Statute of limitations on civil debts in Peru: when can you raise it if you are sued over an old debt?

What it means for a debt to become “time-barred”

Under Peruvian civil law, extinctive prescription (“prescripción extintiva”) does not erase a debt. The underlying obligation keeps existing, but the creditor loses the ability to enforce it through the courts once the legal deadline has passed. Peruvian law calls what’s left a “natural obligation”: you could still choose to pay it voluntarily and that payment would be valid, but nobody can force you to pay through a lawsuit once the action has become time-barred.

This is easy to confuse with caducidad (“forfeiture” or “lapse”), a separate concept regulated in the same Book VIII of the Código Civil. The essential difference: in prescription, only the action (the right to sue) is extinguished, while the underlying right survives. In caducidad, both the action and the underlying right are extinguished together, automatically, without anyone needing to raise it. Caducidad typically applies to shorter, specific deadlines (for example, certain deadlines to challenge corporate resolutions or some registry-related actions), while ordinary civil debts — loans, services, credit cards, general contracts — are governed by the rules of prescription, not caducidad.

The periods under Article 2001 of the Código Civil

Article 2001 of the Código Civil sets out several different periods depending on the type of claim — not everything is 10 years:

• 10 years: the “acción personal” (personal action), the “acción real” (real/property action), an action arising from a final judgment, and an action to annul a legal act for nullity (subsection 1). Most ordinary civil and commercial debts arising from a contract — a private loan, a sale, a services contract outside a formal employment relationship — are claimed through a “personal action,” so this 10-year period is the one that usually applies to them.
• 7 years: an action for damages between the parties arising from a simulated (sham) legal act (subsection 2).
• 3 years: an action to collect payment for services rendered outside an employment relationship (subsection 3) — for example, an independent professional’s fees.
• 2 years: an action for voidability (anulabilidad), a revocatory action, a tort (extra-contractual liability) damages action, and an action against the representatives of legally incapacitated persons arising from their role (subsection 4).
• 15 years: an action arising from child/family support obligations (subsection 5, added later by Law No. 30179).

In practice, for the typical civil debt people are asking about when they wonder “has my debt already expired?”, the relevant period is usually the 10-year period under subsection 1, counted from the date the obligation became due and enforceable (for example, the payment due date, or the date of breach). But if the debt comes from an independent professional’s fees, the period could be only 3 years, and if it’s a tort damages claim, only 2 years. That’s why it’s essential to identify the exact type of claim before assuming any single period applies.

How the clock can be interrupted or suspended

The prescription period doesn’t always run continuously. The Código Civil distinguishes two different mechanisms:

Interruption (Article 1996): certain acts reset the count back to zero, as if it had never started running. The grounds include:

1. Acknowledgment of the obligation by the debtor (for example, a letter, a message, or a partial payment in which the debt is admitted).
2. Formal notice placing the debtor in default (“intimación para constituir en mora”).
3. Being served with a lawsuit, or any other act that formally notifies the debtor that a claim has been filed.
4. Judicially asserting a set-off (compensación).

This means a simple partial payment on a debt — even a small one — can restart the entire prescription period from the day after the payment, something many debtors don’t realize and that collectors sometimes exploit.

Suspension (Article 1994): unlike interruption, suspension pauses the count while a special circumstance lasts (for example, while it is impossible to bring the claim before a Peruvian court, or in certain family or representation relationships) — but it does not erase time already elapsed. Once the circumstance ends, the clock resumes from where it left off, rather than starting over.

Prescription is not automatic — you have to raise it

One of the most common misunderstandings is thinking that once the deadline passes, the debt simply “falls away” and a judge will dismiss any lawsuit without more. That is not how prescription works. Article 1992 of the Código Civil expressly states that “the judge cannot base a ruling on prescription if it has not been invoked.” In other words, the debtor must actively raise prescription — normally through a formal defense (“excepción de prescripción extintiva”) within the lawsuit. If the debtor doesn’t raise it, a judge can still rule against them and order payment, even if the deadline had, in fact, already passed.

Additionally, Article 1991 allows a person to expressly or implicitly waive a prescription they’ve already gained. That means acknowledging the debt in writing, agreeing to a payment plan, or making a payment after the deadline has passed can be interpreted as waiving that protection, reviving the creditor’s ability to sue.

Being asked to pay is legal; abusive collection is not

It is legal for a creditor or a collection agency to contact you asking for payment on a debt, even one that’s already time-barred — asking someone to pay a “natural obligation” isn’t prohibited. What changes is that if you are actually sued over that debt, you have both the right and the burden to raise the statute of limitations as a defense.

The problem arises when a collector’s tactics cross into abusive practices: threatening seizures or legal actions that are no longer available, excessive calls, contacting third parties to pressure you, or making false claims about legal consequences that don’t exist. Those practices are covered by this site’s guidance on abusive debt collection, which explains what you can do when a collector goes too far, regardless of whether the underlying debt is or isn’t time-barred.

Bottom line

Before paying, acknowledging, or ignoring an old debt, it’s worth pinning down three things: (1) which type of claim applies and which period under Article 2001 governs it, (2) the exact date from which that period is counted, and (3) whether anything happened — a payment, an acknowledgment, being served with a lawsuit — that interrupted or suspended it. If you are sued, the statute of limitations is a powerful defense, but it only works if you explicitly raise it before the judge.

Debts secured by a mortgage

Limitation rules for a debt backed by a mortgage may differ from ordinary debts. If the bank has already started collection against the guaranteed property, see mortgage foreclosure in Peru.

Check your case

The When does my debt prescribe? tool shows the period for each kind of debt, when it starts and the text of the norm. It gives no date, because a payment or an acknowledgment can change it.