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.

Can You Dispute a Home Insurance Claim Settlement?

Your homeowner's insurance coverage helps protect you from financial loss should your house become damaged or destroyed as the result of numerous perils. The perils in a standard policy typically number about seventeen. These extend from something that may be minor, such as vandalism, to something that is catastrophic, such as a house fire that totally destroys your home and all your belongings within the home.

There's much more contained in your homeowner's policy than just structure and personal possessions coverage, including liability should someone get injured while on your property or in your home and later bring a lawsuit against you for damages.

Filing a Homeowner's Insurance Policy Claim

When something happens, you file a claim with your insurance company and await getting reimbursed within the limits and provisions of your policy. But what if the claim you submitted isn't settled to your satisfaction or gets denied completely? Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence and can be incredibly frustrating. There are a number of reasons an insurance company may deny a claim you've filed and that you think should be covered. Some of those reasons include:

• The damage you've reported isn't covered in your policy
• The damage you're claiming wasn't correctly reported
• The replacement cost of the damage you're reporting is less than the amount of your deductible

Disputing a Home Insurance Claim Settlement

If you believe your claim was unjustly denied or the payout amount was less than you should have received, you can dispute these results. While you may choose to hire legal assistance, this may be expensive. Many will choose to dispute a Home Insurance Claim Settlement on their own. Here are the steps to take:

1. Read and understand your coverage. You may have filed a claim for something you thought was covered but wasn't.
2. If your claim is denied, review the insurer's documentation explaining their disapproval. Contact your agent if you have questions. Assemble any documents proving why you're entitled to your claim.
3. Send a letter to the insurer's claims adjuster explaining your position. Include any evidence you have to show the claim was improperly handled. Request the adjuster review the claim and respond within a stated time frame. Send a courtesy copy to the adjuster's superior.
4. Request the insurer send a second adjuster to conduct a second inspection.
5. If the insurer won't change their position, file a formal complaint with your State Insurance Department.

What Does Other Structures Insurance Cover?

A typical homeowner's insurance policy provides four important types of coverage:

1. Coverage to repair or replace the structure of your home, should it become damaged or destroyed as a result of suffering from any of the variety of perils detailed in your policy. This includes things such as fire or smoke, hail, lightning, hurricanes, falling objects, theft, vandalism and more. Most homeowner's policies also include other structures insurance, which protects separate structures on your property for the same perils applicable to the coverage for your home's main structure.
2. Coverage to repair or replace your personal property if it becomes lost, damaged or destroyed by any of the same perils covered in your policy. This includes personal items in your home such as furniture, clothing, appliances, sports equipment, etc. Coverage is usually capped at around 50%-70% of the amount placed on the structure of your home. Your personal property is covered whether it's in your home or somewhere else, basically anywhere in the world. This “outside your home” coverage is typically capped at about 10% of the coverage you have for your personal possessions. You also have coverage for shrubs, plants and trees on your property, usually capped at about $500 per item or $1,000 on an HE-7.*might even put in a link to our HE-& comparison page
3. Liability coverage that protects you against lawsuits relating to alleged damages to have been caused to others or their property. This coverage will pay for your court defense and any court awards up to the limit stated in your policy.
4. Additional living expenses coverage pays your living expenses (hotel bills, meals and other costs) if you're forced to live away from home due to damage caused by a covered peril.

Other Structures Insurance

Typical homeowner's policies include something called other structures insurance, sometimes referred to as Coverage B in your policy. This provides coverage for the same perils for which your home is covered and is applied to separate structures such as:

• Detached garages
• Sheds
• Gazebos
• In-ground swimming pools
• Fences
• 
  

You'll find other structures coverage often limited to a percentage of your home's structure coverage. According to the III (Insurance Information Institute) this is typically 10%.

Personal property found in any of these other structures, such as a detached garage or tool shed, are dealt with separately from your other structures insurance coverage, under the personal possessions portion of your policy. Get with your agent or broker if you're unclear of your policy's provisions.

Waiting Too Long to Buy Life Insurance: The Pitfalls

There are numerous reasons that may be prompting you to buy life insurance. These may include:

• Recently getting married
• Having a new baby
• Taking on significant debt, such as buying a house that your loved ones wouldn't be able to afford if something were to happen to you
• You've personally seen the negative financial impact a death has had on the surviving family

Waiting to Buy Life Insurance

While there are many reasons to buy life insurance, there are just as many reasons that may be holding you back from taking the action needed. Perhaps you think you're too young and healthy to need life insurance or, at the other end, you think you're too old to need it. Maybe you think it's too expensive to get coverage or you think you don't need it because you don't have children.

These are all common excuses people find for not buying life insurance. And there are more – I smoke, my health isn't good, I don't work outside the home, I don't know what kind of or how much coverage I need. There are convincing counter-arguments to each of the excuses mentioned, but that's information for another blog. The purpose of this piece is to discuss the pitfalls of waiting too long to buy life insurance, whatever your reasons may be.

Waiting Too Long

The best time to buy life insurance will vary from one person to another, dependent upon your family and financial situations. Generally speaking, you need life insurance if there are people who depend on your income to maintain their current standard of living or if you have debts that your survivors will have to pay off. Add to that the cost of burial, which your loved ones will also have to deal with.

When buying life insurance, younger is better. At a younger age, you'll be subject to lower premiums. As you get older, premiums will rise in cost and there's also a chance that you could develop health problems that will either make your insurance more expensive, more difficult to obtain or disqualify you from getting coverage altogether.

Unfortunately, younger people who are faced with mortgages, student loan debt, credit card debt and car payments will often put off buying life insurance. This can have a huge financial impact, similar to putting off saving for retirement. Sooner is better!