You're under contract on a house. You've ordered the home inspection, reviewed the seller disclosure, and checked the flood maps. But there's one more document savvy buyers request before closing — and most don't know it exists.
It's called a CLUE report. It reveals every insurance claim filed on a property in the last seven years. Roof leak from 2021 that was "patched"? It's in there. Sewage backup that got a quick carpet replacement? In there too. The seller doesn't have to volunteer any of this — but the data exists, and you can get it.
What Is a CLUE Report?
CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange. It's a database maintained by LexisNexis Risk Solutions that insurance companies use to share claims history. When a homeowner files an insurance claim, that claim gets logged in the CLUE database — and stays there for seven years.
A CLUE report is the consumer-facing version of that database. It's essentially a credit report, but for a property's insurance history instead of a person's financial history.
CLUE reports are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). You have the right to request a free report on any property you're considering purchasing — no credit check required.
Insurers pull CLUE data when writing new policies. A property with a history of water damage claims, for example, may be harder (or more expensive) to insure — which directly affects your financing options. Knowing what's in the CLUE report before you close is simply better due diligence.
What a CLUE Report Contains
A standard CLUE report on a residential property includes:
- Date of each claim — when the loss occurred
- Type of loss — fire, water, wind, theft, liability, etc.
- Claim status — open, closed, or denied
- Amount paid — the dollar amount the insurer paid out
- Policy number — which policy covered the claim
- Insurer name — the insurance company that processed the claim
Reports cover up to seven years of claims history. A property with a clean CLUE report has had no reportable insurance losses in that window — a meaningful signal of structural health.
Here's what a simplified CLUE claims history might look like for a property:
| Date | Loss Type | Amount Paid | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2021 | Wind / Hail | $10,200 | Closed |
| Aug 2019 | Water Damage | $1,200 | Closed |
| Jun 2018 | Fire | $3,400 | Closed |
Three claims in six years is meaningful context. Did the water damage get fully remediated, or was it just dried out and painted over? Was the fire claim limited to one room, or more extensive? These are questions you'd want to ask before closing.
How to Get a CLUE Report
There are two ways to obtain a CLUE report on a property you're considering:
1. Ask the Seller to Request It
Only the current property owner can order a CLUE report on their property from LexisNexis. You can request that the seller pull it and provide it as part of the transaction disclosures — similar to requesting the seller's disclosure statement. Most sellers are willing to do this; refusal is a yellow flag.
2. Request Your Own Personal Report
Under the FCRA, you're entitled to a free annual copy of your own personal CLUE report (tied to you as a policyholder). Visit LexisNexis Consumer Center at personalreports.lexisnexis.com to request yours. This covers claims you've filed yourself — useful context for your insurer, but not directly applicable to a property you're buying.
Third-party "CLUE report" services advertised online are often just repackaged public records — not actual LexisNexis CLUE data. The only authoritative source is the seller requesting directly from LexisNexis, or your insurer pulling it when you apply for coverage.
3. Get It Through Your Insurance Agent
When you apply for homeowners insurance on a property you're purchasing, your insurer will pull the CLUE report automatically. Ask your agent to share what they see. You should do this before you waive your inspection contingency — not after closing.
Why Home Buyers Should Request a CLUE Report
The home inspection tells you what's wrong right now. The CLUE report tells you what went wrong over the last seven years. Both are essential.
Here's why the claims history matters specifically:
- Unresolved damage: A water claim might have been "remediated" superficially — dried out but not properly tested for mold. The claim exists; the fix might not.
- Insurability risk: A property with multiple water or fire claims may be uninsurable with standard carriers, forcing you into expensive surplus-line coverage — which can affect your mortgage.
- Negotiation leverage: Three claims in five years is legitimate grounds to renegotiate price or request repairs before closing.
- Seller disclosure gaps: Sellers are legally required to disclose known defects in most states, but many don't know they're required to disclose past insurance claims. The CLUE report catches what the disclosure misses.
Cross-reference the CLUE report against the seller's disclosure statement. If the disclosure says "no known water damage" but the CLUE report shows a 2019 water claim, ask pointed questions. That inconsistency is the kind of thing that turns into a lawsuit after closing.
How to Read a CLUE Report
A raw CLUE report is a dense PDF — often formatted like an insurance policy declaration page. Here's what to focus on:
- Loss type — Water and fire claims deserve the most scrutiny. Wind/hail is common in many regions and less concerning if properly repaired.
- Payout amount — A $1,200 water claim is very different from a $28,000 water claim. Large payouts indicate significant loss events.
- Claim frequency — Two or more claims for the same type of loss (repeated water damage, for example) suggests an unresolved underlying problem.
- Claim dates vs. renovation history — Did the seller renovate the kitchen in 2020? Cross-reference that with any 2019–2020 claims. Renovations sometimes follow loss events, not lifestyle upgrades.
- Open claims — Any open claim is a red flag. Do not close on a property with an unresolved insurance claim without your attorney reviewing it.
How HomeLedger Automatically Parses CLUE Reports
Reading a CLUE report PDF manually — matching claim dates against inspection findings, comparing payouts to renovation records — is tedious work. Most buyers don't do it thoroughly because the format is designed for insurers, not homeowners.
HomeLedger changes that. When you upload a CLUE report PDF to your property's timeline, HomeLedger automatically extracts each claim entry — date, loss type, payout amount, status — and adds it directly to your property's chronological history.
Every claim becomes a timeline event alongside your maintenance records, renovation permits, and inspection history. You can see at a glance: water claim in 2019, roof replacement in 2020, new HVAC in 2022. That narrative is instantly shareable with buyers, agents, and insurers — without manually assembling a document package.
For buyers, uploading a seller-provided CLUE report to HomeLedger gives you a parsed, searchable claims history in seconds. For sellers, having your CLUE data cleanly integrated into a shareable property report signals transparency — and builds buyer confidence that translates to faster closings.
No other tool parses CLUE reports directly into a property timeline. It's a HomeLedger capability built specifically for the due diligence workflow.
HomeLedger connects your CLUE data with maintenance records — something no other service does.
Track your insurance claims history
Upload a CLUE report PDF and HomeLedger automatically parses every claim into your property timeline — ready to share in one link.
Start Tracking Claims → Free to start · No credit card requiredThe Bottom Line
A CLUE report is one of the most underutilized tools in a home buyer's due diligence arsenal. It costs nothing to obtain through your insurer, takes minutes to review, and can surface material information that a standard inspection won't catch.
Request it before you waive contingencies. Cross-reference it against the seller disclosure. If you're using HomeLedger, upload it — and let the software do the parsing work while you focus on the decision.
The seven years of history in that report represent real events that happened to the property you're about to own. Reading them is just good due diligence.