Contact:
Karl Newman, President
Darrin Sanger, Communications Director   
NW Insurance Council    
Phone: (800) 664-4942/(206) 624-3330
Fax: (206) 624-1975
karl.newman@nwinsurance.org
darrin.sanger@nwinsurance.org

SEATTLE - While summer temperatures soar across the Northwest, the home-buying season is in full swing as potential homebuyers search for the perfect homes.

Without knowing a home's claims history, however, many new homeowners may be stuck living in money pits instead of dream homes.

If you're in the market for a new home, NW Insurance Council encourages you to obtain a Loss History Report on a home before making an offer. Loss History Reports gives potential buyers the ability to review up to five-years of a home's claims history and verify if any prior damage was repaired correctly.

"New tools have become available in recent years that help a prospective homebuyer evaluate the condition of a home and the likelihood of burglary or vandalism in the neighborhood," said Karl Newman, NW Insurance Council president. "Some new homeowners who were unaware of these tools have been left with structural problems, substantially higher insurance rates or have had difficulty finding coverage because of past claims filed by previous owners."

Checking a home's claims history is similar to examining a car's Vehicle History Report from CarFax, AutoCheck or ConsumerGuide, and allows you to make a well-informed purchasing decision.

How can you find out the history of a home before you buy? Ask the seller to provide you with the Loss History Report. This report gives you a five-year claims history of the home. If the current homeowner filed a claim in the past five years, including claims for water-damage, fire or theft, the Loss History Report will show it.

If you're considering buying a new home, NW Insurance Council offers the following facts and tips to help you examine a home's claims history:

• Loss History Reports are a powerful tool for both buyers and sellers. Buyers can request a Loss History Report from the seller as part of the real estate transaction. The reports can identify potential problems for the buyer's inspector to investigate.
• A Loss History Report is simply a record of past claims.
• 70 to 80 percent of homes have clean Loss History Reports.
• There are two types of Loss History Reports available to homeowners:
  1. CLUE - Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, developed by ChoicePoint, Inc., Atlanta, Ga. This report is a five-year history of claims filed by all past and current owners of the property.
  2. A-PLUS - Automobile-Property Loss Underwriting System, developed by Insurance Services Office (ISO). The A-PLUS report is a history of the current owner's claims up to five years. If the seller has owned the home for less than five years, the report will not include claims filed by past owners.
• Both reports include a five-year loss history for homes and homeowners.
• Homeowners, insurance companies and insurance agents have access to Loss History Reports.
• A homebuyer cannot access a Loss History Report until a real estate contract is signed, due to the "permissible access" rules of the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The seller can obtain loss History Reports for less than $15.
• CLUE Reports are available online at http://www.choicetrust.com or by mail at (888) 497-0011 for $9.
• A-PLUS reports are available at (800) 709-8842 for $9 by mail $13 by fax.
• Consumers adversely affected by their Loss History Reports can get free copies of their reports from CLUE or A-PLUS.

For more information on homeowners insurance and Loss History Reports, visit http://www.nwinsurance.org or call (800) 664-4942.

NW Insurance Council is a nonprofit, public-education organization funded by member insurance companies.

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