A CLUE report — Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange — is a loss-history database, operated by LexisNexis Risk Solutions and contributed to by participating insurers, that homeowner’s carriers commonly check when pricing or underwriting a policy. When you apply for coverage, when your policy comes up for renewal, or when someone else buys the property you own, an insurer can pull the CLUE report on the address or on you personally, and what the report says is one of the inputs to the pricing and coverage decision they make.
This post covers what the report contains, how to obtain your own copy, how to dispute an error, and the retention question — which is genuinely more variable than most sources acknowledge.
What the Report Contains
A CLUE report on a property typically shows, for each loss event associated with the address:
- The date of loss
- The type of loss (fire, wind, hail, water, theft, etc.)
- The amount paid, if any
- The insurer that handled the claim
- The status (open, closed, denied, paid)
- Whether the loss was on the property or elsewhere on the policy
A CLUE report on a person typically shows the same for claims filed by that person across different properties. Which report an insurer pulls depends on the underwriting question — pricing your home coverage generally pulls the property report; evaluating you as an applicant generally pulls both.
The report shows claims, not inquiries — but the definition of what counts as a claim versus an inquiry is state-specific and important enough to have its own post. See Does Asking Your Insurer a Question Count as a Claim? for the distinction.
What “Loss Event” Means for Zero-Payout Claims
The report shows the event, not just the payment. A claim reported and denied still creates a record. A claim wiped out by your deductible still creates a record. This is the source of the “I filed and got nothing, why is this on my record” surprise homeowners run into at renewal. A Claim That Paid Nothing Still Goes On Your Record covers that consequence in detail; the CLUE report is the mechanism that makes it happen.
Getting Your Own Copy
CLUE reports are administered by LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Under federal law, you’re entitled to one free copy of your consumer file per year — the same right that applies to credit reports, extended to consumer-reporting agencies including LexisNexis. You request it directly from LexisNexis, not from your insurer. The current process is on LexisNexis’s consumer disclosure website; the entry point changes periodically so I’m not linking a specific URL — search “LexisNexis consumer disclosure” for the current path.
Two practical notes:
- Request both the personal report and the property report. These are different reports. If you’re checking a property before buying it, you can request the property report on that address.
- Some states go further than federal law. Colorado, for example, requires insurers to affirmatively tell policyholders in each policy packet and renewal notice how to get a free CLUE-equivalent report. Whether your state has such a requirement is on the state pages — Colorado’s rule appears under the loss history report and disclosure sections on its state page.
Disputing an Error
If you obtain your report and find an error — a claim that isn’t yours, a wrong amount, a misattributed status — the dispute process runs through LexisNexis, again under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The process:
- Submit a dispute with LexisNexis, in writing or through their consumer portal, identifying the specific entry and what you believe is wrong.
- LexisNexis is required to investigate and respond within a specific window (currently 30 days under FCRA, with an extension possible for certain circumstances).
- If the entry is confirmed as an error, it must be corrected or removed. If confirmed as accurate, it stays — you have the right to add a written statement explaining your position that will accompany future disclosures.
If the disputed entry is a denied claim you believe was denied wrongly, the CLUE dispute doesn’t overturn the denial — that’s a separate process with your insurer, covered in How to Appeal a Denied Roof Claim. CLUE disputes correct factual errors in the record itself, not underlying claim decisions.
The Retention Question
The most common single question about CLUE reports: how long do entries stay? The honest answer is that it varies, and the specific numbers you’ll see cited around the internet are often unsourceable or based on outdated policies.
What’s actually true:
- Retention practices are set by LexisNexis in consultation with participating insurers, subject to consumer-reporting-law constraints
- The specific retention period is not published as a single number that applies uniformly
- Insurers may use different lookback periods when they query the report — so even if the underlying record retains longer, a specific insurer might only consider entries from a limited recent window
Because the retention question doesn’t have a single sourceable answer, treating any specific number of years as authoritative is a mistake. What matters practically: assume any claim you file will be visible to insurers for some multi-year period, don’t file expecting the record to disappear on a specific timeline, and if the retention question is decisive for a filing decision, request your current report and ask your specific insurer what lookback period they use.
Before You File, Know What Would Be Reported
Before filing, know what the payout would actually be, because the record is created either way. Run your roof’s age, material, replacement cost, and deductible through the calculator to see what a claim would actually pay — if the answer is zero or close to it, the loss event will be on the report regardless, and the should-you-file guide covers whether that trade is worth it.
What CLUE Doesn’t Do
Two clarifications about what the report is not:
- CLUE is not a blacklist. An entry doesn’t automatically preclude coverage. It’s an underwriting input. Two carriers looking at the same report may reach different pricing or coverage decisions.
- A clean CLUE report doesn’t guarantee coverage or good pricing. Roof age, credit score (in states that permit its use), and location risk all factor in alongside CLUE history.
When the Report Is Just Accurate
Being honest: if you filed a claim, it appears on the report. If you filed several, they appear. The report reflecting your filing history isn’t an error to dispute — it’s the record working as designed. What you can influence going forward is the pre-file decision: don’t file claims whose expected payout is zero, understand the trade-off before making the call, and be aware that a paid claim reduces future options too. See Switching Home Insurance After a Roof Claim for what happens when you shop coverage with recent claims on your record.
