Free legal calculator
When does a debt prescribe?
Find the date a claim prescribes under the Prescription Act, and whether an acknowledgement of debt or a summons has interrupted it. Includes the six-month notice when the debtor is an organ of state.
Nothing you enter is saved. Rates, tariffs and tax tables come from the published sources we maintain, dated so each result uses the figures in force on the dates you give. Every result shows where its numbers came from.
A calculation aid, not legal advice. Check the result against the Act, the rules of court and any practice directive of the division before relying on it. If a deadline matters, speak to an attorney.
Good to know
Questions, answered
- How long before a debt prescribes?
- Section 11 of the Prescription Act sets the period by the kind of debt: 30 years for a debt secured by a mortgage bond, a judgment debt or a tax debt; 15 years for certain debts owed to the State; 6 years for a debt on a bill of exchange, cheque or other negotiable instrument or a notarial contract; and 3 years for any other debt, unless another Act provides otherwise.
- When does the period start?
- When the debt is due (section 12(1)). Under section 12(3) it is not treated as due until the creditor knows, or could reasonably have known, who the debtor is and the facts the debt arises from. If that came later, enter the date you learned of it.
- On which day exactly does a debt prescribe?
- At the end of the day before the anniversary. A debt that fell due on 15 January 2008 prescribes at the end of 14 January 2011. Serve summons before that day ends.
- What stops prescription from running?
- An express or tacit acknowledgement of liability by the debtor — a payment, a written admission, a request for time to pay — interrupts it, and a new full period starts on the day of the acknowledgement (section 14). Serving summons or other process claiming payment also interrupts it, as long as the claim is pursued to final judgment (section 15).
- Can an acknowledgement revive a prescribed debt?
- No. Once a debt has prescribed it is extinguished, and a later acknowledgement does not interrupt anything. The debtor can choose to pay, but cannot be forced to.
- What if the debtor is a government department or municipality?
- The Institution of Legal Proceedings against Certain Organs of State Act 40 of 2002 requires written notice of the intended proceedings within six months of the debt becoming due (section 3(2)(a)). A court may condone a late notice on good cause, but only if the debt has not prescribed.
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