What is OPCF 49 and should I remove DCPD?

OPCF 49: an agreement not to recover, not a DCPD discount

OPCF is the family of standard endorsements that change an Ontario auto policy, and number 49 carries the title “Agreement Not to Recover for Loss or Damage from an Automobile Collision.” It became available on January 1, 2024. That title is the accurate description, and it is a good deal broader than the shorthand “removing DCPD” makes it sound.

Direct Compensation – Property Damage comes off the policy. So do Collision or Upset and All Perils, because the endorsement cannot sit beside them. Liability and accident benefits are unaffected, and Comprehensive or Specified Perils can stay, which leaves hail, theft, glass, vandalism and an animal on the road as the only physical-damage claims still open to you.

Because the change is on your own policy, it has no effect on what happens to the other driver. If you cause a collision, their DCPD still pays for their car, and your liability coverage still responds for anything beyond that.

It was introduced as a way to lower a premium for drivers prepared to carry the whole risk of collision damage themselves — at fault, not at fault, and everything in between. That is the trade in one line, and the second half of it is worth reading twice.

What you give up

DCPD is the coverage that pays when someone else hits you, and collision is the coverage that pays when you hit something. This endorsement takes both away at once, along with all perils. After that there is no physical-damage coverage for a collision of any kind: rear-ended at a red light, sideswiped at the 404 merge, or reversed into a garage pillar by your own hand. The repair is yours to pay for.

And there is no fallback in going after the driver who hit you. The form says the loss will not be compensated by anyone else, including anyone at fault for causing the damage or their insurance company. Ontario insurance law separately bars an insured driver from suing another driver over damage to the automobile, its contents or the loss of its use. That door is closed before you reach it, which is precisely what the title of the endorsement says.

• No payment for damage to your own vehicle in a collision, whoever caused it.
• No claim against the driver who hit you, and no lawsuit for the repair bill.
• No loss of use, so a car to drive during the repair comes out of your pocket.
• No settlement if the car is written off in a collision — that loss is yours as well.
• What can remain is comprehensive: hail, theft, glass, vandalism, a deer on a dark road.

The narrow driver this trade fits

There is a narrow case. A car worth very little, owned outright, driven rarely, by someone who would shrug and walk away if it were written off tomorrow. For that driver, paying for DCPD may buy coverage they would never use in a meaningful amount, and the saving is real money over a year.

The test is honest: if a stranger crushed your rear quarter panel on the 401 tomorrow and neither your policy nor that driver paid a cent toward it, would you be fine? If the answer is anything other than a clear yes — if you commute, if the car is financed or leased, if you could not replace it from savings without pain — OPCF 49 is not for you. Leased and financed vehicles often cannot drop coverage at all, because the leasing company or lender sets minimum coverage as a condition of the contract.

Ask your broker what the saving comes to in your case before deciding. It varies by insurance company and by vehicle, and it is often smaller than people expect once they see it next to the collision deductible they would be carrying instead.

Our view from the counter

We see the cars that other drivers hit. A large share of the collision work that comes to Sheppard and Don Mills is not-at-fault damage: rear-ends in stop-and-go on the DVP, sideswipes at the 404 merge, parked cars clipped on a Willowdale side street. Every one of those repairs was paid under DCPD without the driver arguing with anyone. That is what the premium buys.

A driver who signed OPCF 49 to save on the premium and then got rear-ended has a very different morning. There is no claim to open. The fault finding goes their way and changes nothing, the estimate is a bill rather than a submission, and a car to drive in the meantime goes on a credit card. We have no stake in what you pay for insurance, but we do see the outcome, and the saving rarely looks good from the shop floor.

If you have already signed it

Read the endorsement list on your policy, or ask your broker to read it to you, on a quiet day rather than the day you need it. If OPCF 49 is on there, plan on paying for collision damage yourself and treat comprehensive as the only physical-damage protection you have left. Get a written estimate early anyway: the number is yours to budget rather than to submit, and it tells you what has to be fixed now and what can wait a season. Our estimator writes one from a few phone photos, in English or Mandarin.

You can also ask to have the endorsement taken off. It is a choice, not a permanent condition of the policy, and removing it puts direct compensation back and lets collision coverage return with it. The change works going forward only, so make it before the next collision rather than after one.