When does a debt expire in Spain: time limits by debt type

What debt prescription is (and what it is not)

Prescription (prescripción — the Spanish statute of limitations) does not erase the debt: the obligation still exists, but the claim becomes unenforceable in court if you invoke it. It is a shield, not an eraser — and it only works if you raise it.

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In civil matters, Spanish courts never apply it on their own initiative. If a payment order (monitorio) arrives for a time-barred debt and you do not oppose it pleading prescription, the court will process the claim as if the debt were alive. Invoking it is always on you.

The clock is interrupted (art. 1973 Civil Code) by a court claim, by a provable out-of-court demand from the creditor, or by any acknowledgment of the debt by you. Every interruption restarts the count from zero, and it can happen again and again.

Since 7 October 2015, the general period for personal claims with no special term is 5 years (art. 1964.2 Civil Code, as reformed by Law 42/2015). Before that it was 15 years.

Debts born before the reform ran under a transitional rule (art. 1939 CC): they expired at the very latest on 7 October 2020, unless interrupted. In practice, an uninterrupted debt from 2013 is safely time-barred today.

Who this guide affects

• Old bank debts — loans, credit cards, overdrafts — sold on to investment funds and chased years later by collection agencies that bought the portfolio for cents on the euro.
• Telecom and utility tails: the last bill from a line you cancelled in 2019 resurfacing in 2026, often already covered by the 3-year rule of art. 1967 of the Civil Code.
• Debts "confirmed" by an old judgment or an unopposed monitorio: the enforcement action has its own 5-year clock from the date the ruling became final (art. 518 LEC, the Civil Procedure Act), and many 2018–2020 titles have already lapsed.
• Anyone getting collector letters or calls about a debt they heard nothing about for years: a creditor's long silence is exactly the scenario limitation periods exist for.

Your rights against an old debt

• You have the right to invoke prescription in writing, out of court: a burofax (certified Spanish postal letter with proof of content and delivery) to the claimant stating the debt is time-barred under art. 1964.2 CC (or the applicable article) and demanding that the claims stop.
• If a monitorio arrives, prescription is a fully valid opposition ground: you plead it in the written opposition within 20 working days and, well founded, it wins the procedure.
• Only provable demands interrupt the clock: a served court claim, or an out-of-court demand the creditor can prove you received — in practice, a burofax. A phone call or an ordinary letter with no proof of receipt interrupts nothing.
• Your silence never interrupts prescription. The clock only restarts through an act of the creditor (a proven demand) or an act of yours (an acknowledgment). Not replying to collection letters cannot legally hurt you.
• Accrued prescription cannot be revived by new letters or burofaxes from the creditor — they arrive too late. Only you can wake the debt up: by paying or acknowledging it in writing, which can amount to a tacit waiver of the accrued prescription (art. 1935 CC).

Time limits by debt type

• General rule — personal loans, credit cards, consumer credit and any personal claim without a special term: 5 years (art. 1964.2 Civil Code). Debts from before 7 October 2015: they expired at the latest on 7 October 2020, unless an interruption is proven.
• Rent and other periodic payments due by years or shorter periods — rent arrears, recurring instalments: 5 years per unpaid instalment (art. 1966.3ª CC). Each bill has its own start date.
• Professional services (lawyers, notaries, doctors, pharmacists, teachers) and merchants' sales to consumers, lodging and food: 3 years (art. 1967 CC). Courts mostly apply this 3-year rule to periodic electricity, water and telecom bills too, though some rulings apply the general 5-year term.
• Tax debts owed to Hacienda (the Spanish tax agency): 4 years (art. 66 of the General Tax Law). Social Security debts: 4 years. Final traffic fines: the administration has 4 years to collect (Road Safety Law) — the infraction itself prescribes in 3 or 6 months, covered in our fines guide.
• Mortgage action: 20 years (art. 1964.1 CC). This is the system's long clock — a mortgage-backed debt does not expire under the general 5-year rule.
• A debt confirmed by a judgment or an unopposed monitorio: the enforcement action lapses 5 years after the ruling becomes final (art. 518 LEC). If the creditor let the title sleep for more than 5 years, it can no longer be enforced.
• Community-of-owners fees (cuotas de comunidad): 5 years — settled by the Supreme Court after the 2015 reform.

