Does paying old debt restart the statute of limitations, by state
Once a debt's statute of limitations has run, a collector can still call and can still get you to pay something — and in roughly half the states, doing so restarts the clock and makes the whole balance suable again ('zombie debt'). The existing state-civil-statute-of-limitations asset here answers how long the original clock runs; this one answers the question people actually face when a collector calls about an old account: if I make a payment or acknowledge the debt in writing now, does that revive a claim that already expired? States split cleanly and the split is not obvious from the general SOL length. Ohio and California statutes say a signed written acknowledgment or a payment starts a new limitations period running. New York and Minnesota statutes say the opposite in as many words: no payment, written or oral affirmation, or other activity on the debt revives or extends an expired period. One record per state, quoted verbatim from that state's own code, not from a debt-settlement company's summary — those pages are written to encourage the outcome (making a payment) that some of these statutes penalize. Answers 'does paying old debt restart the clock', 'zombie debt revival by state', 'will a partial payment restart the statute of limitations'. This is a deadline/eligibility lookup, not legal advice: whether a specific payment or acknowledgment counts, and what happens after re-aging on a credit report, are separate questions the statute doesn't always answer.
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LicenceFacts taken from US state statutes, each with a verbatim attributed quote and a link back to the publishing legislature or revisor. The text of a state statute is an edict of government and carries no copyright (Wheaton v. Peters; restated in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). No whole chapter is reproduced. No source used here carries a restrictive notice.
The data
| State | Does payment or acknowledgment revive the clock | How the statute states the rule | Section |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | A signed writing restarts the clock; payment not addressed | When an action is barred by limitation no acknowledgment of the justness of the claim made subsequent to the time it became due shall be admitted in evidence to take the action out of the operation of the law, unless the acknowledgment is in writing and signed by the party to be charged thereby. | 12-508 |
| California | A signed writing restarts the clock; payment alone does not revive | no such payment of itself shall revive a cause of action once barred | CCP 360 |
| Florida | A signed writing restarts the clock; payment not addressed | 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. | 95.04 |
| Idaho | A payment or a signed writing restarts the clock | No acknowledgment or promise is sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract by which to take the case out of the operation of this chapter, unless the same is contained in some writing, signed by the party to be charged thereby; but any payment of principal or interest is equivalent to a new promise in writing, duly signed, to pay the residue of the debt. | 5-238 |
| Kansas | A payment or a signed writing restarts the clock | In any case founded on contract, when any part of the principal or interest shall have been paid, or an acknowledgment of an existing liability, debt or claim, or any promise to pay the same, shall have been made, an action may be brought in such case within the period prescribed for the same, after such payment, acknowledgment or promise; but such acknowledgment or promise must be in writing, signed by the party to be charged thereby. | 60-520 |
| Massachusetts | A signed writing restarts the clock; payment not addressed | No acknowledgment or promise shall be evidence of a new or continuing contract whereby to take an action of contract out of the operation of this chapter or to deprive a party of the benefit thereof, unless such acknowledgment or promise has been made by, or is contained in, a writing signed by the party chargeable thereby. | Chapter 260, Section 13 |
| Minnesota | Payment or acknowledgment after expiry does not revive | After its expiration, the statute of limitations is not revived by the collection of a payment on an account, a discharge in a bankruptcy proceeding, or an oral or written reaffirmation of the debt. | 541.053 |
| Missouri | A signed writing restarts the clock; payment not addressed | or deprive any party of the benefit thereof, unless such acknowledgment or promise be made or contained by or in some writing subscribed by the party chargeable thereby | 516.320 |
| Nebraska | A payment or a signed writing restarts the clock | when any part of the principal or interest shall have been voluntarily paid, or an acknowledgment of an existing liability, debt or claim, or any promise to pay the same shall have been made in writing, an action may be brought in such case within the period prescribed for the same, after such payment, acknowledgment or promise | 25-216 |
| Nevada | Payment or acknowledgment after expiry does not revive | any payment on a debt, affirmation of a debt or other activity taken relating to a debt by a debtor after the time in NRS 11.190 has expired does not revive the applicable limitation | NRS 11.200 |
| New York | Payment or acknowledgment after expiry does not revive | any subsequent payment toward, written or oral affirmation of or other activity on the debt does not revive or extend the limitations period | NY CPLR § 214-I |
