Statute of Limitations on Debt in Florida: Time Limits by Debt Type

Florida’s deadlines for suing on a debt sit in chapter 95 of the Florida Statutes, one part of the Florida consumer protection laws that shape how creditors and collection agencies operate in the state. This article covers which period applies to which kind of debt, where the clock starts, what restarts it, and what a creditor can still do after the period runs out.

Florida limitation periods by type of debt

Chapter 95 sorts lawsuits by their legal basis, not by the label a collector puts on an account. As of 2026, the categories that cover consumer debt appear in Fla. Stat. § 95.11:

• 5 years for a legal or equitable action on a contract, obligation, or liability founded on a written instrument, under § 95.11(2)(b). Signed loan agreements, promissory notes, retail installment contracts, and written credit agreements sit in this category.
• 5 years for an action to foreclose a mortgage, under § 95.11(2)(c).
• 4 years for an action on a contract, obligation, or liability not founded on a written instrument, including the sale and delivery of goods, wares, and merchandise, and store accounts, under § 95.11(3)(j). Oral agreements and open accounts sit here.
• 3 years for an action to collect medical debt for services rendered by a facility licensed under chapter 395, under § 95.11(4).
• 20 years for an action on a judgment or decree of a Florida court of record, under § 95.11(1). A judgment from a court not of record, from another state, or from a federal court carries 5 years under § 95.11(2)(a).

The written-instrument line decides which period applies to most credit card and financing disputes. The question is whether the creditor is suing on a signed writing that sets out the obligation or on the running balance of an account. A creditor holding the signed cardholder agreement is in a different position from one holding only monthly statements, and the classification drives whether the 5-year or the 4-year period in Fla. Stat. § 95.11 applies.

When the Florida clock starts running

Fla. Stat. § 95.031 sets the starting point: the time within which an action must be begun runs from the time the cause of action accrues, and a cause of action accrues when the last element constituting the cause of action occurs. For an ordinary consumer debt, the last element is the failure to pay as the agreement requires. In practice that points to the date of the first missed payment the borrower never cured, not the date the account was opened and not the date a collection agency bought the file.

Selling or assigning a debt does not reset the calculation. A buyer of charged-off accounts takes the original creditor’s position and inherits the deadline that was already running.

Notes payable on demand work differently. Under Fla. Stat. § 95.031(1), for an obligation founded on a negotiable or nonnegotiable note payable on demand, or payable after date with no specific maturity date, the last element of the cause of action is the first written demand for payment. The same rule applies to an endorser or guarantor on that kind of note.

What restarts or extends the period

Fla. Stat. § 95.04 governs a debt whose period has already expired. Its text is one sentence: an acknowledgment of, or promise to pay, a debt barred by a statute of limitations must be in writing and signed by the person sought to be charged. A verbal promise on a recorded collection call does not satisfy that requirement.

An account that is still inside its period is a different question, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau notes that activity on an old account can affect how long a collector has to sue, with the rules varying by state (CFPB guidance on old debts). Consumers evaluating a settlement offer on an aged account can ask the collector in writing for the date of the last payment and for the collector’s position on whether the account is time-barred.

What a creditor can do after the deadline passes

Chapter 95 bars the lawsuit, not the underlying obligation. That is the premise behind § 95.04, which addresses a written promise to pay a debt that is already barred rather than treating the debt as gone. The CFPB uses the term time-barred debt for an obligation whose limitation period has run (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau).

Three consequences follow. A collector can still contact the consumer about the balance and can accept a voluntary payment. Credit reporting timelines are set by federal law and run on their own schedule, so a debt can drop off a credit report while the limitation period is still open, or remain reportable after the period has closed. And the expiration of the period does not physically stop a lawsuit from being filed. It supplies a defense, and the defense has to be raised.

Raising the deadline in a Florida collection lawsuit

Limitations is an affirmative defense in Florida civil practice. A defendant who does not raise it in the answer, or at the small claims pretrial conference, can lose the benefit of it, and a court can enter judgment on a debt that was past its deadline. Judges do not screen collection complaints for limitations problems on their own.

Most consumer collection suits are filed in county court. Florida’s small claims rules cover claims of $8,000 or less, excluding filing costs, interest, and attorney’s fees, according to the Florida Courts small claims resource. Claims above that amount proceed under the regular county civil rules, where the defendant files a written answer that lists any affirmative defenses.

1. Find the date of default

   Locate the last payment posted to the account and the first payment the account never received. Old statements, bank records, and the payment history section of a credit report are the usual places that date appears. This is the date most limitation calculations start from.

2. Identify the legal basis of the debt

   Determine whether the creditor is suing on a signed written agreement or on an account balance. Under Fla. Stat. § 95.11 that classification is the difference between a 5-year period and a 4-year period, and for hospital and other chapter 395 facility debt it is a 3-year period measured from referral to collection.

3. Count forward from the accrual date

   Add the applicable period to the accrual date fixed by § 95.031. A written-contract debt that went into default in March 2021 reaches the end of its 5-year period in March 2026; an open account that defaulted on the same date reaches the end of its 4-year period in March 2025.

4. Check what has happened since

   Written acknowledgments, signed payment plans, and periods covered by a tolling rule can change the answer. For a debt that is already barred, § 95.04 requires any acknowledgment to be in writing and signed before it carries weight.