The statute of limitations on debt in Kentucky runs between five and fifteen years, depending on what kind of agreement created the debt. The most important dividing line is a 2014 change in state law: written contracts signed on or after July 15, 2014 carry a ten-year deadline, while written contracts signed before that date still fall under the older fifteen-year window. Oral agreements get five years. Once the applicable period runs out, you still owe the money, but the creditor loses the right to sue you for it.
Deadlines by Type of Debt
Kentucky assigns a different limitations period to each category of obligation. The clock generally starts when you miss a payment or when the debt first becomes due.
- Written contracts signed on or after July 15, 2014: Ten years. This covers most current debts backed by signed paperwork, including credit card applications, medical intake forms, auto loans, and personal loan agreements.1Justia Law. Kentucky Code 413 – Section 413-160
- Written contracts signed before July 15, 2014: Fifteen years. If you signed an agreement before that date and never made another payment, the older and longer deadline still applies.2Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 413.090
- Oral or implied contracts: Five years. Handshake deals, verbal loans between friends or family, and other unwritten arrangements get the shortest window.3Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 413.120
- Promissory notes: Six years from the due date stated in the note, or from the accelerated due date if the lender accelerated the loan. A demand note that is never formally called becomes unenforceable after ten years with no payment of principal or interest.4Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 355.3-118
- Mortgage foreclosure and other actions to recover real property: Fifteen years after the right to sue first arose.5Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 413.010
- Court judgments: Fifteen years from the date of the last execution on the judgment. A creditor who has already won a lawsuit has that entire window to enforce collection.2Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 413.090
The 2014 change catches many people off guard. Older online sources still cite fifteen years for every written contract, but that period now applies only to agreements signed before the cutoff. For most debts people are dealing with today, the correct number is ten.
Credit card debt is a common gray area. You signed a written agreement when you opened the account, which points toward the ten-year period under KRS 413.160, but how Kentucky courts classify a particular credit card debt can affect whether the five-year or ten-year window applies. If you’re being sued over credit card debt, the classification matters enough to get specific legal advice.
When the Clock Starts
For most debts, the limitations period begins running on the date you last made a payment. If you never made one, it starts when the debt first became due. For merchant accounts governed by KRS 413.130, it runs from the date of the last item charged or proved in the account.6Justia Law. Kentucky Code 413 – Section 413-130
The start date is the single most important fact in any limitations dispute. Pull your records and identify the last payment you made. That date anchors everything else.
What Restarts the Clock
This is where people get burned. Under KRS 413.160, a written acknowledgment of the debt or a written promise to pay it restarts the statute of limitations, as long as the debtor signs it.7Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 413.160 A partial payment can also reset the clock, giving the creditor a fresh window to sue.
Debt collectors know this. A common tactic is to call about an old account and persuade you to make even a small “good faith” payment. That single payment can restart the entire limitations period. Signing a new payment plan, mailing back a signed settlement offer, or sending an email confirming you owe the money can serve as the kind of acknowledgment that resets the clock. Before you pay anything or put anything in writing on an old debt, find out whether the statute has already expired.
What Pauses the Clock
A few circumstances pause the limitations period rather than restarting it. If the debtor was a minor or of unsound mind when the debt first became due, the statute does not begin running until that disability is removed, and then the full period starts fresh.8Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 413.170
Active-duty military members get added protection under federal law: the period of military service cannot be counted when calculating any statute of limitations for a court action against the servicemember.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3936 – Statute of Limitations
Leaving Kentucky can also pause the clock. If a debtor is absent from the state or conceals themselves so that a creditor cannot serve legal papers, the time spent absent does not count toward the limitations period.10Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 413.190 Moving out of state does not quietly wait out the deadline.
What Happens After the Deadline Passes
Once the limitations period runs out, the debt is “time-barred.” You still technically owe the money, and collectors can still contact you about it. What they cannot do is sue you or threaten to sue you. Federal regulations under the CFPB’s Regulation F make this a strict liability rule: a debt collector who sues or threatens to sue on a time-barred debt violates the law even if they did not know the statute had expired.11eCFR. 12 CFR 1006.26 – Collection of Time-Barred Debts
If a creditor files suit anyway on an expired debt, the statute of limitations is an affirmative defense. You have to raise it yourself in your written response to the lawsuit. The court will not do it for you.6Justia Law. Kentucky Code 413 – Section 413-130 Ignoring the suit is the worst move you can make: the court can enter a default judgment against you even though the debt was time-barred, and once a judgment is on the books the creditor has fifteen years from the last execution to enforce it and can reach tools like wage garnishment.2Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 413.090 If you are served with a lawsuit on an old debt, respond in writing and raise the statute of limitations.
Debts These Deadlines Don’t Cover
Not every debt plays by Kentucky’s rules. Federal student loans have no statute of limitations at all. The federal government can pursue collection on defaulted student loans indefinitely, using tools like administrative wage garnishment, tax refund offsets, and Social Security benefit offsets. Kentucky’s state limitations periods do not shield borrowers from those federal collection powers.
Federal tax debts generally have a ten-year collection window under the Internal Revenue Code, but that timeline operates independently of Kentucky law and includes its own tolling rules. If you owe the IRS or hold federal student loans, the state deadlines in this article do not apply.
Credit Reporting Runs on a Different Clock
The statute of limitations controls how long a creditor can sue you. Credit reporting is governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which allows most negative items to remain on your credit report for up to seven years, and bankruptcies for up to ten.12Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act The two timelines are independent. A debt can fall off your credit report while still being within the statute of limitations, and a debt can remain on your report after the statute has expired. Paying an old time-barred debt will not remove it from your credit report, and a debt dropping off your report does not stop a lawsuit if the limitations period has not yet run.