The default is much lower than people assume
The basic liability a mover carries at no extra charge is called released rate liability, and across the Canadian industry it is $0.60 per pound, which is $1.32 per kilogram, per article. The Canadian Association of Movers publishes the figure and the arithmetic behind it.
The association's own example is worth repeating. A 45 kg table destroyed beyond repair settles at about $60 under released rate liability, even if replacing it costs well over $1,000. Multiply the released rate by the total weight of the shipment and you get the ceiling on the whole move: a 2,270 kg household is capped around $3,000.
Nothing about this is hidden or improper. It is the default, it is why the basic rate is the basic rate, and it is recorded on your paperwork. The problem is that most homeowners discover it after a claim rather than before signing.
Raising the liability
The alternative is to declare a higher value for the shipment and pay for the higher liability. The association's illustration is a 4,540 kg household where the carrier may require a declared value of at least $100,000, calculated at $10 per pound of shipment weight.
Whichever option you take, it has to be recorded on the bill of lading, and you should receive a Carrier Liability Certificate that sets out what the mover is responsible for. If neither the bill of lading nor a certificate names an option, you are on the default.
Check your own home insurance before buying the mover's higher liability. Some policies cover household goods in transit and some do not, and Ontario's guidance points homeowners at this question specifically. Two overlapping covers are a waste of money and no cover is worse.
Owner-packed cartons are the usual gap
A mover cannot see what went into a box you taped shut, or how it was padded. Many therefore limit or exclude liability for breakage inside owner-packed cartons, and that limit is normal rather than sharp practice.
This is the strongest practical argument for paying a crew to pack the kitchen and the fragile items even if you pack everything else yourself. The kitchen is where nearly every breakage claim starts, and a professionally packed carton keeps the mover on the hook for what is in it.
Ask for the wording in writing before the move. The sentence you want is the one that says what happens to a claim for an item inside a carton you packed.
How to make a claim stick
Photograph anything valuable, anything fragile and anything already damaged before the crew arrives, including the back of the television and the inside of cabinets. Date-stamped photographs settle most disputes without an argument.
On a long distance move you sign an inventory with a tag number against every item. At delivery, check the tags off as they come in and write any damage on the delivery paperwork before the crew leaves. A note made on the day is far stronger than a phone call two days later.
Keep the written estimate, the bill of lading and the Carrier Liability Certificate together, and put the claim in writing with the weight of the item, the declared liability option and the photographs attached. If the company is a member of the Canadian Association of Movers, its Code of Ethics and complaints process give you a route outside the company itself.
The Ottawa-specific risks
Two local conditions produce most of the damage claims in this city. The first is winter. Salt, slush and grit on a floor under a moving blanket is an abrasive, and a hardwood floor can be marked in a single carry if runners are not laid and relaid. Insist on floor protection at both ends in winter and check it is actually down before loading starts.
The second is the older housing stock in the Glebe, Old Ottawa South, Sandy Hill and Centretown, where staircases are narrow, turn at the top, and have plaster walls that mark. Damage to the house is a different claim from damage to your goods, so ask explicitly what the company covers for damage to the property, and whether the condo corporation's elevator deposit is in play as well.