of ‘algae/mildew/mold/moss’.

The woman presented a detailed image from an independent inspection showing that her roof was actually in excellent condition, contradicting Liberty Mutual’s claim.

In the court filings, the woman’s legal team criticized insurance companies, including Liberty Mutual, for a pattern of canceling homeowners’ policies in California to boost their profits.

‘California homeowners, who have dutifully paid their premiums for years, have been, and are, being blindsided by Defendants’ nonrenewal notices informing them their policy will not continue—for stated reasons that are demonstratively false.

Badin is seeking unspecified damages and demanding a change to the way Liberty conducts such assessments.

The proposed class-action would also encompass around 17,000 homeowners who lost their insurance after Liberty subsidiary Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company refused to renew in the wake of the devastating wildfires.

The notices did not cite aerial photos as part of the decision, but just said the provider’s technology could no longer oversee the policies.

‘They’ve insured these homes for years with the same risks they had at the time,’ Attorney Michelle Meyers told the San Francisco Chronicle.

‘It seems pretty clear that (the non-renewal decision) was done for money,’ the higher premiums that can be charged for new policies, she said. 

Badin said she was notified last August that her more than 30-year policy would be coming to an end.

She received the long distance photograph and set about obtaining her own inspection, which revealed the roof was ‘in incredible shape’, according to her lawyers.

However, Liberty stuck by its initial decision and refused to renew her policy.

The use of aerial photographs, sometimes taken from up to 10,000 feet away, is not uncommon in the insurance world.

But many people have reported issues with the method, including occasions where their neighbor’s homes have been mistaken for theirs. 

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has already proposed a slate of reforms to help deal with an insurance crisis in California, which has seen several major providers refuse to renew policies over previously undetected defects.

A growing list of companies have limited or even stopped doing business entirely in the Golden State – many citing the intensifying risk of climate disasters.

As a result, over half of Californians say they have been affected by rising premiums for property coverage or have been dropped by their insurer in the last year, according to stark data from Redfin last year.

Anyone left without insurance faces being left on the hook for rebuilding their entire home should it be damaged by floods, fires or earthquakes. 

Liberty Mutual refused to comment when contacted by DailyMail.com.