How to stop the claim from becoming time-barred
Three years pass faster than you think — and a time-barred claim is lost, however well documented it is.
You know when your claim expires, how the limitation period is interrupted, and what gives you ten years instead of three.
Step by step
- 01
Work out when the period started running
For an ordinary invoice claim, limitation runs as a general rule three years from the due date. Not from the invoice date, not from the last reminder — from the point at which you could first have demanded payment.
- 02
Understand what does NOT interrupt the period
Reminders do not interrupt limitation. Notices of collection do not interrupt it. Handing the case to a debt collection agency does not, in itself, do it either. You can send letters for three years and end up with a time-barred claim.
This is where it goes wrongIt is the most expensive misunderstanding in debt recovery — that an active process keeps the claim alive. It does not.
- 03
Get the debtor to acknowledge the debt
A written acknowledgement interrupts limitation, and the period starts afresh. A signed instalment plan or a promissory note does both — which is why an agreement reached during a case is worth more than one more letter.
- 04
Take a legal step if the deadline is closing in
A payment order or a writ of summons interrupts limitation. If the claim is about to run out, this is not the moment to wait for a better moment — it is the moment to act.
- 05
Obtain an enforceable instrument if the debtor cannot pay
A judgment or an endorsed payment order makes the claim enforceable for ten years, and the period can be interrupted again. That is what makes it possible to monitor an insolvent debtor for years, instead of writing the claim off.
This is where it most often goes wrong
Not because anyone is careless, but because the mistakes are easy to make and only surface once it is too late.
You leave a claim alone because the debtor "has no money"
Insolvency is a condition, not a verdict. But the claim becomes time-barred in the meantime — and without an enforceable instrument there is nothing to pick up again on the day the money is there.
You count from the wrong date
The period runs from the due date, not from the day you noticed the problem. If you are in any doubt about when the claim expires, count conservatively.
You trust that the collection agency has it under control
Some do. Ask what has actually been done to interrupt limitation — and ask to see it.