# legal.limitation-date
Status: needs review by a solicitor before it is published; it does not handle
disability, fraud, concealment or date-of-knowledge disputes.
The last day on which a claim may be brought in England and Wales under the
Limitation Act 1980, from the claim type and the date the cause of action
accrued. The periods are data, one row per claim type, with the section that
sets each:
| claimType | years | from | section |
|---|---|---|---|
| contract | 6 | accrual | s.5 |
| tort | 6 | accrual | s.2 |
| personal-injury | 3 | accrual or date of knowledge, if later | s.11(4) |
| fatal-accident | 3 | death or dependant's date of knowledge, if later | s.12(2) |
| defamation | 1 | accrual (publication) | s.4A |
| malicious-falsehood | 1 | accrual | s.4A |
| deed | 12 | accrual | s.8(1) |
| statute-sum | 6 | accrual | s.9(1) |
| contribution | 2 | the judgment, award or agreement | s.10 |
| recovery-of-land | 12 | accrual | s.15(1) |
| rent-arrears | 6 | the date the arrears fell due | s.19 |
| mortgage-principal | 12 | the date the right to the money accrued | s.20(1) |
| mortgage-interest | 6 | the date the interest fell due | s.20(5) |
| judgment | 6 | the date the judgment became enforceable | s.24(1) |
| judgment-interest | 6 | the date the interest fell due | s.24(2) |
**Counting.** The day the cause of action accrues is excluded (Marren v
Dawson Bentley & Co Ltd [1961] 2 QB 135), and a period of years ends on the
corresponding date, the anniversary (the corresponding date rule, Dodds v
Walker [1981] 1 WLR 1027, HL). So a contract breached on 15 March 2020 may be
sued on until the end of 15 March 2026, and that date is `expiry`: the last day
the claim may be brought. Where there is no corresponding date, the period ends
on the last day of that month: a cause of action accruing on 29 February 2020
expires on 28 February 2026 (and on 29 February 2024 for a 4-year period, if
there were one). Adding 365 days a year, or subtracting a day from the
anniversary, gives the wrong answer; the vectors show both.
**Date of knowledge.** For personal injury and fatal accident claims the
period runs from the later of accrual (or death) and the date of knowledge
defined in s.14. Pass that date if one is asserted; the answer is only as good
as it is, and whether a claimant had knowledge on a given date is exactly the
kind of question this does not decide. Other claim types do not run from
knowledge under these sections, so a knowledge date for them is an error rather
than being silently ignored (latent damage in negligence under s.14A, which
does, is not covered).
**Dates in force.** Every row applies to causes of action accruing on or after
1 May 1981, when the Act came into force (s.41(2)); defamation and malicious
falsehood use the one-year period for causes of action accruing on or after
4 September 1996 (Defamation Act 1996 s.5, which by s.20(2) does not affect
causes of action arising before). An earlier accrual date is an error, not an
answer: the old periods are not carried.
## What this deliberately does not do
- Extensions and postponements: disability (s.28), fraud, concealment or
mistake (s.32), acknowledgement or part payment (ss.29-31), the court's
discretion to disapply the personal-injury periods (s.33), and the defamation
discretion (s.32A).
- Latent damage (ss.14A, 14B, including the 15-year longstop), product
liability (s.11A, 10-year longstop), theft (s.4), loans without a date for
repayment (s.6), buildings (s.4B), and every limit outside this Act
(employment tribunals, judicial review, the Equality Act, contractual time
bars, other jurisdictions).
- When the last day falls on a day the court office is closed: the claim may
generally be issued on the next day it is open (Pritam Kaur v S Russell & Sons
Ltd [1973] QB 336), but whether that applies to a given claim and filing route
is a question for the solicitor; `expiry` is the unextended date.
- Which date the cause of action accrued on. That is the legal question, and it
is the caller's input.
## Sources
Limitation Act 1980 (c. 58), latest version on legislation.gov.uk, read on
23 September 2026: sections 2, 4A, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 19, 20, 24 and 41,
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58/contents; section 4A amendment
note (Defamation Act 1996 ss.5, 20(2), from 4 September 1996),
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58/section/4A.
A change to a period is a new version of this capability with a new row; the
rows declare effective dates, so a `history=current` build refuses a date
before its horizon rather than answering it with today's rule.
## Before you rely on this
**Not professional advice.** This capability calculates legal figures from published rules. It is a software component for developers, not legal advice. Rules change and every rate here has an effective date. Check that the dates cover your case. Verify results against the official sources listed above, and have a litigation solicitor review how you use it, before anyone relies on the output. Provided "as is" under its licence, without warranty.
**Unreviewed.** This capability's implementations agree in every language and pass its published test vectors, which were worked out from the official sources cited. But no qualified litigation solicitor has yet checked those vectors, or confirmed that the capability covers the cases it claims. Treat it as a draft. Do not use it for real people, money or decisions without your own expert review. Once a qualified reviewer signs off, this notice is replaced with their name, qualification and the date. Each new version needs fresh sign-off.
## Notices
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government
Licence v3.0 (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/).
Legislation: Crown copyright and database right.
1.0.1 marks it unreviewed and adds its attribution notices (NOTICE). The code and the tests are unchanged.