How Long Do Homeowners Insurance Claims Stay on Your Record?

Homeowners insurance claims stay on your record for seven years from the date of the loss. That’s how long the two main industry databases, CLUE (run by LexisNexis) and A-PLUS Property (run by Verisk), keep home claim history before it ages off.¹² Almost every insurer that writes home coverage contributes to CLUE, so when you apply for a new policy or come up for renewal, the carrier is pulling seven years of history whether the claim was with them or someone else.³

What Counts as a Claim on Your Record

Each CLUE entry includes the date of the loss, the cause of damage, and the amount the insurer paid.³ The part that surprises most homeowners is what happens when nothing is paid out. A claim you filed and later withdrew still shows up. A claim your insurer denied still shows up. A claim that came in below your deductible still shows up. The record isn’t a list of checks the insurer wrote — it’s a list of losses you reported.

That distinction matters because insurers treat the count of claims, not just the dollars paid, as a risk signal. A denied water-damage claim from four years ago still reads as a water-damage event at your address.

When the Seven-Year Clock Actually Matters

The seven-year window has the biggest practical effect in two moments: when you shop for a new policy, and when your current insurer decides whether to renew. If you had a rough stretch with two or three claims and then went several years claim-free, your report gets meaningfully cleaner as the oldest entries drop off. Some homeowners deliberately wait for an old claim to age off before switching carriers, because a new insurer seeing the claim for the first time may weight it more heavily than your current one, which already priced it in.

Multiple claims inside a short window are where consequences escalate. Two or three claims within five years can push you into a higher-risk pricing tier, trigger a higher deductible, prompt coverage exclusions, or lead to non-renewal. Three claims in five years is a commonly cited threshold where finding affordable coverage gets difficult. Weather claims tend to be viewed more forgivingly than water damage, which insurers often associate with deferred maintenance, so a pattern of water losses is one of the quickest ways to get non-renewed.

Claims Follow the House, Not Just You

CLUE records are tied to both the policyholder and the property address. When a home changes hands, the new owner’s insurer pulls the property’s claim history during underwriting. Losses filed by the previous owner can raise the new owner’s premium, prompt extra inspection requirements, or lead to a coverage denial, even though the buyer had nothing to do with them. Those prior-owner claims remain attached to the address for the same seven years.¹

If you’re buying a home, ordering a CLUE report on the property before closing is worth the effort. Finding out about three prior water damage claims after you own the place puts you in a weak position with insurers.

Whether to File in the First Place

Because every filed claim is reported regardless of payout, some losses aren’t worth reporting. The clearest case is when repair costs sit at or just above your deductible. If your deductible is $2,500 and the repair costs $3,000, you collect $500 while adding a claim that could raise your premiums for the next seven years.

Before you file, compare the expected payout against the premium impact over several renewals. Even a modest annual surcharge compounds across the seven-year reporting window, and on a small loss the math often favors paying out of pocket. Save claims for losses large enough that the payout genuinely outweighs the long-term cost of carrying the claim.

Inquiries Versus Filed Claims

Calling your insurer to ask a general question about your policy is not the same as filing a claim. CLUE has instructed insurers not to report mere inquiries about possible coverage.

The line blurs once you describe a loss that has already happened. At that point the insurer may be required to take specific actions under the policy, and the conversation can be logged as a claim even if no payment is ever made. If you want to think out loud about whether something is worth filing for, tell your agent up front that you’re asking a hypothetical question, not reporting a loss.

Your Rights to See and Fix the Record

CLUE and A-PLUS are specialty consumer reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which gives you the same core rights you have with credit bureaus.⁴¹ To request it, you’ll need your name, address, date of birth, and either your Social Security number or driver’s license number.⁵

Read it before you shop for a new policy so you know what insurers will see. When reviewing, watch for claims you don’t recognize, loss types coded more severely than they should be, and old claims that should have already dropped off after seven years. Errors are more common on properties that have changed hands.

If you find something wrong, you can dispute it. The reporting agency must investigate free of charge and resolve the dispute within 30 days, or 45 days if you supply additional information during the investigation.⁶ Information that can’t be verified must be deleted, and the insurer that furnished bad data has to correct it and notify the reporting agencies it shared it with.¹ If a reporting agency or insurer violates these rules, you can sue in state or federal court.

If a claim is a year or two from aging off, it can pay to wait before switching carriers. The claim disappears on its own at seven years, and shopping right after it does is one of the simplest ways to reset your rate.

1
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. LexisNexis C.L.U.E. and Telematics OnDemand
2
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A-PLUS Property (by Verisk)
3
LexisNexis Risk Solutions. LexisNexis C.L.U.E. Property
4
GovInfo. Fair Credit Reporting Act 15 USC 1681 et seq
5
LexisNexis Risk Solutions. LexisNexis Risk Solutions Consumer Disclosure Request
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy