British Columbia ICBC Claim Deadlines

Q: How soon do you have to report a crash to ICBC?

As soon as it is safe to do so. There is no fixed number of days, but section 56 of the Enhanced Accident Benefits Regulation places a duty on you to promptly notify ICBC, and ICBC may refuse a claim if you fail to do so without reasonable excuse and ICBC is prejudiced by the delay.

Q: How long are treatments pre-approved under Enhanced Care?

Twelve weeks from the date of the crash, or your pre-approved number of visits, whichever runs out first. There are two limits, not one. Physiotherapy and chiropractic are pre-approved for 25 visits each. Massage therapy, kinesiology, acupuncture, counselling and psychology are pre-approved for 12 visits each. Someone attending massage therapy twice a week reaches the visit cap around week six, long before the twelve weeks are up.

Q: What happens if your recovery takes longer than 12 weeks?

You may qualify for more. The Enhanced Accident Benefits Regulation allows funding past the twelve weeks and past the pre-approved visit count where the expense helps your recovery or addresses a decline in your physical or mental function. Your health care provider assesses what you need and takes it to ICBC on your behalf. Ask before your count runs out rather than after, and bring your treatment log to that appointment.

Q: How long do you have to submit receipts to ICBC?

One hundred and eighty days from the date each expense is incurred, under section 57 of the Enhanced Accident Benefits Regulation. The clock runs per expense rather than from the crash. ICBC may refuse a late receipt, but the regulation lets it accept one where you had a reasonable excuse, so send it in anyway with an explanation.

Q: What happens if you missed an ICBC deadline?

It depends which one, and several of them bend. ICBC may refuse a late report only where you had no reasonable excuse and the delay prejudiced ICBC. It may refuse a receipt sent after 180 days where you had no reasonable excuse, which leaves room for one. The BC Supreme Court can extend the sixty days for judicial review, although it is not obliged to. The ninety day responsibility deadline runs from the CL722 detailed assessment rather than the first letter, so you may not be late at all. Not knowing a rule existed does not stop the clock or push it back.

Q: How do you dispute an ICBC decision about your injury claim?

Start with your ICBC recovery specialist, then a claims manager, then the Fair Practices Office, and then the Civil Resolution Tribunal. The tribunal is independent of ICBC and holds exclusive jurisdiction over entitlement to accident benefits. Applying online about accident benefits costs seventy five dollars, with a further fifty dollars if a tribunal member has to make a final decision, and fee waivers are available if you have a low income.

Q: How long do you have to dispute an ICBC responsibility assessment?

Ninety days from the CL722 form, which is the detailed assessment issued by ICBC's Responsibility Review Team, not from the first responsibility letter you received. Speak to your claims representative, then the manager, who refers the file to the Responsibility Review Team. The ninety days to file with the Civil Resolution Tribunal starts when the CL722 arrives.

Q: How long do you have to claim Enhanced Accident Benefits in BC?

Two years from the date of the accident as a general rule, under section 55 of the Enhanced Accident Benefits Regulation. Where symptoms are not immediately apparent, the two years can instead run from the date an authorized health care provider first observes them. A person injured as a minor generally has until two years after turning nineteen.

Q: Can a gap in your ICBC claim end your entitlement?

Yes. Under section 58 of the Enhanced Accident Benefits Regulation, if you claim certain benefits more than two years after the last payment on your claim, or more than two years after the accident where nothing was ever paid, ICBC must refuse the claim unless it is satisfied the accident was the dominant cause of the injury. A long quiet period is itself a risk.

Q: Who pays first if you were injured at work or are on EI?

Not always ICBC. WorkSafeBC is the first payer for your treatment if you were hurt on the job, and Employment Insurance comes before ICBC income replacement if you are off work and eligible for it. ICBC became the first payer for medical equipment, prostheses and orthoses for expenses incurred on or after 1 May 2025, but stays the secondary payer for that equipment where you also have coverage through WorkSafeBC or through a federal employer such as the RCMP or Canada Post.

The dates that govern an ICBC claim in British Columbia. Free. No email required. For drivers, passengers, cyclists and people on foot.

Police at a rain-soaked coastal road collision scene in British Columbia. — Rain clears a scene faster than anyone expects. Within the hour the road surface, the sightline and the position of the vehicles are gone, and the photographs nobody thinks to take are the ones of the things that were not damaged.

British Columbia does not work the way Ontario does. Under Enhanced Care there is no seven day notice and no thirty day form. What you have instead is a duty to report promptly, a treatment window that opens the moment you crash and closes two different ways, and several quieter deadlines that catch most people out.

THE SEVEN CLOCKS

Only one of the seven runs out inside your first month. The rest are longer, and each one counts from a different day. Not drawn to scale.

PromptlyReport to ICBC

60 daysJudicial review, from the decision

12 weeksTreatment, or your visit count

90 daysResponsibility, from the CL722

180 daysEach receipt, from its own date

2 yearsClaim your benefits

2 yearsGap since the last payment

Inside the first month Longer, and each counts from its own day

Missing one does not automatically end your claim. Most of them bend where you have a reasonable explanation, and one of them is measured from a document you may not have received yet. What none of them survive is a year of silence and no notes. Everything below explains each deadline, what actually starts it, and what to write down at the moment it matters.

How soon do you have to report a crash to ICBC?

As soon as it is safe to do so. British Columbia does not give you a fixed number of days. Section 56 of the Enhanced Accident Benefits Regulation places a duty on you to promptly notify ICBC, and ICBC may refuse a claim if you fail to do that without reasonable excuse and the delay prejudices them.

A vague deadline is not a generous one. Treat it as today.

Nobody is going to remind you. The Civil Resolution Tribunal has held that an insurer is not there to give you legal advice about your own deadlines, and that not knowing a rule existed does not stop the clock or push it back.

Both points have decided real claims against real people. The deadline is yours to keep.

There is a practical reason to move fast as well. Reporting generates your claim number, and you need that number before pre-approved treatment can begin.

Have these ready before you call. Your BC Services Card or online banking credentials to verify your identity. Your driver's licence and vehicle information. The date, time and location of the crash. Any photos or video. Contact details for everyone involved or who saw it. Any receipts you have already paid out for.

Write down before you hang up. Your claim number. The date and time you reported. The name of the person you spoke to. What they told you happens next.

How long are treatments pre-approved under Enhanced Care?

Twelve weeks from the date of your crash, or your pre-approved number of visits, whichever runs out first. This is the part almost everyone gets wrong. There are two limits and most guidance mentions only the calendar one. You do not need a referral or ICBC's approval for either, which is why booking straight away matters.

Provider	Visits pre-approved
Physiotherapist	25
Chiropractor	25
Registered massage therapist	12
Kinesiologist	12
Psychologist	12
Counsellor	12
Acupuncturist	12

Work out which limit you will hit first. Massage therapy twice a week uses all twelve visits by about week six. Physiotherapy three times a week uses all twenty five before week nine. Nobody sends you a warning when the count runs down, and the pre-approval simply stops applying.

The visit numbers are set in the Enhanced Accident Benefits Regulation. The dollar amounts ICBC pays for each visit are adjusted every year, so confirm the current rate with your provider rather than with an older article.

Log every appointment from the first one. The date. The provider. What was done. How you felt before and after. A gap in treatment early on is read later as a sign that you were not badly hurt.

What happens if your recovery takes longer than 12 weeks?

You may qualify for more. The regulation allows funding past the twelve weeks and past the pre-approved count where the expense helps your recovery or addresses a decline in your physical or mental function. Your health care provider assesses what you need and takes it to ICBC on your behalf.

That conversation goes better when your provider has something to work from. Bring your log to the appointment where you ask for it, and ask before the count runs out rather than after.

ICBC suggests contacting your recovery specialist every two or three weeks even when nothing is wrong. That is worth doing, because a specialist who already knows your file approves the extension faster than one who has not heard from you since week one.

How long do you have to submit receipts to ICBC?

