How to Get Proof of Home Claims History
Order a CLUE report, which lists your home's insurance claims for the past seven years, or ask your insurer directly.
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What a CLUE Report Shows
A CLUE report lists the date, type, and amount paid for each claim tied to your house or your name, going back seven years. Lenders and insurers use it when pricing a policy or underwriting a new one, so it needs to be accurate.
Ordering Your Own Report
You can request your CLUE report through LexisNexis, the company that compiles it, once a year at no cost. You'll need to verify your identity with personal details. If you've just had a loss, order it after the claim is logged, not before, so it's reflected.
Asking Your Insurer Instead
Your insurer can also send you a loss history summary covering the policy's time with them, which may be faster than waiting on a CLUE report. This won't include claims from a previous insurer, so it's a partial record if you've switched companies recently.
Disputing a Low Offer
If you're disputing a denial or a low offer, a loss history record shows the adjuster and any appraiser what's already been paid and for what. That matters when arguing the current damage is separate from a prior repaired claim.
Once your claims history is in hand, it's worth checking what your policy would actually pay against what other insurers quote for the same coverage. A past claim, even a small one, can push up your renewal price more at one company than another, and some insurers weigh claims history differently. Comparing now shows whether staying put still makes sense.
What If the Report Has a Mistake On It
A CLUE report is only as good as what got entered when a claim was filed, and mistakes happen. A claim that was withdrawn might still show as paid. An amount might be wrong. A claim tied to the house from a previous owner might show up under your name, or the reverse. If something on the report doesn't match your own records, it's worth catching before it affects a renewal or a new policy application.
Start by comparing the report against your own paperwork, the claim number, the date it was filed, and whatever letter or settlement amount you received at the time. If the report shows something that doesn't match, you can dispute it directly with LexisNexis, the company that compiles the report. They're required to investigate and correct confirmed errors, similar to how a credit bureau handles a dispute. This takes time, so it's not something to start the week before a policy renews.
If the error came from how your insurer reported the claim, it's worth contacting them directly as well. They're the ones who submitted the information in the first place, and they can request a correction on their end, which sometimes moves faster than a dispute filed straight with LexisNexis. Ask for this in writing or keep notes on who you spoke with, since you may need to show that you raised it if the error shows up again later.
A wrong entry on a CLUE report isn't just a paperwork annoyance. Insurers price a policy partly on claims history, so an error that makes your house look riskier than it is can mean paying more than you should, or getting turned down by an insurer who'd otherwise take you on. If you're mid-dispute on a current claim, a clean report also keeps the adjuster's attention on the actual damage instead of a mismatched number from years back that has nothing to do with it.
Do Claims Stay on the Report Forever
Seven years is the usual window for a CLUE report, counting from the date a claim was filed. Once a claim passes that mark it drops off on its own. You don't need to request anything for that to happen, and there's no way to speed it up for a claim still inside the window, even one you'd rather not have on there.
A claim from five years ago that's still pushing up your renewal will age off in time. But insurers can still ask about losses going back further than seven years when you apply for a new policy, since the application itself may ask you to disclose claims history beyond what the report shows. A clean CLUE report doesn't erase what you remember or what's written on an old application.
A recent claim, even a small one you paid out of pocket to close quickly, is going to show up for the full seven years. If you're weighing whether to file a claim at all for minor damage, this is part of what to factor in. A $1,500 claim today can affect pricing at renewal time for several years, not just the one that follows.
None of this changes once a claim is filed and logged. The date is fixed, the seven years start counting from there, and no dispute or phone call moves that clock. The only thing worth checking is that the filing date itself is accurate, since a wrong date could make a claim age off later than it should.
Before You Renew
Pull your CLUE report and check each entry against your own paperwork, the claim number, date, and amount paid. Catching an error now, before a renewal or application, is easier than fixing it after it's already affected a quote.
