Understanding Your Q.P.F. No. 1 Policy, Chapter A and Chapter B

In Québec, every insurer sells the same basic contract to insure a vehicle: the Quebec Automobile Insurance Policy Form Q.P.F. No. 1, known as the “Owners' Form” (Formulaire des propriétaires). According to the Groupement des assureurs automobiles (GAA), which is responsible for revising it and recommending changes, it is a standard contract; the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) approves it and authorizes its use. What changes from one insurer to another is the coverage offered, the amounts, the deductibles, the endorsements and the premium.

Knowing the form lets you read your own contract and compare quotes that really cover the same thing. This guide follows the version of the form now in force. In July 2026 the AMF published a new version, whose effective date is still to come (it is available in French only for now); some headings may therefore change.

How the form is organized

The Q.P.F. No. 1 contains the Declarations (the part specific to you), Chapter A, Chapter B, general conditions, the rules for claims, renewal and cancellation, and definitions. The English version of the form calls the two chapters Section A and Section B. The endorsements you choose are also part of the contract. The form states that the coverages under Chapters A and B apply separately.

	Chapter A	Chapter B
Subject	Civil liability for property damage and bodily injury caused to other persons	Damage to insured vehicles
Nature	Mandatory	Optional
Who is protected	Others, against the damage you cause them	You, for your own vehicle
Deductible	None in the standard form	Yes, depending on the protection chosen

Chapter A, civil liability

Chapter A covers the financial consequences an insured person may suffer when they are civilly liable for damage caused to another person by an insured vehicle. The insured persons are the named insured, any person who drives an insured vehicle and any person who uses one; a person who steals the vehicle is not insured.

What it covers

• Property damage caused to other people's property: another vehicle, a building, a fence.
• Bodily injury caused to others, where the public plan does not apply. The form excludes injuries compensated under the Automobile Insurance Act, unless that Act does not apply, for example in an accident outside Québec.
• Damage to your own vehicle for which you are not at fault, when the Direct Compensation Agreement applies: the form expressly places it under Chapter A.
• Additional coverages: your defence, the costs of a lawsuit, immediately necessary medical care for an injured person and certain costs claimed by a municipality after a fire in your vehicle.

What it excludes

Chapter A excludes, among other things, losses that occur while the vehicle is rented to another person, used as a taxi or as any other vehicle provided with a driver, or carrying explosives or radioactive substances, unless the insurer agrees to cover these situations in the Declarations or by an endorsement. As a general rule, it does not cover damage to a vehicle you rent either: that is the purpose of an endorsement, Q.E.F. No. 27.

The amount of insurance

The amount shown under Chapter A is the maximum payable, even if several people suffer damage in the same loss; costs covered by the additional coverages, such as your defence, are paid on top of it. The Automobile Insurance Act sets the minimum at $50,000. If the amount chosen is lower than the minimum required where the loss occurs, the form provides that it is adjusted to meet that minimum. Beyond the amount of insurance, the rest of a claim may be claimed from you personally.

Chapter A is easy to compare from one quote to the next: it is an amount. Chapter B calls for more attention.

Chapter B, damage to your vehicle

Chapter B covers damage caused directly and accidentally to the insured vehicle or to its equipment and accessories, as well as their disappearance, provided it results from a peril covered by the protection chosen. The insured person under Chapter B is the named insured.

The form offers four protections. In everyday use, they are still called B1 to B4, with their former names.

Protection (current name)	Common name	What it covers
Protection 1: “All perils”	B1, all perils	Damage caused by any type of peril, except the Chapter B exclusions
Protection 2: collision and upset	B2, collision or upset	Collisions, including with the ground, a person or an animal, and partial or complete upset
Protection 3: all perils other than collision or upset	B3, accidents without collision or upset	Other perils, including those of Protection 4, malicious mischief, falling or flying objects, projectiles and collision with a person or an animal
Protection 4: specific perils	B4, specified perils	Only a closed list of perils, including fire, theft, hail and windstorm

Nuances worth knowing

• B1 essentially combines what B2 and B3 cover, under a single deductible. One difference: under the form, theft by a person who lives with you, or by certain employees, is excluded from Protections 3 and 4, but not from Protection 1.
• B2 and B3 can be combined, each with its own deductible.
• Hitting a deer or a moose: a collision with a person or an animal is covered by both Protection 2 and Protection 3.
• B4 is a closed list: forced landing or fall of an aircraft, rising water, an accident involving the vehicle or boat carrying your vehicle, riots and civil commotion, explosions, lightning, hail, fire, windstorm, theft and attempted theft, earthquakes. According to the AMF, malicious acts are not on it, unlike B3.

