How Does A Home's History Affect Homeowner's Insurance Rates
If you recently purchased a home, one of the first things you may have done was bought a homeowner's insurance policy for the house. Homeowner's insurance is a necessity when you own a home, and there are a lot of factors that will affect the price you pay. You are probably aware of many factors that play a role in your premiums, but did you realize that the history of this home also plays a role in the cost of your policy?
How does the history of a home play a role in the price?
Insurance agencies keep track of claims made on homes, and these claims are recorded by the home, not the homeowner necessarily. The history of claims for several years are typically stored in a database, and this history can affect the amount of money you pay for insuring the home.
In most cases, a home's record will only contain a history of claims for the last seven years. If the home you purchased had claims made on it within this amount of time, they could be causing you to pay more or less for your insurance.
How can you find this out?
You can find out the history of claims on your home by purchasing a CLUE report. CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, and it is similar to a credit report, expect that it contains details about your home. When you receive the report, it might be blank, and this just typically means there were no claims within the last seven years. If there were claims, they should be listed on the report by date and type.
How does this information affect your rates?
If there are multiple claims listed on the report for the same problem, you might end up paying a higher rate for your insurance, simply because the company might be expecting to pay another similar claim.
A lot of the claims people make on their homes are for storm damage. If you get a CLUE report and see storm damage claims, you may actually pay less for your home insurance. For example, if the last owner filed a roof claim for storm damage and received a new roof from the claim, the insurance company might give you a discount, because now your house would be protected better than it had been.
If you are interested in finding out the history of your home's claims, you can get a CLUE report on the house. You can also learn more about the rates you are paying by contacting a home insurance agency, like Willie Swims Ins Agency, Inc.
