How Long They Can Sue You
ORC 2305.06 — six years, four years, and the payment that starts it over
A limitations period is a deadline on filing a lawsuit, counted from when the claim accrued. Ohio shortened two of the ones that matter most to ordinary debt, and the amendment took effect in June of 2021.
| The claim | The period | Section |
|---|---|---|
| A contract in writing | Six years from accrual | ORC 2305.06 |
| A contract not in writing | Four years from accrual | ORC 2305.07 |
| A note, from its due date | Six years | ORC 1303.16 |
The courts have read the writing half of that narrowly. An acknowledgement or promise that is going to remove the bar has to be in writing and has to amount to an express promise to pay, clear, certain and unconditional. The payment half has no such requirement, which is why the payment is the one that surprises people.
Accrual is doing quiet work in all of this. The period runs from when the cause of action accrued, not from the date of the original agreement and not from the last time anybody thought about it. When a particular account accrued is a question of fact, and it is frequently the disputed one.
The amendment that shortened these periods carried its own transition for claims that had already accrued when it took effect, and this page does not compute that transition for any particular debt. Other claims have their own periods in their own sections, and the ones here do not cover them. Nothing on this page says whether a specific debt is inside or outside its period, which turns on accrual, on payment history and on what has been signed. That is a question for a licensed Ohio attorney, and legal aid organisations in Ohio handle consumer debt cases.
Sources for this section (4)
- ORC 2305.06 — Six years on a written contract
- ORC 2305.07 — Four years on a contract not in writing
- ORC 2305.08 — How a payment or a signed writing restarts the clock
- ORC 1303.16 — Six years on a note, from the due date
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Talk to a licensed Ohio attorney about your situation.