File only one property declare along with your insurer and you’ll count on your premiums to extend by tons of of {dollars} in some states.

On common, submitting a single declare — for every thing starting from a stolen bicycle to twister injury — will lead to your month-to-month premium rising by 9%, in line with a report launched by InsuranceQuotes.com. Submit a second declare and premiums improve by a mean of 20%.

“Profitable a small declare can really price you cash in the long term,” says Laura Adams, senior analyst at InsuranceQuotes.com. “Householders have to be very cautious. Even a denied declare may trigger your premium to go up.”

Associated: Which Pure Catastrophe Is Most Prone to Destroy Your Dwelling?

And the scale of the declare has little influence. Submitting a small declare will increase your charges by about the identical as submitting a catastrophic declare. “The insurers have discovered that individuals who make one declare usually tend to make one other declare,” Adams mentioned. “You might have turn out to be a riskier buyer.”

Nonetheless, the kind of declare issues. Legal responsibility claims, for instance as a result of private harm, are the most costly sort of declare. with insurers rising premiums by a mean of 14%, InsuranceQuotes.com discovered.

Different claims that result in massive premium will increase embrace theft and vandalism, which frequently signifies that the house is in a neighborhood that’s unstable or falling prey to the blight. In dangerous neighborhoods, these crimes can repeat themselves, and the excessive premiums mirror that.

Premium will increase additionally range broadly by state. Householders in Wyoming noticed the biggest improve of their premiums – 32% on common – after a declare was filed. Though premiums are excessive, the state tends to cost pretty low premiums at round $770 per 12 months, considerably decrease than the nationwide common of $978.

Policyholders in Connecticut, Arizona, New Mexico and California additionally noticed massive will increase of 18% or extra.

In the meantime, owners in Texas, the place insurers usually are not allowed to extend premiums based mostly on a single declare, noticed no improve. And owners in New York and Massachusetts paid little or no extra after submitting claims.

Common premiums vary from a low of $513 a 12 months in Idaho to $1,933 in Florida, the place frequent hurricanes drive up insurance coverage prices.

As soon as your premiums improve, it may be tough to scale back them.

Insurers keep a database known as Complete Loss Underwriting Change, or CLUE, which retains observe of seven years of auto and property insurance coverage claims, in addition to any questions you will have requested a few declare. The database then compiles a report based mostly in your claims historical past, which is then used to find out whether or not you might be insured and the way a lot you ought to be charged.

The data is offered to all insurers, so even should you change suppliers, your price with the brand new provider could also be simply as excessive.

Associated: Broken home? How one can get an insurer to pay out

“You’ll be able to't escape your claims historical past,” Adams mentioned.

However you aren’t fully with out hope. Listed below are some methods to attempt to hold your house owner's insurance coverage prices low:

Improve your deductible. However not so excessive that you just can’t pay your individual prices if injury happens.

Don't make small claims. Getting just a few hundred {dollars} again if a tree department falls in your shed might really feel good, however you may be paying that again to your insurer for years to return — after which some.

Don't use owners insurance coverage as a upkeep software. Don’t file a declare to pay for minor repairs, comparable to when the wind blows some outdated shingles off your roof. Solely use it for catastrophic repairs.

Store round typically. Have a look at quotes annually. There’s lots of competitors within the trade and also you might be able to buy the identical protection and repair for a cheaper price.

CNNMoney (New York) First revealed October 19, 2014: 10:12 AM ET