One hundred and eighty days from the date of the expense, under section 57 of the regulation. Not from the crash. From each individual expense. Some providers bill ICBC directly and some ask you to pay upfront, so the ones you paid yourself are the ones at risk.

This is the deadline people lose money on, because it runs quietly in the background while you are focused on getting better. Submit as you go rather than in a pile at the end, and set up direct deposit so reimbursement does not wait on a cheque.

If you are already past 180 days, send it anyway. The regulation says ICBC may refuse a late receipt where you had no reasonable excuse. That wording leaves room for one. Attach a short note explaining why it is late rather than assuming the money is gone.

Sorting treatment receipts at a table by a coastal window while recovering on crutches. — Every receipt in this pile has its own 180 days, counted from the day the expense was incurred. Sorted all at once at the end of the year, they are not one deadline. They are dozens, at dozens of different ages.

What happens if you missed an ICBC deadline?

It depends which one, and the honest answer is that most of these bend further than people assume.

A late report is refused only where you had no reasonable excuse and the delay prejudiced ICBC. Both parts have to be made out, not just the first.

A late receipt is refused where you had no reasonable excuse, which is wording that leaves room for one. Send it with a short explanation rather than writing the money off.

Sixty days for judicial review can be extended by the BC Supreme Court, though the court is not obliged to do it.

The ninety day responsibility deadline may not have started when you think. It runs from the CL722 detailed assessment, not from the first responsibility letter. If you counted from the wrong document, you may not be late at all.

The one with the hardest edge is the two year gap. Where section 58 applies, ICBC must refuse the claim unless it is satisfied the accident was the dominant cause of the injury. That is not an excuse you can offer. It is evidence you either have or do not have.

So if you are already past a date, write down today why the delay happened, while you still remember it clearly. Which weeks you could not manage your own affairs. Who was helping you. When you first understood you were injured rather than shaken.

That note is the reasonable excuse you will be asked for later, and it is worth more written this week than reconstructed next year.

If your claim were decided tomorrow, what would your file say?

People who were genuinely hurt have lost benefits over a date nobody recorded, a form that arrived late, or a call nobody wrote down. Caught early that is fixable. A year on it is an argument you have to win. The British Columbia MVA Companion Guide keeps every date on this page in one place, with the form that goes with each and room to write down what actually happened. $24.99, yours to keep.

See the guide

How do you dispute an ICBC decision about your injury claim?

There are four steps and they run in order. Your ICBC recovery specialist first. Then a claims manager, whose name your specialist will give you. Then the Fair Practices Office, which investigates a decision or a process you believe was unfair and can recommend a resolution. Then the Civil Resolution Tribunal.

ICBC asks that you speak to a claims manager before contacting the Fair Practices Office. Working the ladder in order is not a formality, because each step can fix the problem without a filing fee.

The tribunal is the independent step. The Civil Resolution Tribunal is online, part of the public justice system, and holds exclusive jurisdiction over whether you are entitled to accident benefits. It was built to be used without a lawyer. You are assigned a case manager first, and if no agreement is reached a tribunal member decides.

What it costs, and how to pay nothing. An accident benefits claim costs seventy five dollars to file online, or one hundred by mail. A responsibility dispute is the same. If a tribunal member has to write a final decision, that is fifty dollars more.

If you have a low income you can ask for a fee waiver, and you can receive up to three application fee waivers in any twelve month period. Select the fee waiver option on the payment screen. An injured person off work is exactly who this exists for, and almost nobody mentions it.

One point of confusion worth clearing up. The tribunal also decides whether an injury is a minor injury, and you will see that mentioned everywhere. That question belongs to crashes between 1 April 2019 and 30 April 2021. If your crash happened under Enhanced Care, the live question for you is entitlement to benefits.

If you disagree with a tribunal decision, judicial review in the BC Supreme Court must be started within sixty days of the decision being given. The court can extend that time, though it is not obliged to.

How long do you have to dispute an ICBC responsibility assessment?

