Limitation period

Miss your limitation date and your claim is gone — permanently. The court has no general power to extend it, and the strength of your underlying case makes no difference once the deadline has passed. Here is how to find your deadline, what starts the clock, and the only two things that stop it.

What is the limitation period for a small claim about an unpaid invoice?

For a claim based on a simple contract — including unpaid invoices — the limitation period is six years from the date the cause of action accrued. For an invoice, this is usually the day after payment was due under the contract or invoice terms. If there were no agreed payment terms, it is the date a reasonable time for payment expired.

Does sending a Letter Before Action stop the limitation clock?

No. Sending a Letter Before Action, a formal demand, or any other correspondence does not stop the limitation period. Time stops running only when court proceedings are issued — that is, when the court receives and processes the claim form. If you are close to your limitation date, issue first and serve within the four-month window allowed by CPR 7.5.

Does a written acknowledgement of the debt restart the six years?

Yes. Under section 29 of the Limitation Act 1980, a written and signed acknowledgement of a debt restarts the six-year period from the date of the acknowledgement. An email from a debtor saying they owe the money but cannot pay yet is enough, provided it is signed (electronically or otherwise) by or on behalf of the debtor. Part payment of the debt also restarts the clock under section 29.

What is the limitation period for a personal injury claim in the small claims court?

Personal injury claims have a three-year limitation period under section 11 of the Limitation Act 1980, running from the date of injury or the claimant's date of knowledge if later. Note that personal injury claims over £1,000 are not allocated to the small claims track; if the injury value is below £1,000 and the total claim is below £10,000, small claims allocation may still apply.

What happens if I issue a claim after the limitation period has expired?

The court will accept the claim form, but once the defendant raises limitation as a defence the court must dismiss the claim. There is no general discretion to extend limitation for contract or simple tort claims. The defendant does not have to say anything more than that the claim is statute-barred — the merits of the underlying dispute become irrelevant at that point.

Can limitation be extended if I only discovered the problem recently?

For most contract claims, no — time runs from the date of breach regardless of when you discovered it. For negligence claims causing latent damage, section 14A of the Limitation Act 1980 gives an alternative three-year period running from the date you discovered (or should have discovered) the damage, subject to a 15-year longstop from the negligent act. For fraud or deliberate concealment, section 32 delays time running until you discovered or could reasonably have discovered the fraud.

Small Claims · Glossary

Miss your limitation date and your claim is gone — permanently. The court has no general power to extend it, and the strength of your underlying case makes no difference once the deadline has passed. Here is how to find your deadline, what starts the clock, and the only two things that stop it.

Last reviewed: 6 July 2026

is the statutory deadline by which a court claim must be issued — for most small claims based on contract, this is

six years from the date the cause of action accrued

under section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980.

Where this comes from

Limitation Act 1980, s.5

— six-year period for actions founded on simple contract.

Limitation Act 1980, s.2

— six-year period for tort claims (excluding personal injury).

Limitation Act 1980, s.11

— three-year period for personal injury, running from injury or date of knowledge.

Limitation Act 1980, ss.29–30

— written acknowledgement and part payment restart the period from their date.

Limitation Act 1980, s.32

— fraud, concealment or mistake delay the start of the period until discovery.

— the claim form must be served within four months of the date of issue.

Why limitation matters — and why it is absolute

A limitation period is not a guideline or a recommended time window. It is a hard legal cut-off imposed by Parliament. Once the period expires, the defendant acquires an absolute defence. All they have to do is plead that the claim is statute-barred, and the court must dismiss it. The merits of the underlying dispute stop being relevant at that moment.

The courts have almost no discretion to extend limitation for ordinary contract and tort claims. Parliament made this deliberate choice: certainty matters. Defendants should be able to destroy documents, let memories fade, and move on after a reasonable period without the threat of litigation hanging over them indefinitely. The price of that certainty is that claimants who sleep on their rights lose them.

The relevant statute is the Limitation Act 1980. It sets different periods for different types of claim. Most small claims are founded on contract — an unpaid invoice, a defective product or service, a deposit not returned — and for these the period is six years under section 5. Consumer claims against traders also typically fall here, because the Consumer Rights Act 2015 implies terms into consumer contracts and a breach of those terms sounds in contract.

The six-year period is widely understood but routinely misapplied. Claimants sometimes assume it runs from the date they sent a complaint, the date the other side stopped responding, or the date they decided to pursue the matter. None of these is correct. The period runs from the date the cause of action accrued — the date on which the claimant first had the right to sue.