Documents you need for the calculation

• The date of your last payment: bank statements or receipts. It is the most common anchor of the count — the clock for that debt runs from the last payment made (or the first missed one).
• The demands you actually received, with their proof: burofaxes with delivery and content certification, served court claims. Only those interrupt; demands the creditor merely "says" it sent do not count without proof of receipt.
• The contract and its due dates: what type of debt it is (this sets the applicable period) and when each payment became enforceable (this sets the start date, the dies a quo).
• For old debts, the 2020 calendar: the COVID state of alarm suspended civil limitation periods for 82 days (14 March – 4 June 2020). If your window crosses those dates, add 82 days to the math.

How to calculate your deadline, step by step

• Identify the debt type and its period in the table above: general 5 years, services and utilities 3, tax and Social Security 4, mortgage 20, court title 5 years from finality.
• Fix the dies a quo — the day the claim could first be brought: the unpaid due date, your last payment made, or, for court titles, the date the ruling became final.
• List the provable interruption events: served claims, burofaxes received with proof, and any acknowledgment by you (partial payments, signed agreements, emails admitting the debt). Each one restarts the period from zero on its date.
• If the calculation window crosses spring 2020, add the 82 days of the state-of-alarm suspension (14.03–04.06.2020) to the end of the period.
• Conclude: if the full period has run since the last restart point with no proven interruptions, the debt is time-barred; if not, it is alive and you know exactly how much time is left.
• Act on the result: expired — invoke prescription in writing and pay or sign nothing; alive — negotiate knowing your real position (how much clock is left is valuable leverage in any settlement talk).

Mistakes that restart (or revive) the clock

• Paying "a little" on a dead debt to buy peace. This is the most expensive mistake: a payment made after prescription has accrued can count as a tacit waiver of it (art. 1935 CC) and bring the whole debt back to life. Collectors know this — that is why they ask for "just €20".
• Treating collector calls as interruptions. They are not: only a demand the creditor can prove you received interrupts — in practice, a served court claim or a certified burofax. Calls and text messages restart nothing.
• Confusing the 5-year ASNEF rule with prescription. The 5-year cap in credit blacklists (ficheros de morosos) is a data-protection rule: it sets when you must be deleted from the file, not when the debt expires. Two independent clocks.
• Forgetting the judgment has its own clock. Having "a judgment" does not make a debt eternal: the enforcement action lapses 5 years after the ruling became final (art. 518 LEC). A monitorio from 2019 that was never enforced is no longer usable.
• Assuming prescription applies automatically. In civil matters nobody will apply it for you: if you do not invoke it — in writing or in your opposition to the monitorio — a time-barred debt gets collected all the same.
• Counting from the contract date. The clock does not run from the day you signed, but from the day the obligation became enforceable and unpaid: the missed due date or the last payment. Miscounting usually works against you — or in your favour without your knowing.

If your debt is already time-barred

• Pay nothing, sign nothing, acknowledge nothing — not one euro, not a payment plan, not a written "yes, I owe". Any of those acts can be read as a waiver of the accrued prescription and bring the debt back to life.
• If you want the letters to stop, invoke prescription in writing: a burofax to the claimant citing the applicable article and demanding an end to the claims. Accrued prescription is not lost by invoking it — only by acknowledging the debt.
• If a monitorio arrives, do not ignore it: prescription is a winning opposition ground, but it must be pleaded in the written opposition within 20 working days of service.
• If you are still listed in ASNEF or another credit blacklist over that debt, the cleanup runs through data-protection law — the procedure is in our debt-collectors guide.

Related guides

Frequently asked questions

Official sources