What Is an Insurance Clue Report?

Buying a home involves lots of steps, starting with looking for and finding the place you want and going on through getting financing and insurance and finally moving in. This is a process where you don't want to have to deal with surprises, but there's always the question of a home's true history. Knowing what's happened to your proposed future home in the past can be a big help when deciding whether or not this is an investment you want to make. It's also useful to the insurer who'll be writing a policy for the home when it comes to their underwriting process.

Insurance CLUE Report

While it's definitely to your advantage to have a property inspection conducted before making the final decision to buy a particular property, you'll also want to take a look at the most recent CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) Report. You can bet your insurer will be looking at this report when underwriting your policy and determining the amount of premium you'll be charged. It just makes sense to know about the home you're considering before you give the final approval.

What is an Insurance CLUE Report?

An Insurance CLUE Report, also known as a loss history report, is a free tool you can use to find out if there have been any insurance losses filed on a particular property. Most home insurance companies are contributors to a claims history database known as CLUE, the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, monitored by LexisNexis, a research company. Insurers also often use these reports when underwriting a new homeowner's policy to help in setting premium rates. Accessing CLUE Report information will enable you to learn what insurance claims were filed for a particular home during the past five years. This can tell you if losses were suffered from a fire, a storm, vandalism, or any of the other perils for which homeowner's insurance provides coverage.

Who Can Get a CLUE Report

Homeowners are eligible to receive one CLUE Report per year. If you're buying a home and want to see the report, you'll have to request that the homeowner get one and show it to you. Reports contain:

• Name of insurer
• Date and type of any losses within five years
• Status of claim and, if approved, amount of payout
• Policy and claim numbers

A blank report means no losses were claimed or the insurer isn't a CLUE participant.