Ninety days, and the clock starts later than most people think. Responsibility findings follow their own route. Speak to your claims representative, then ask for the manager. If you still disagree, the manager refers your file to the Responsibility Review Team.

That team issues a detailed assessment called the CL722. Your ninety days to file with the Civil Resolution Tribunal runs from the CL722, not from the first responsibility letter you were sent. If you have been counting from the wrong document, you probably have more time than you thought.

How long do you have to claim Enhanced Accident Benefits in BC?

Two years from the date of the accident as a general rule, under section 55 of the Enhanced Accident Benefits Regulation. Two situations are measured differently and both matter.

Symptoms that showed up late. Where the symptoms of your injury were not immediately apparent, and an authorized health care provider observes them within two years of the crash, the two years can run instead from the date they were first observed. This is why the date a doctor writes something down matters as much as the date you first felt it.

Anyone injured as a minor. A person who was under nineteen at the time generally has until two years after their nineteenth birthday, and longer again where symptoms appeared late. A crash at fifteen is not out of time at eighteen.

Can a gap in your ICBC claim end your entitlement?

Yes, and this is the deadline nobody warns you about. Section 58 of the regulation deals with what happens after a long quiet period. If you claim personal care assistance, income replacement, a caregiver benefit or reimbursement for caring for someone else more than two years after the last payment on your claim, ICBC must refuse it unless it is satisfied the accident was the dominant cause of your injury.

The same applies where nothing was ever paid and two years have passed since the crash.

This is what makes an ongoing record valuable rather than merely tidy. Injuries that settle and then return years later are common.

Proving that the crash was the dominant cause is a document problem, and the documents have to exist before you need them.

Did you run out of accident benefits on an earlier claim? There is a class action you may already be part of. A class action against ICBC about accident benefits has been certified by the BC Supreme Court, and it concerns some claimants who exhausted their accident benefits from 1994 onward. ICBC publishes the official court notices, the opt-out form and the settlement notice on its own disputes page.

We are not going to give you dates for it, because court-set deadlines in a class action move and we have not confirmed the current ones at source. Read ICBC's notice page and the court notices themselves. If your benefits ran out on an older claim, that is fifteen minutes well spent.

Who pays first if you were injured at work or are on EI?

Not always ICBC. If you were hurt on the job, for example driving a work vehicle, WorkSafeBC is the first payer for your treatment. If you are off work and eligible for Employment Insurance, EI comes before ICBC income replacement.

Medical equipment is the exception, with an exception of its own. ICBC became the first payer for medical equipment, prostheses and orthoses for expenses incurred on or after 1 May 2025. Where you also have coverage through WorkSafeBC, or through a federal employer such as the RCMP or Canada Post, ICBC stays the secondary payer for that equipment. If you were hurt at work, do not assume the equipment invoice goes to ICBC.

If you were injured at work, our British Columbia WorkSafeBC deadlines page sets out the clocks on that side, including a review that can reduce your benefits and a phone call that can save a missed appeal. The British Columbia Workplace Injury Companion Guide covers the WorkSafeBC process in full.

Did the ICBC deadlines change under Enhanced Care?

The deadlines on this page are the Enhanced Care deadlines. The reason so much advice about British Columbia contradicts itself is that three systems have run in the last decade, and the older two are still quoted as though they were current.

Be careful what you read elsewhere. A great deal of published guidance still quotes a thirty day statement and a ninety day CL22 form. Those belong to the old Part 7 system and apply only to crashes before 1 May 2021. If your crash is recent, they do not apply to you.

The minor injury determination is the other one. It belongs to crashes between 1 April 2019 and 30 April 2021. Under Enhanced Care the live question is entitlement to benefits, not whether an injury was minor.

One rule did move more recently. ICBC became the first payer for medical equipment, prostheses and orthoses for expenses incurred on or after 1 May 2025. If you were told before that date that the equipment invoice went somewhere else first, that instruction is out of date, unless you also have WorkSafeBC or federal employer coverage.