For an unpaid invoice, this is usually the day after payment became due under the contract or the invoice itself. If the invoice said "payment within 30 days" and was dated 1 June 2018, the cause of action accrued on 2 July 2018. The limitation date is therefore 2 July 2024. A claim issued on 3 July 2024 is one day out of time.

The table below sets out the most common limitation periods a small claimant will encounter.

How it works in practice

The clearest way to understand limitation is to work through a concrete example with real dates.

Maria hired a sole trader to renovate her kitchen. The work was completed on 5 April 2019 and she paid a deposit of £1,500, but the trader never returned to finish the remaining 40% of the job. She chased him for two years and eventually gave up. In March 2025 she discovers she can bring a small claim and asks how much time she has left.

Contract breach date

5 April 2019 (failure to return and complete)

6 years — s.5 Limitation Act 1980

Within time — but fewer than 6 weeks remain

Issue on MCOL today — do not wait for LBA response

Maria should file her claim on Money Claim Online immediately. She can send her Letter Before Action at the same time — the pre-action protocols allow urgent issue when limitation is imminent and expressly permit the claimant to issue without waiting for a response. Once the claim is filed on the portal, the limitation clock stops. She then has four months to serve under CPR 7.5, during which she can continue to try to settle without the defendant yet being aware proceedings exist.

Had the trader sent an email in 2022 saying "I know I owe you the money and I will pay as soon as I can" — and signed it — that acknowledgement under section 29 would have restarted the six-year period from that date, giving Maria until 2028. A part-payment of even £50 would have had the same effect. Before concluding a debt is time-barred, always check every piece of correspondence for a written acknowledgement or any payment that landed after the breach.

Common pitfalls for claimants

• Confusing the breach date with the discovery date.
• For contract claims, time runs from when the breach occurred, not from when you found out about the problem. If a builder completed defective work in June 2018 and you discovered the defect in 2023, the six years still ran from June 2018. The claim would be out of time in June 2024 regardless of when the defect became apparent. Latent damage in negligence claims has a separate rule under section 14A — but this is the exception, not the general rule.
• Thinking a Letter Before Action stops the clock.
• No piece of correspondence stops the limitation period. Only issuing proceedings at court does. If your limitation date is three weeks away, a Letter Before Action buys you nothing on limitation. Issue the claim and send the LBA at the same time.
• Not checking for written acknowledgements or part payments.
• An old email or letter from the debtor acknowledging the debt can restart the six-year clock from its date. Search every piece of correspondence before deciding a debt is time-barred. The acknowledgement must be in writing and signed, but an email qualifies, and a signature does not need to be a formal signature — a name at the foot of an email is enough.
• Using the wrong limitation period for personal injury.
• If the claim includes any element of personal injury — even a minor one — the personal injury three-year period applies to that element, not the six-year contract period. Claims mixing contract loss and personal injury are procedurally complex; take independent advice before issuing if this applies to you.
• Waiting for the other side to reply before issuing.
• When limitation is close, issue first and negotiate second. After issuing, you have four months to serve under CPR 7.5. Use that window to negotiate: the defendant need not even know proceedings have been issued. Do not sacrifice your limitation protection for the sake of one more round of letters.
• Assuming the six-year period covers all interest on a debt.
• Where a debt arose from multiple invoices on different dates, earlier invoices may produce interest claims that are partially time-barred even if the principal is still in time. Identify each invoice date separately when calculating what interest you can recover.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & further reading

• — full text (legislation.gov.uk)
• Limitation Act 1980, s.5
• — six years for simple contract claims
• Limitation Act 1980, s.11
• — three years for personal injury
• Limitation Act 1980, ss.29–30
• — acknowledgement and part payment restart the period
• Limitation Act 1980, s.32
• — fraud, concealment and mistake
• Limitation Act 1980, s.14A
• — latent damage in negligence claims
• — service of claim form within four months of issue
• Make a court claim for money
• — gov.uk overview of the small claims process

Close to your limitation date?

Start My Claim helps you issue your Letter Before Action and file on Money Claim Online fast — so you protect your deadline without making mistakes under pressure. Fixed fee of £49.

Last reviewed: 6 July 2026.

Limitation periods are set by the Limitation Act 1980 and have not been amended by recent legislation. Verify the period that applies to your specific claim type before relying on these figures.

This page is explanatory only and is not legal advice. Start My Claim is self-service software, not a law firm — its tools help you build and run your own case.