| North Carolina | A signed writing restarts the clock; the statute expressly preserves the effect of a payment | No acknowledgment or promise is evidence of a new or continuing contract, from which the statutes of limitations run, unless it is contained in some writing signed by the party to be charged thereby; but this section does not alter the effect of any payment of principal or interest. | § 1-26 |
| Ohio | A payment or a signed writing restarts the clock | an action may be brought thereon within the time limited by sections 2305.06 and 2305.07 of the Revised Code, after such payment, acknowledgment, or promise | 2305.08 |
| Oregon | A payment or a signed writing restarts the clock | Whenever any payment of principal or interest is made after it has become due, upon an existing contract, whether it is a bill of exchange, promissory note, bond, or other evidence of indebtedness, the limitation shall commence from the time the last payment was made. | 12.240 |
| South Carolina | A payment or a signed writing restarts the clock | No acknowledgment or promise shall be sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract whereby to take the case out of the operation of this chapter unless it be contained in some writing signed by the party to be charged thereby. But payment of any part of principal or interest is equivalent to a promise in writing. | SECTION 15-3-120 |
| Virginia | A signed writing restarts the clock; payment not addressed | If any person against whom a right of action has accrued on any contract, other than a judgment or recognizance, promises, by writing signed by him or his agent, payment of money on such contract, the person to whom the right has accrued may maintain an action for the money so promised, within such number of years after such promise as it might be maintained if such promise were the original cause of action | § 8.01-229 |
| Washington | Payment after expiry does not revive | Any payment on the contract made after the limitation period has expired shall not restart, revive, or extend the limitation period. | RCW 4.16.270 |
| West Virginia | A signed writing restarts the clock; payment not addressed | If any person against whom the right shall have so accrued on an award, or on any such contract, shall by writing signed by him or his agent promise payment of money on such award or contract, the person to whom the right shall have so accrued may maintain an action or suit for the moneys so promised within such number of years after such promise as it might originally have been maintained within upon the award or contract | §55-2-8 |
| Wisconsin | A signed writing restarts the clock; the statute expressly preserves the effect of a payment | No acknowledgment or promise shall be sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract, whereby to take the cause out of the operation of this chapter, unless the same be contained in some writing signed by the party to be charged thereby. | 893.45 |
Where this came from
Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 19 sources this dataset was assembled from.
- azleg.govhttps://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/00508.htm
- leginfo.legislature.ca.govhttps://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=360.&lawCode=CCP
- flsenate.govhttps://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2024/95.04
- legislature.idaho.govhttps://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/SECT5-238/
- ksrevisor.govhttps://www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch60/060_005_0020.html
- malegislature.govhttps://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleV/Chapter260/Section13
- revisor.mn.govhttps://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/541.053
- revisor.mo.govhttps://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=516.320
- nebraskalegislature.govhttps://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=25-216
- leg.state.nv.ushttps://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-011.html
- law.justia.comhttps://law.justia.com/codes/new-york/2022/cvp/article-2/214-i/
- ncleg.govhttps://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_1/GS_1-26.html
- codes.ohio.govhttps://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2305.08
- oregonlegislature.govhttps://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors012.html
- scstatehouse.govhttps://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t15c003.php
- law.lis.virginia.govhttps://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title8.01/chapter4/section8.01-229/
- app.leg.wa.govhttps://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=4.16.270
- code.wvlegislature.govhttps://code.wvlegislature.gov/55-2-8/
- docs.legis.wisconsin.govhttps://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/893/iv/45
Machine-readable
- data.jsonThe whole dataset — every record with its source URL and source quote.
- Open Knowledge Format bundleOne JSON object per line — every record's frontmatter and quoted span exactly as it is held here, in one fetch.
- How this is made and checkedWhat "verified against source" does and does not mean.
From your own code
Same records, same quotes, without scraping the page: refsource is on PyPI and npm. Each value comes back carrying the URL it was read from and the sentence on that page that states it — .source and .quote sit on the value itself rather than in a side channel, so the checking step is available instead of skipped.
pip install refsource
refsource lookup time-barred-debt-revival-rules-by-state state=Arizona
npx -y refsource lookup time-barred-debt-revival-rules-by-state state=Arizona