And one line on this page moved in August 2026. The ninety day responsibility deadline runs from the CL722 detailed assessment, not from the first notification of responsibility, and it is the deadline to file with the tribunal rather than to request a review. If you read an earlier version of this page and counted from the first letter, count again. The correction is set out in full in the verification block below.

Do I need a lawyer to make an ICBC claim?

Not to start one. Reporting is a call that produces your claim number. Pre-approved treatment needs no referral and no approval from ICBC, so you can book physiotherapy in the first week without anyone's permission. Submitting a receipt is a form and a date.

The first three steps of a dispute cost nothing either. Your recovery specialist, then a claims manager, then the Fair Practices Office. Each one can fix the problem without a filing fee, which is a good reason to work them in order rather than jumping to the end.

The Civil Resolution Tribunal was built to be used without a lawyer. It is online, it is part of the public justice system, and you are given a case manager before any member decides anything. Where money is the obstacle, ask for a fee waiver. You can receive up to three in any twelve month period.

What no lawyer can do afterwards is reconstruct the record you did not keep. Whatever you decide about representation, the dates and the notes are yours to make.

Dates are only half of it. Knowing when something is due does not tell you how Enhanced Care actually works, what it covers or what to do when a benefit is refused.

Recovering after a car accident in British Columbia covers the whole process and is free to read. Hurt in another province? Start from the guides by province and territory.

Last verified: August 2026
Checked against: the Enhanced Accident Benefits Regulation, BC Reg 59/2021 at sections 19, 55, 56, 57 and 58, ICBC's own pages on accessing treatment in the first 12 weeks, injury claim disputes and responsibility assessment disputes, the Civil Resolution Tribunal fee schedule, and the Civil Resolution Tribunal Act at section 56.6.
Corrected in August 2026. An earlier version of this page said the ninety day responsibility deadline ran from the notification of responsibility and was a deadline to request a secondary review. It runs from the CL722 detailed assessment and it is the deadline to file with the tribunal, so readers counting from the first letter were counting from the wrong day. The same version described the treatment window as twelve weeks only, without the pre-approved visit counts that often run out first. It also said medical equipment invoices go to ICBC and nowhere else, which is wrong for anyone who also has WorkSafeBC coverage. It described the Fair Practices Office as handling complaints about treatment rather than decisions, and gave a tribunal fee range of seventy five to two hundred dollars without mentioning fee waivers. A reference to a specific July 2026 tribunal decision has been removed, because it concerned a pre-2021 Part 7 claim and did not illustrate the Enhanced Care duty it was attached to.
Deadlines change. If you find something on this page that is out of date, write to Recovery@hurtsquare.ca and we will correct it publicly.

Keeping the record these deadlines depend on

Almost every deadline above turns on something you were supposed to write down. Your claim number. The date of each appointment and which number it was in your count. The date on each receipt. The day the CL722 arrived. The date of the last payment ICBC made to you.

Recovery First. Pressure Last.

If your crash was a month ago, your twelve weeks and your visit count are both already running down, and the first appointment you paid for yourself is a month into its 180 days. None of that is fatal. The dates just matter from here.

EVERYTHING ON THIS PAGE, AND WHAT COMES NEXT

The British Columbia MVA Companion Guide

This page tells you the dates. The guide walks you through them, and gives you somewhere to write down what happened on each one.

All seven deadlines, with what starts each clock
A visit counter for all seven pre-approved providers
The dispute ladder in order, from recovery specialist to tribunal
Fillable on your phone, at 11pm, in bed

$24.99 · instant download · yours to keep

See the British Columbia Companion Guide

Most people take it with the National MVA Recovery Guide, the daily record of symptoms, appointments, calls and costs these dates hang on. People who have only one tend to end up with a careful record aimed at the wrong process, or the right dates and nothing to put in front of them.

Not ready for that? The scene checklist for the first three days is at hurtsquare.ca/72. It is free and asks nothing of you.

This page is general information for people in British Columbia. It is not legal or medical advice. Rules differ by province and change over time. Confirm anything specific to your situation with a lawyer, ICBC or your provincial regulator.

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