10 min read · Last updated September 28, 2026
- The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the group that writes the reporting rules state insurance regulators use, defines only two homeowners claim outcomes in its own standardized data call: “closed with payment” and “closed without payment.” The word “denied” never appears in that data call’s actual definitions.
- “Closed without payment” is not a rejection count. NAIC’s own instructions state the category covers a below-deductible loss, a claim where no policy was in force, and an outright coverage denial, all filed under the identical disposition code.
- A claim that closes with a $0 payout can still be reported to the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE), the shared claims database insurers use to price a policy, the same way a paid claim is, according to Connecticut’s Insurance Department.
- Fifteen large U.S. home insurers closed between 50% and 78% of their 2025 homeowners claims with no payment at all, per Weiss Ratings’ analysis of insurers’ own regulatory filings, a figure that press coverage commonly labels a “denial rate” even though it counts far more than denials.
A homeowners claim that pays zero dollars is not automatically a denial. Insurance regulators’ own data call lumps a coverage denial, a below-deductible loss, and a policyholder’s own withdrawal into one identical disposition, “closed without payment,” and that disposition can still land in the claims databases carriers use to price a policy.
In this article
- The claim file has more than two outcomes
- Why closed without payment is not the same as denied
- How a claim file actually gets coded
- Does a claim that pays nothing still count against the file?
- What the industry’s own numbers show
- Frequently asked questions
A homeowners claim can close at $0 and still follow the policyholder for years. Colette Fairweather’s renewal notice arrived with a $340 increase, on a policy where her insurer had never paid her a single dollar. The claim behind it was a water stain she’d reported under her bathroom sink in March 2025, then withdrew two weeks later once a plumber’s estimate came in under her deductible. She had assumed that withdrawing a claim before the insurer ever cut a check meant the claim simply went away. Her agent told her it didn’t. The file had been closed, not erased, and it was sitting in her loss history the same way a paid claim would.
The claim file has more than two outcomes
Most homeowners think of a claim as having exactly two endings: the insurer pays, or the insurer denies. The real claim-handling process has more branches than that, and the branch a claim lands on gets decided by an adjuster, then coded into the insurer’s system under a specific status.
A claim can close because the insurer pays the loss, in full or in part. It can close because the adjuster determines the cause of loss isn’t covered, a genuine denial. It can close because the estimated damage comes in under the policy’s deductible, so there’s nothing left for the insurer to pay once the homeowner’s own share is subtracted. It can close because the homeowner reported a loss, then decided not to pursue it, often after realizing the payout wouldn’t be worth a rate increase. And it can close because the insurer asked for documentation, like photos or a contractor’s estimate, and never received it.
Only the first of those outcomes is a “paid” claim by any standard. The other four often get treated in public conversation as if they were all “denials.” They are not the same event for the homeowner. They are, however, frequently coded as the exact same event by the people who track them.
Why closed without payment is not the same as denied
The clearest evidence of that is the industry’s own regulatory paperwork. Homeowners insurers that write above a state’s reporting threshold file data each year under the Market Conduct Annual Statement (MCAS), a standardized data call built and maintained by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the organization that coordinates the country’s state insurance regulators. State insurance departments use MCAS data to compare how insurers actually handle claims and complaints, not just how they price policies.
The 2026 Homeowners MCAS data call defines exactly two claim-closure categories, and neither one is called a denial. “Claims Closed With Payment” covers claims closed during the reporting period where payment was made. “Claims Closed Without Payment” is defined as claims closed with no payment made to an insured or third party, and the instructions spell out what belongs in that second bucket: claims where no payment was made even though the insurer paid its own adjusting expenses, a demand for payment where it was determined no policy was in force at the time of loss, and claims that are closed because the amount claimed is below the insured’s deductible. Read the actual data call and the word “denied” does not appear anywhere in it.
That is not an oversight. It means the single most commonly cited industry claims metric, the share of claims closed without a payout, is built from a category that was never designed to isolate coverage denials in the first place. A carrier that closes 1,000 homeowners claims a year and reports 400 of them “without payment” is reporting one number for four different homeowner experiences: 100 genuine denials, 150 below-deductible losses, 100 claims withdrawn by the homeowner, and 50 closed for lack of follow-through on requested paperwork. The data call has no separate line for any of those four.