Chapter B additional coverages

If your vehicle is covered by Protection 1, 3 or 4 and it is stolen in its entirety, the Q.P.F. No. 1 provides for reimbursement of travel expenses (rental of a vehicle of a similar category, taxi, public transit, additional expenses) up to $3,000 per loss for each vehicle, for expenses incurred from 72 hours after the theft is reported to the police or the insurer. Chapter B also covers, under certain conditions, your liability for damage to a temporary replacement vehicle used while yours is out of service, for example because of a breakdown or repairs.

What Chapter B excludes

The exclusions include:

• damage to tires, unless it coincides with other covered damage or results from covered fire, theft or malicious mischief;
• mechanical breakdown, failure, corrosion, rust, freezing and normal wear and tear, with the same exceptions;
• losses that occur while the vehicle is rented to another person or used as a taxi, unless agreed with the insurer.

How the indemnity is calculated

The indemnity equals the value of the damage, minus the deductible, without exceeding the vehicle's actual cash value on the day of the loss. The form takes depreciation into account; for body parts, however, it provides that the insurer bases the cost on original equipment manufacturer parts when the vehicle is less than two years old or has less than 40,000 km. In a total loss, you receive the actual cash value, not the price paid at purchase; the replacement cost endorsement, Q.E.F. No. 43, changes that calculation. Finally, under the Q.P.F. No. 1, the deductible does not apply to damage caused by lightning or fire, and the insurer must pay the indemnity within 60 days of the loss being reported or of receiving the supporting documents it requested.

Reading your Declarations

The Declarations (conditions particulières) are the part of the contract specific to you. In the Q.P.F. No. 1, they have seven items; here are the six that call for a check.

Item	What you find there	What to check
1	Name and address of the named insured	Under the form, the town or city and province shown are where the vehicle is mainly used, stored and parked; if not, it must be declared
2	Contract period	The start and end dates
3	Particulars of the vehicle and creditor	The vehicle identification number and the creditor, if the vehicle is financed
4	Coverages, amounts, deductibles, endorsements and premiums	The Chapter A amount, each Chapter B protection with its deductible, the list of endorsements
5	Actual owner and registered owner	If this is not the named insured, both must be declared
6	Important statements for analyzing the risk	That what you declared, for example about drivers or use, is accurate

Under the form, the perils covered are those for which an amount of insurance, a deductible or a premium is shown in the Item 4 table: an empty line means the protection was not purchased.

If any information is wrong or has changed, notify your insurer. The form requires you to report, before and during the contract as well as at renewal, any information that may influence the risk, such as a change of use, a new driver, a past accident or a modification to the vehicle. A misrepresentation can lead to the cancellation of the chapter concerned or to a reduced indemnity.

Two practical rules, under the Q.P.F. No. 1: a vehicle you have just bought benefits from the coverage of the vehicle it replaces, provided you inform the insurer within 14 days of taking possession; and the contract renews automatically for the same premium and the same term, the insurer having to notify you no later than 30 days before expiry if it wants to change the premium or not renew.

Comparing quotes based on the same form

Since the basic text is the same everywhere, two quotes are compared by lining up four elements: the Chapter A amount, the Chapter B protections for each vehicle, the deductibles and the list of endorsements, with their limits. A lower quote that leaves out an endorsement or has a higher deductible does not cover the same protection. Our guides to the deductible and to endorsements cover these two points in detail.

We explain; the quotes come from licensed partners.

Sources

• Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), lautorite.qc.ca: auto insurance forms in force, including the Q.P.F. No. 1 – Owners' Form and its new version; auto insurance pages.
• Groupement des assureurs automobiles (GAA), gaa.qc.ca: the auto insurance policy, Direct Compensation Agreement.
• Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), saaq.gouv.qc.ca: public auto insurance plan.
• Automobile Insurance Act (Loi sur l'assurance automobile, CQLR, chapter A-25) and Civil Code of Québec, LégisQuébec, legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca.