What Is a CLUE on My Home Insurance?
A CLUE report is a seven-year history of insurance claims on you and the house, used to price and underwrite your policy.
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Your renewal went up and you haven't filed a claim
A CLUE report doesn't only list your own claims. It includes claims tied to the house itself, so if a previous owner filed one, that can still show up and affect your price. It also pulls in claims you made years ago, since the window covers seven years, not just the current term. If nothing on the house changed and you haven't filed anything, the increase is more likely coming from rebuilding costs rising in your area, or the insurer adjusting rates across a wider group of policyholders, not from your file specifically. You can request your own CLUE report to see exactly what's listed under your name and address. If it shows something unexpected, that's worth checking before you decide whether to compare other insurers.
Your price went up, but the report isn't the only reason
If your CLUE report comes back clean, the increase is about rebuilding costs or rate changes across your insurer's policyholders, not your history. Either way, that's a price other insurers set differently, and worth checking against.
Can you get something taken off your CLUE report?
You can dispute a CLUE report the same way you'd dispute an error on a credit report. If it lists a claim that was never filed, lists the wrong amount, or still shows a claim tied to a previous owner that shouldn't affect you, you can file a dispute directly with the company that keeps the report. They have a set period to look into it and respond. If they agree it's wrong, they correct it, and that correction carries forward to any insurer that pulls the report after that.
A claim that's listed correctly doesn't come off just because you'd rather it didn't. If you filed it and it paid out, it stays on the report for the full seven years regardless of how small it was. This is part of why insurance agents often say to think twice before filing a claim for a repair you could cover yourself. A $1,200 roof repair claim can sit on your record for years and affect pricing long after the roof is fixed.
Closed claims, meaning ones that were filed but withdrawn or denied before any payout, still show up on the report. They're listed as closed, but an underwriter reviewing your file sees that a claim was made, not just whether it was paid. Some insurers weigh a denied claim less heavily than a paid one, but that's a choice each insurer makes, not something set by the report itself.
If your CLUE report is accurate and the claims on it are part of why your renewal is higher, that's not something a dispute fixes. It's something a different insurer might weigh differently. Insurers don't all score the same claims history the same way. One company might price a single water damage claim from four years ago as a minor factor, while another treats it as a reason to raise the premium substantially. That's a real difference between insurers, and it's part of what changes when you compare them.
How do you get your own CLUE report?
You're entitled to a free copy of your CLUE report once a year, the same way you're entitled to a free credit report. It comes from the company that compiles it, not from your insurer, so you request it directly rather than asking the company that sent your renewal. You'll need to verify your identity with basic information like your name, address and date of birth, and the report usually arrives within a few days.
The report itself lists each claim by date, type and amount paid, along with the address it's tied to and the policyholder of record. If you've owned the house for less than seven years, part of that history belongs to whoever owned it before you. That's worth knowing going in, since a claim you find on there may not be one you'd recognize or expect.
If you're buying a house, you can ask the seller for a copy of the CLUE report on the property before closing, since claims tied to the house follow it regardless of who owns it. Some sellers have this on hand already, because title companies and real estate agents often recommend pulling it during the sale. Finding out about a prior water damage claim before you own the house gives you a chance to ask about repairs, rather than discovering it later through a higher quote.
There's no cost to requesting the report and no limit on how many insurers can pull it once it exists. Checking it doesn't affect your insurance in any way, it only tells you what underwriters are already seeing when they price your policy. For anyone trying to understand a renewal increase or shopping before a purchase, it's the same document the industry works from, just available to you directly instead of secondhand through a quote.
Before you decide
Pull your CLUE report and check it against your renewal date. If it's clean or the claims are old and minor, that price is one insurer's call, not a fixed number.
