Statute of Limitations on Debt in Georgia by Debt Type

Georgia sets the filing deadline for a debt lawsuit by the kind of paperwork behind the debt, and the gap between four years and six years often decides whether a collection case survives. This article covers the periods in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, when each clock starts, what restarts it, and what a creditor can still do after the deadline passes. The wider framework for unfair collection practices sits in Georgia consumer protection laws and the Fair Business Practices Act.

Georgia’s limitation periods by type of debt

Georgia keeps its civil limitation periods in Title 9, Chapter 3 of the Code. Three sections cover nearly every consumer debt, and which one applies turns on the document the creditor sues on.

Simple written contracts: six years. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24 requires all actions upon simple contracts in writing to be brought within six years after the debt becomes due and payable. The same section carves out contracts for the sale of goods and negotiable instruments, which follow different rules.

Open accounts and unsigned agreements: four years. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-25 sets four years from the date the right of action accrues for a suit on an open account, on a contract not signed by the party being charged, or on an implied promise.

Contracts for the sale of goods: four years. O.C.G.A. § 11-2-725 allows four years from accrual, and lets the parties shorten that period in the original agreement to no less than one year while barring them from extending it. Financed purchases of vehicles, appliances, and similar goods sit here. A vehicle that keeps failing raises a separate set of remedies under the Georgia lemon law, which runs on its own timetable.

Credit card debt has no section of its own. A Georgia creditor pleads it either as an open account under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-25 or as a written contract under § 9-3-24 where a signed cardholder agreement exists, and that characterization is what decides whether the four-year or the six-year period applies. Medical bills, gym memberships, and utility balances are typically treated as open accounts.

When the clock starts running

Each section fixes its own starting point, and the difference matters more than the length of the period.

For a written contract, the six years in O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24 begin when the debt becomes due and payable. On an installment obligation, each missed installment generally has its own due date, and an acceleration clause that the creditor invokes makes the whole balance due at once. On a revolving balance, the due date is the point at which the creditor demanded payment of the balance rather than the date the account was opened.

For an open account, the four years under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-25 run from the date the right of action accrues, which is ordinarily the date of the last transaction or charge that left a balance owing. Collection files often label this the date of last activity.

For a contract for the sale of goods, O.C.G.A. § 11-2-725 states that the cause of action accrues when the breach occurs, regardless of whether the aggrieved party knew about it. A breach of warranty accrues at tender of delivery unless the warranty explicitly reaches future performance.

Three events that people often assume restart the clock do not. Selling the account to a debt buyer does not create a new accrual date. A collector’s demand letter does not create one. Credit reporting runs on a separate federal timetable that has nothing to do with the Georgia limitation period.

What restarts the clock

Georgia is stricter than many states about revival. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-110, a new promise that renews a right of action already barred, or that resets the starting point on one not yet barred, must be in writing and either in the debtor’s own handwriting or signed by the debtor or an authorized agent. A verbal admission over the phone does not satisfy the section.

Payment is treated differently. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-112 provides that a payment entered upon written evidence of the debt, or any other written acknowledgment of the existing liability, is equivalent to a new promise to pay. A partial payment documented in the account record can therefore function as the point from which a fresh period runs.

Tolling is narrower still. Periods of legal incapacity and a defendant’s absence from the state can suspend the running of a limitation period under Chapter 3 of Title 9, but hardship, unemployment, and disputes with the creditor do not.

Raising the deadline in a collection lawsuit

An expired limitation period is an affirmative defense in Georgia. The court does not apply it automatically, and a defendant who never answers gives it up. Most consumer collection cases in Georgia are filed in magistrate court, where the procedure is compressed.

O.C.G.A. § 15-10-43 requires an answer within 30 days after service of the statement of claim. A defendant who misses that date is in default, though the same section allows the default to be opened by filing an answer and paying costs within 15 days. Once a hearing is set, it falls not less than 15 and not more than 30 days after the notice is given.

1. Check the date of last activity against the filing date

   Compare the accrual date on the account statements with the date the statement of claim was filed. The four-year period in O.C.G.A. § 9-3-25 and the six-year period in O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24 both run from accrual, not from the date the debt was sold or assigned.

2. Identify which section the claim falls under

   An open account claim and a written contract claim carry different deadlines. The complaint usually states which theory the creditor relies on, and a copy of a signed agreement attached to the complaint points toward the six-year period.

3. File the answer within 30 days

   Under O.C.G.A. § 15-10-43, the answer is filed with the court or presented orally to the judge or clerk within 30 days of service. The answer admits or denies the claim and states any affirmative defense, including the statute of limitations.

4. Bring the documentation to the hearing

   The hearing notice arrives after the answer is filed. Account statements showing the last payment or last charge, and any written communications about the debt, are what a court examines to fix the accrual date.

What collectors can do after the deadline passes

A time-barred debt can still be reported, sold, and requested. Federal law limits how far a collector goes beyond that.

Suing or threatening to sue on a debt the collector knows or should know is time-barred is prohibited by 12 CFR 1006.26, the Regulation F provision implementing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Misrepresenting the character, amount, or legal status of a debt separately violates 15 U.S.C. § 1692e, which covers false or misleading representations in connection with collecting a debt.

Georgia consumers can also file a complaint about collection conduct with the Georgia Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division. A complaint about a collector’s conduct and the limitation defense in a pending lawsuit are separate tracks, and filing one does not resolve the other.

Judgments run on a separate seven-year clock

Once a creditor obtains a judgment, the limitation period that governed the underlying debt no longer controls. O.C.G.A. § 9-12-60 provides that a judgment becomes dormant and unenforceable when seven years pass after its rendition without an execution being issued and entered on the general execution docket of the county where it was rendered.

Recording the execution, or an authorized entry on it, starts a new seven-year period under the same section. That mechanism lets a judgment creditor keep a judgment alive well beyond the original four-year or six-year window on the debt. The dormancy rule in O.C.G.A. § 9-12-60 does not apply to judgments or orders for child support or spousal support.