Modifications To Your Home After An Accident
People injured in motor vehicle accidents in Ontario recurrently qualify for statutory accident benefits ( sometimes called Accident Benefits, or ABs or SABS or no - fault benefits ).
Injured people, especially those who suffer motility impairments, much face the dare of being discharged from a rehabilitation centre, ( The Ottawa Rehabilitation Centre, The Ottawa Hospital - Governmental Campus or Elizabeth Bruyere, in Eastern Ontario ) only to return to their dump that cannot accommodate them.
This problem is addressed, in moiety, by the Accident Benefits which introduce home modifications / renovations as some of the benefits available to injured people in Ontario.
THE STATUTORY ACCIDENT Blessing SCHEME
Generally, people injured in Ontario car accidents can hold accident benefits. The benefits are usually paid by their own car insurance company. However, the scheme also provides coverage for people who do not have their own insurance.
Usually, statutory accident benefits are know onions to come next astray fee, pioneer care, rehabilitation and medical needs as well as death benefits.
There is a section in the Accident Benefits regime ( section 15 ) that says that " all equitable and necessary " rehabilitation expenses are to be paid. The hope of the rehabilitation expenses are to reduce or eliminate the impact of a disability caused by the accident. Home renovations, assistive devices, workplace adaptations and vehicle modifications are all items which may be surreptitious under section 15 of the Accident Benefit regime for " rehabilitation " benefits.
The insurance company also states that an insurance company must pay the injured person for all reasonable and necessary home modifications and home devices, including communication aids.
The statutory accident gravy train regulation permits an injured person to buy a new home to timely his or her needs where that is the possibility that makes more sense than renocating an existing roof. Having verbal that, the money alloted for the purchase of a home cannot be greater than the estimated cost of any renos that would theoretically be needed to fair the injured person ' s requirements.
If the existing home is incapable of being modified to accommodate the injured person, the only limit on the amount available to purchase a new home is the policy limits for this gang of benefits.
WHAT ARE THE POLICY LIMITS? HOW MUCH DO YOU HAVE TO SPEND?
The medical and rehabilitation benefits are supposed to pay for all moderate and necessary expenses that arise being of the accident.
Home modification comes under the medical / rehabilitation bundle.
For the scope of calculating how much money is available, the medical benefits and the rehabilitation benefits are combined.
If the injured person did not suffer a " catastrophic impairment " as that is described in the Accident Cream regime, the total amount of the medical / rehabilitation help is $100, 000 and the benefits expire after 10 elderliness from the date of the accident
If the injured person did suffer a " catastrophic impairment " the medical / rehabilitation gain increases to $1 Million and last for the person ' s entire life.
HOW DO YOU GET THE BENEFITS?
You must tell your insurance company that you have had a car accident within 7 days of the accident, or as pdq as possible, and you must complete your application for Accident Benefits within 30 days. While it is not fatal to your application if you miss these deadlines by a humble limits, you should advance your applications as like now as possible.
Once you have successfully appropriate to the insurance company for Accident Benefits, the first step to get modifications is to get a home - site assessment.
These assessments supply colorful, practical suggestions to help the injured person to vital safely and somewhat in his or her pad. The seat of the assessments is to return the injured person, to the extent it is possible, to a pre - accident comparable of function as quickly, safely and economically as possible.
Injured people with catastrophic or near catastrophic injuries may require other assessments as well, including a housing accessibility report, an alternative housing report.
Usually, the insurer will pay for the home assessment if they are notified in advance. To get touchstone of this type of assessment, the injured hop or his or her lawyer has to arrange for the consequence of a structure called an " OCF - 22: Application for Comp of an Assessment or Examination ".
Keep in mind that the person conducting the assessment is usually not a regulated health professional and forasmuch as will not be permitted to complete the OCF 22. An occupational therapist, a case administrator or like a family imbue or physiotherapist can complete the arrangement.
The insurance company will review the OCF 22. An eye can take place if it is simpatico. The theorem will settlement in a report. After the report is written, another skeleton called a " OCF 18: Dummy Plan " is filed with the insurer, detailing the estimated monetary worth of the suggestions in the report. The renos can setting out once the OCF 18 ( arrangement plan ) is gentle.
ARE HOME MODIFICATIONS PERMITTED FOR NON - CATASTROPHIC INJURIES?
Sometimes, the conjecture to that issue is yes. Where the injured machine has suffered injuries that cause impairment but are on the less serious end of the spectrum, and if the renovations are not dash to be spacious, an occupational therapist will conclude a home idea.
An inference of the activities of characteristic vital of the injured being is included in a home conception. This sentiment looks at personal care, housekeeping, home preservation and care giving tasks. The report written by the occupational therapist will construe a brochure of any assistive devices and changes indispensable to the home. Examples of recommendations in this cast of reaction build adding a stair wall, raising or premonitory a block or counter or adding cool - steady storage in a cookhouse.
If the renos suggested by the therapist are looked toward, they can be filed with the insurer, together with an OCF 18 ( Treatment Plan ) that expenses the recommendations to get the insurer ' s try to proceed.
HOW TO ACCESS THESE BENEFITS FOR CATASTROPHICALLY INJURED PEOPLE
If a person is seriously injured and needs symbolic home modifications like ramps, additions, elevators, walls moved, a home accessibility report is required.
A report on condominium accessibility is focussed on the housing requirements of the person injured. The report identifies the client ' s housing requirements, a description and pictures or drawings of the current home. It also outlines the home modifications and renovations that would be needed to felicitous the client ' s housing needs at the current roost.
The report on building accessibility will itemize the cost and will outline the plan for any contemplated renos. The report addresses municipal by - laws and construction issues that are much guise the scope of practice of an occupational therapist.
After the report is ready, and the person who is injured decides to go ahead with a proposed reno, a treament plan ( OCF 18 ) is filed with the insurer to be cordial.
Sometimes the injured person will decide that the proposed renovations do not make sense and are not in their best excitement. In that circumstance, it can be better to plainly purchase a new home for moderately than shot to renovate the current one.
Factors that may impact the choice to purchase a new home somewhat than renovating an existing home are the following:
* Whether the existing home is rented or owned by the city?
* Are the renovations required so extensive that they will weaken or exceed the policy limits or just not make monetary sense?
* Are the renovation not allowed due to municipal restrictions?
* Whether the person who is injured still lived with his or her family when the accident happened?
* How close is the existing home to the services required due to the person ' s disabilities?
The housing benefit under s. 15 of the Accident Benefits is among the most indicative aspects of most claimants ' no fault claim.