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The insurance contract would have a clause saying they can inspect the property.

Homeowners also have a right to refuse those inspections at their own risk, so the inspectors would only have access to what they could see publicly from the property boundary.

It would also have a clause saying the howmeownernafeee to maintain their property.

Whether or not retaining a particular tree is "not maintaining their property" is a matter of perspective.

If the drone was at a high enough altitude permission isn’t needed.

The FAA already has a 400 foot limitation for drone operations. Furthermore, past precedent indicates that property owners possess rights against "unwanted aerial invasions in that space that would “subtract from the owner’s full enjoyment of the property.”" And this isn't even getting into complications introduced by local zoning/privacy laws.

So if the inspectors did not get permission to use the drone over the property, there's a better than even chance that they got those images illegally.

But who knows, maybe the use of drones is now being included in insurance contracts...

And in the absence of a provision in an insurance policy, the use of drones by insurance companies would most likely be covered under state laws.

I found this interesting article on the subject (the emphasis in the cited item is mine):

Your Insurance Company May Be Using A Drone To Spy On Your Property From The Air

Candise Shanbron, managing partner of Cernitz Law, says there are a variety of federal, state and local laws regarding the use of drones which in some cases prohibit drone users from conducting surveillance that would violate a reasonable expectation of privacy without the property owner’s consent. However, she notes that there are often exceptions for licensed business entities that have a legitimate interest in the property -- which would typically include insurance companies and insurance adjusters.

For what it's worth ... it seems to be far more common for insurance companies to use drones for property inspections in the claims process, not for establishing conditions related to insurability and premiums.

I also find it interesting that most of the complaints cited in articles like these come from homeowners who only object to the drone usage not due to privacy concerns, but because the drones help the insurance company find things that affect the insurability and/or the premiums on the property.