How Long You Can Chase An Unpaid Invoice

In England and Wales, section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980 gives you six years from the date the cause of action accrued to bring a claim on a simple contract debt. In practice that means six years from when the invoice fell due. After that the debt becomes statute-barred: it still exists, but it can no longer be enforced through the courts. The clock can restart if the debtor acknowledges the debt in writing or makes a part payment. Scotland has a different and shorter regime.

Where the six years comes from

Section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980:

“An action founded on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued.”

An unpaid invoice for work done under an ordinary trade agreement is a simple contract debt. The cause of action accrues when the debt becomes payable, which is normally the payment due date on the invoice. Not the date you did the work, and not the date you sent it.

So a job finished in March, invoiced in April on 30-day terms, has a due date in May. The six years runs from that May date.

What statute-barred actually means

It doesn’t mean the debt vanishes or gets written off. It means the debtor picks up a complete defence if you try to enforce it in court. The debt is still there. You just can’t get an order forcing them to pay it.

You can still ask for it. What you can’t do is mislead them about their position, because telling someone a statute-barred debt is legally enforceable when it isn’t would be a problem. And leaning on someone hard over a barred debt is territory where advice is worth taking.

The clock can restart

This is the part most people don’t know, and it cuts both ways.

The limitation period starts again from zero if, within the six years, the debtor either acknowledges the debt in writing or makes a part payment towards it.

A signed acknowledgment, or fifty quid on account, resets the whole six years from that date. Which means a long-running debt where the customer has been paying dribs and drabs, or has emailed admitting they owe you, may have a lot more life in it than the original invoice date suggests.

If you’ve got an old debt you’d written off in your head, go and check the file for a written acknowledgment or a part payment before you bin it.

Six years is not your window

The legal limit and the sensible limit are very different numbers.

Evidence decays. Six years on, the person who instructed the work has moved on, the site notes are gone and the emails are in an archive nobody can open. Debts get won on records.

Businesses disappear too. A limited company that owed you £8,000 in 2020 might be dissolved by 2026, and a dissolved company can’t pay you. Restoring one to the register to chase it is expensive.

And recovery rates fall off a cliff with age. The realistic time to recover a debt is weeks, not years. The six-year rule is a backstop, not a plan.

There’s also your own accounts to think about. Long-overdue debts sitting on your books as assets flatter your position. Talk to your accountant about when to write one off for tax, which is a completely separate question from whether it’s still legally recoverable.

Worked example

An invoice for £4,750 falls due on 12 June 2021. Under section 5, a claim has to be brought by 12 June 2027.

In March 2024 the customer emails: “We know the £4,750 is still outstanding, we’re trying to sort cashflow.” That’s a written acknowledgment. The six years restarts from March 2024, which takes you to March 2030.

Had they paid £500 on account in March 2024 instead, the part payment would have done exactly the same thing.

With neither, the debt goes statute-barred after 12 June 2027 and the customer can simply decline to pay with no consequence at all.

Common mistakes

Treating six years as a target. It’s a longstop. Chase in weeks.

Assuming an old debt is dead. Check for a written acknowledgment or part payment first, because the clock may have restarted.

Running the clock from the wrong date. It runs from when the debt became payable, not when the work was done or the invoice raised.

Applying the England and Wales figure in Scotland. Scotland has its own shorter regime. If your debtor is in Scotland, get advice on the applicable period.

Writing off for tax and assuming that’s the end of it. Writing a debt off in your accounts doesn’t extinguish the legal right to pursue it, and pursuing it doesn’t depend on how you’ve treated it in the books.

Do this in FieldHive

Old debts live or die on records. Keep every invoice, payment and part payment dated in one place with the statement of account generator. Its ageing summary shows exactly how long each balance has been sitting there, which is both the evidence you’d need and the nudge to act long before limitation ever becomes the question.

Aid, not advice

This guide explains the limitation period so you know where you stand. It is not legal advice. Limitation can turn on precise dates and on whether an acknowledgment or part payment restarted the clock. For an old or valuable debt, take advice before deciding it’s lost or that it’s still live.

*Legislation checked August 2026: Limitation Act 1980, section 5 (England and Wales).*