The Clue Report
Among the disclosures a buyer is entitled to receive after entering into a formal
contractual agreement is a report from the seller’s insurance company that lists
any claims that may have been made either within the previous five years or during
the time the seller owned the property.
In fact, the contract requires that the seller provide this report to the buyer
within 5 days of contract acceptance.
Insurers generally use either a Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (i. e.
CLUE report) or an alternative personal insurance history (i.e. Letter of Experience)
to report any claims that have been made and the nature of those claims. Please
click on the image above to see a sample CLUE report.
The reason this disclosure is included in the contract is to assure a buyer that
they will be able to both obtain insurance coverage for the property and do so at
a reasonable price. And, by requiring that this disclosure be made early in the
overall purchase process, it provides the opportunity for adjustments to be made
to the contract to accommodate those situations where either numerous claims or
ongoing problems with the property might substantially impact both coverage options
and costs.
It also provides an alternative source of information to either support or contradict
the information provided by the homeowner in the Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement.
In general, insurers will provide these reports to their own clients free of charge
but they can also be obtained online from a company called ChoiceTrust (www.choicetrust.com).
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