Weegy: Unfortunately, there is no way that you can research previous home insurance claims on a house that you don’t own. While there are two national databases that contain loss history reports, they aren’t available to you unless they are about you. [ These databases are called the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE) and the Automated Property Loss Underwriting System (A-PLUS).
You may be wondering what these databases are for if not for public use. Well, they are for insurance companies; they are the ones that can request a list of claims on a house. This doesn’t mean, however, that you can go and ask your agent to run a list of claims on a house you are interested in buying; that is against the law. Only the actual homeowner can make that request.
So, where does that leave you?
If you are interested in purchasing a home, you can tell the homeowner that you want to see a previous claims list before you buy. They can request the list from their insurance agent (there may be a small fee) and then provide it to you. You should make it clear that you won’t purchase the home without seeing the list; if the homeowner won’t provide it, then you might want to reconsider the purchase, they may have something to hide.
If a homeowner has had too many claims on their home and you come along and purchase it without requesting a previous claims report, you may find that the home you are buying is uninsurable. Too many claims on a home, especially if there is a lot of theft or things like flooding, makes the home high-risk and insurance companies want to avoid risk. It is very important that you know what you are getting, in this respect, before you buy.
Full Disclosure from the Homeowner May Not be Enough
Many people assume that the homeowner is going to tell them about every possible problem that has ever occurred with the house since it is the law; and they should. The problem is, they might not even know what is on their claims report. In most states it ...
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