Auto insurance claims

What should I do at the scene of a collision in Ontario?

Check for injuries first and call 911 if anyone is hurt. Ontario requires police attendance for any collision involving injury, and for damage over $5,000 the collision must be reported, either to attending police or at a Collision Reporting Centre, generally within 24 hours. Exchange names, licence numbers, insurer names and policy numbers with the other driver, and photograph the vehicles, the road and the position of each car before anything moves.

Photographs matter more than most people expect. A described scene and a photographed scene are treated differently once a file is reviewed, and a picture taken before the cars are moved answers questions that are otherwise argued about weeks later.

Say what you know and no more. It is entirely acceptable to say that you do not remember something, or that a passenger had a better view. Accuracy protects a claim; sounding certain about a detail you are not sure of is what puts a file into dispute.

Keep the other driver's details even if the damage looks trivial and you agree at the scene to leave it. People change their minds, and an injury can present days later. A note of the plate, the name and the insurer costs nothing and closes off the worst version of that afternoon.

What is Direct Compensation Property Damage in Ontario?

Direct Compensation Property Damage, or DCPD, means your own insurer pays for damage to your vehicle when another driver is at fault in Ontario. You do not claim against the other driver's insurer. It applies when the collision happens in Ontario, both vehicles are insured in Ontario, and another party is at least partly at fault.

This surprises people who expect to pursue the other driver. The system exists to settle vehicle damage faster by removing one insurer from the conversation. You deal with the company you already have a relationship with.

Fault is determined by Ontario's Fault Determination Rules, which are set in regulation rather than negotiated. Both insurers apply the same rules to the same facts, which is why the account of what happened matters so much.

What are accident benefits and how are they claimed?

Accident benefits cover injury after a collision regardless of who was at fault, and are claimed separately from vehicle damage. They are claimed through your own auto insurer using an Application for Accident Benefits, commonly called an OCF-1, which must generally be submitted within 30 days of receiving the forms.

Medical, rehabilitation and attendant care remain mandatory coverages. Several other accident benefits become optional for policies renewing on or after July 1st, 2026 under Ontario's reforms, which changes what a policy carries and therefore what a claim can draw on.

What changes in Ontario's 2026 auto insurance reforms

Will making a claim increase my insurance premium?

It depends on fault and on the policy. An at-fault claim generally affects the premium at renewal; a not-at-fault claim generally does not, though it is recorded. Some policies carry accident forgiveness, which protects the premium after a first at-fault claim. Whether a particular claim affects a particular premium is a question for your broker and your insurer.

It is worth asking what a claim is likely to mean before deciding to file a small one. That is a conversation, not a rule: the answer depends on the policy, the claims history and the size of the loss relative to the deductible.

How long does an Ontario auto claim take to settle?

There is no fixed timeline. A straightforward vehicle damage claim can settle in weeks; a claim involving injury, disputed fault or an investigation can take considerably longer. Sutherland Insurance submits a claim promptly and follows it, but the insurer controls the timeline and the settlement.

If a file goes into investigation, communication with the adjuster is restricted by law, for the policyholder and for the broker. That is the point at which accuracy in the original report pays for itself.

What happens if the other driver has no insurance?

Ontario auto policies include uninsured automobile coverage, which responds when an at-fault driver has no insurance or cannot be identified, a hit-and-run, for example. It covers injury and, in defined circumstances, damage to your vehicle. Because Direct Compensation Property Damage requires both vehicles to be insured, an uninsured at-fault driver moves the claim onto this coverage instead.

Report it to police as well as to your insurer. For an unidentified driver, a police report is normally required for the claim to proceed, and the sooner it is filed the less argument there is about what happened.

Optional coverage for uninsured motorists can extend beyond the statutory minimum. Whether a particular policy carries that extension is worth knowing before it is needed rather than after.

Will my car be repaired or written off?

The insurer compares the cost of repair against the vehicle's actual cash value. If repairing costs more than the vehicle is worth, it is declared a total loss and the insurer pays the value rather than the repair. Ontario also requires severely damaged vehicles to be branded, which affects whether they can return to the road.

Actual cash value means what the vehicle was worth immediately before the collision, not what it cost new and not what it would cost to replace with a newer model. That gap is the most common source of disappointment in a total-loss settlement.

If you disagree with the valuation, you can provide evidence: comparable local listings, service records, recent work. A documented case is treated differently from an objection.

Some policies offer waiver of depreciation on new vehicles, which pays the original purchase price rather than depreciated value for a defined period. It is an endorsement rather than a standard feature.

Who pays my deductible, and when?

The deductible is deducted from the settlement rather than billed separately, so you receive the claim amount less the deductible. Under Direct Compensation Property Damage, the deductible applies according to your degree of fault: where you are found entirely not at fault, many Ontario policies waive it, though this depends on the policy.

Where fault is shared, the deductible is generally applied in proportion. This is one of the practical reasons the fault determination matters beyond the premium consequence.

Sources

• Ontario Ministry of Transportation: Reporting a collision
• Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario: After an auto accident