The short answer is yes. Ken Cooper-Stephenson, an author that wrote the book "Personal Injury Damages in Canada" noted that:
“...an important component of a damages claim may be the claim for loss of capacity to perform homemaking functions. Although some compensation for this loss is often provided under the head of pre-trial expenses (as a “positive” loss), it is now clear that the essence of many home-related expenses is a replacement-cost valuation of lost homemaking capacity (a “negative” loss). These expenses should therefore be considered a sub-head of “loss of pre-trial working capacity” or “the value of lost pre-trial work”, or they should be grouped under a separate head of damages titled “loss of homemaking capacity” (or some such).”
There was initially much debate in the past regarding whether a claim for the replacement cost of housekeeping and homemaking services and the future loss of housekeeping and homemaking capacity was excluded from the Insurance Act (which originally prohibited claiming health care expenses in a non-catastrophic tort case) However this isn't the case anymore thanks to great caselaw and Bill 198. This issue has been the subject of judicial consideration many times and it was decided that the housekeeping and homemaking is not included in the definition of health care expenses. (The right to recover Health Care expenses under Bill 198 was extended to non-catastrophically injured parties provided theymeet the threshold.
You can therefore claim a quantified amount of reasonably lost housekeeping and home maintenance. I always suggest to clients that they keep a detailed list of tasks that they can no longer perform, who does the home maintenance activities for them and to keep a list of out of pocket costs and/or receipts after their accident benefits run out.
If you were in a car accident and you need to speak to a lawyer please do not hesitate to call Matt Lalande at Haber and Associates for a free consultation.
Matt Lalande