Loss of Housekeeping Capacity in an Injury Claim

Loss of housekeeping capacity is the loss of the ability to do the work of running a household. It is compensable in Canadian injury claims. It is compensable whether or not the injured person hired anyone to replace what they can no longer do.

The Loss Is Real Even When Family Fills the Gap

A spouse who takes over the cooking and the yard work does not extinguish the claim. The loss belongs to the injured person, who has lost a capacity, and the fact that unpaid family labour absorbed it does not make it worthless. Canadian courts have been clear that free replacement help is not a windfall for the defendant who caused the injury.

Pecuniary Award or General Damages

Courts take two routes. Where the evidence supports a specific replacement cost, past or future, the loss is awarded as a pecuniary head with its own figure. Where the evidence is more general the loss is folded into the non-pecuniary award as part of the loss of amenities. The choice matters, because a pecuniary award sits outside the ceiling described in the supreme court cap chapter and a non-pecuniary one does not.

Proving Loss of Housekeeping Capacity

The evidence is ordinary and specific. What the injured person did before, what they can no longer do, who does it now, and how long each task takes. An occupational therapist can put hours and a rate to it. General statements that housework has become harder rarely produce a separate award, so the detail is the claim. The lay evidence overlaps with the loss of enjoyment of life chapter.

Where a Cap or a Deductible Bites

In a motor vehicle claim in a province with a minor injury cap, folding housekeeping loss into general damages can bring it inside the cap, while a properly evidenced pecuniary claim stays outside it. The minor injury caps chapter explains the definitions that decide whether a cap applies at all. Canadian appellate decisions on housekeeping capacity are collected on CanLII.

What the Firm Does

The firm pleads housekeeping loss as its own head on car accident and trip and fall files where the evidence supports it, with no fee unless the claim resolves.