How a claim file actually gets coded
| How the file gets coded | What actually happened | Counted as “closed without payment” in regulators’ own data | Can appear on a claims-history report like CLUE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closed with payment | Insurer paid something toward the loss, in full or in part, even after a subrogation recovery | No, this is the other category | Yes |
| Closed without payment: below deductible | Adjuster confirms the loss happened, but the repair estimate comes in under the policy’s deductible, so no check is issued | Yes | Yes, if an actual claim file was opened |
| Closed without payment: denied | Insurer determines the cause of loss is excluded, or no policy was in force at the time | Yes | Yes |
| Closed without payment: withdrawn | Homeowner opens a claim, then cancels it, often after learning the payout would be small or fearing a rate increase | Yes | Yes, if a claim file was opened before it was withdrawn |
| Closed without payment: lack of documentation | Insurer requests photos, receipts, or a contractor’s estimate, and the file closes for lack of follow-through | Yes | Yes, if a claim file was opened |
| Coverage inquiry, no claim filed | Homeowner asks an agent a question about coverage or the deductible, without ever opening a claim | Not reported at all | No |
The dividing line that actually matters isn’t paid versus denied. It’s whether a claim file was ever opened at all. The moment a homeowner moves from asking a coverage question to formally reporting a loss, the event becomes reportable, no matter how it eventually resolves.
Does a claim that pays nothing still count against the file?
Yes, and this is the part most homeowners never learn until a renewal notice surprises them. The Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE), the shared claims-history database insurance companies use nationwide, keeps up to seven years of personal-property claims history on a home, according to Connecticut’s Insurance Department. That same consumer guidance addresses the exact scenario head-on: “if those claims were reported to the company as a claim (not merely an inquiry about possible coverage) and subsequently denied, it would not be considered contrary to current law to report the claim to C.L.U.E.” A below-deductible claim gets the identical treatment. The guidance states that if a homeowner filed an actual claim and the insurer made no loss payment, “this information would be recorded by the company and may appear on a C.L.U.E. report.”
That single distinction, between an inquiry and a filed claim, is the one regulators repeatedly emphasize back to insurers. The NAIC’s own MCAS instructions exclude “an inquiry of coverage if a claim has not actually been presented (opened) for payment” from the count entirely, and CLUE’s own guidance says insurers have been instructed not to report mere coverage questions. The line isn’t how the claim resolved. It’s whether it was a claim to begin with.
What the industry’s own numbers show
Public reporting on this subject regularly uses the word “denial” for a number that isn’t measuring denials. Weiss Ratings, an independent financial-strength rating firm, published a list of 15 large U.S. home insurers that closed at least half of their 2025 homeowners claims with no payment, built from the companies’ own annual regulatory filings. The figures ranged from 50% up to 78% for the highest company on the list, with several well-known national and regional carriers landing between 51% and 64%. Weiss Ratings’ own commentary repeatedly calls this a “denial” rate.
But the underlying data field, claims “closed with no payment,” is the identical MCAS-style category this article has been describing: it does not separate an outright coverage denial from a below-deductible closure, a withdrawal, or a documentation lapse. A carrier with a high below-deductible closure rate, common among insurers writing policies with higher standard deductibles, will show the same elevated “no payment” percentage as a carrier that is genuinely denying more claims outright. Reading either one as a pure denial rate overstates how many homeowners are actually being told no, and understates how many are simply being told their loss didn’t clear the deductible, or that their own withdrawn claim is still sitting in the file. A gradual-seepage water damage denial is a genuine example of that true-denial slice, and even it gets filed under the exact same “closed without payment” code as Fairweather’s below-deductible withdrawal.
Whatever closed your last claim without a payout, a policy built around a deductible and coverage terms that actually fit your home is the way to keep more claims in the “paid” column to begin with.
Frequently asked questions
Is a claim closed without payment the same thing as a denied claim? No. Regulators’ own Market Conduct Annual Statement (MCAS) data call defines “closed without payment” broadly enough to include a genuine denial, a below-deductible loss, a policyholder’s withdrawal, and a documentation lapse, all under one code. A denial is one specific reason a claim can close without payment, not the only one.
Does withdrawing a homeowners claim before it’s paid keep it off my record? No, if a claim file was actually opened. Once a homeowner formally reports a loss, insurers can report that event to shared claims databases regardless of how it resolves. Only a coverage question that never became a filed claim stays off the record entirely.
What’s the difference between an insurance inquiry and an insurance claim? An inquiry is asking about coverage or a deductible without reporting an actual loss. A claim is formally reporting a loss for consideration. Regulators explicitly exclude inquiries from claim-count data, and CLUE guidance says insurers are told not to report them, but once a real claim file opens, it counts either way.
Why do “claim denial rate” statistics vary so much between different reports? Because most public “denial” figures are actually the “closed without payment” category from insurers’ own regulatory filings, and that category mixes denials with below-deductible closures, withdrawals, and documentation lapses. Two carriers with identical true denial rates can show very different “no payment” percentages depending on their typical deductible levels.
How long does a claim stay on a CLUE report? Up to seven years, according to Connecticut’s Insurance Department, which oversees how the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE) database is used. That window applies to personal-property claims history generally, regardless of whether the claim closed with or without payment.
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