Kansas: Statute of Limitations on Debt Collection

Requirements one by one

Governing law

Kansas's general civil-action deadlines live in Chapter 60, Article 5
("Limitations of Actions"), § 60-511 (written contracts), § 60-512 (oral
contracts and other unwritten obligations), § 60-516 (the borrowing
statute), and § 60-520 (payment/acknowledgment revival). A negotiable
promissory note or other instrument covered by the Uniform Commercial Code
follows its own separate period instead, set by § 84-3-118 in Kansas's UCC
Article 3.

How long you have on a written debt

5 years. Section 60-511(1) covers "any agreement, contract or promise in
writing." But a negotiable promissory note "payable at a definite time" is
carved out of the general rule entirely: § 84-3-118(a) gives the note
holder 6 years from the due date instead, "or, if a due date is
accelerated, within six years after the accelerated due date." So a signed
loan agreement generally gets 5 years, but the specific promissory note
memorializing that loan can get 6, a distinction worth checking before
assuming every written debt shares one number.

How long you have on an oral or unwritten debt

3 years. Section 60-512(1) covers "contracts, obligations or liabilities
expressed or implied but not in writing", the default period for an
unwritten loan, a verbal promise to pay, or an open account not backed by
a signed agreement.

When the clock starts

Ordinarily the date of breach or default. For a promissory note with a
stated due date, the clock instead runs from that maturity date, or, if
the note contains an acceleration clause the lender actually and validly
exercises, from the earlier accelerated due date. Kansas courts require
that exercise to be unmistakable: "when notice of intent to accelerate
does not clearly and unequivocally express intent to accelerate, the
statute of limitations for foreclosure action is not triggered" (Wilmington
Sav. Fund Soc'y, FSB v. Holverson, 60 Kan. App. 2d 142, 154, 492 P.3d 492
(2021)); see also FGB Realty Advisors, Inc. v. Keller, 22 Kan. App. 2d
853 (1996) (accrual analysis for a note containing an acceleration
clause).

For an ongoing open or running account, Kansas has no statute drawing a
bright line between a merchant account and a consumer one the way some
states do. Instead, case law asks whether the account is genuinely
"mutual, open, and running", meaning the parties contemplated further
dealings, left some term (like the due date) open, kept the account
current without a break, and had reciprocal, offsetting dealings with each
other. If so, every item is drawn into one balance that starts running
only from "the true date of the last item" (Sheldon Grain & Feed Co. v.
Schuetz, 207 Kan. 108, 483 P.2d 1033 (1971), quoting Spencer v. Sowers,
118 Kan. 259, 234 Pac. 972 (1924)). If the account is really just a series
of separate, unrelated transactions, no ongoing relationship, no
reciprocal dealings, each transaction gets its own accrual date instead.
Which side of that line an ordinary one-way consumer account (like most
credit-card debt, where only the card issuer extends credit and the
customer never sells anything back) falls on is a fact question the
statute itself doesn't resolve.

Can a payment or promise restart the clock?

Yes, and Kansas allows more than most states. Section 60-520(a) lets three
things restart the clock: a part payment of principal or interest, a
signed written acknowledgment of the debt, or a signed written promise to
pay it. The part-payment route is the most permissive: it needs no writing
at all, and it works even after the original deadline has already fully
expired. The Kansas Supreme Court confirmed this directly: when a couple
delivered a $5,000 check on a promissory note "almost 13 years after their
last payment", long after the note's 5-year deadline had run, that bare
payment revived the debt (O'Malley v. Frazier, 274 Kan. 84, 49 P.3d 438
(2002)). The same case shows a limit on the debtor's side, though: because
the debtor told the creditor the payment was for principal only, the
revival was confined to principal, and the already-time-barred interest
stayed barred, a partial payment can be qualified by the debtor's own
words at the time, and the revival only covers what the payment and
statement together acknowledge. Any other acknowledgment or promise, one made without an accompanying payment, must be a signed writing to
count at all.

Is there a special rule for consumer debt?

No. Kansas applies the same 5-year/3-year framework to a consumer credit
card balance as it does to a commercial contract. There is no separate,
shorter (or longer) limitations period tied to consumer-credit-transaction
status.

What if the debt originated in another state?

Section 60-516 is Kansas's borrowing statute: if a debt is already
time-barred under the law of the place where it arose, a Kansas court
won't let a creditor sue on it here either, "no action can be maintained
thereon in this state", unless the plaintiff "is a resident of this
state and who has held the cause of action from the time it accrued." A
creditor who has been a Kansas resident all along still gets Kansas's own
(potentially longer) period; everyone else is held to the shorter of the
two states' deadlines.

What actually happens once the deadline passes?

Nothing more than the ordinary default. Kansas's own civil procedure code
lists "statute of limitations" among the affirmative defenses a defendant
"must affirmatively state" in response to a pleading (§ 60-208(c)(1)(P)), meaning a debtor has to actually raise it in court, or it's waived. Unlike
some states, Kansas has no statute that independently makes it unlawful to
sue, threaten suit, or otherwise attempt to collect a time-barred debt; a
collector who sues on an expired debt anyway just risks losing once the
defense is raised.

What trips people up

Because Kansas splits a written debt's period from a promissory note's UCC
period, the same underlying loan can carry two different numbers depending
on which document you're looking at, the signed loan contract (5 years)
versus the promissory note itself (6 years). Separately, a partial payment
is the sharpest trap here: Kansas allows a bare, unsigned payment to revive
a debt years after it expired, so a small "good faith" payment on old debt
someone assumed was long dead can restart the entire clock, and if the
debtor doesn't say anything limiting what the payment covers, the whole
debt (principal and interest) can come back, not just the part paid.

Common questions

Does Kansas give more time for a written contract than an oral one?
Yes, 5 years for a written agreement versus 3 years for an oral or
unwritten one. A promissory note is its own exception, getting 6 years
under the UCC instead of the general written-contract rule.

I made a small payment on an old debt, did that restart the clock?
Possibly, and even if the debt was already time-barred. Kansas lets a bare
partial payment of principal or interest revive an already-expired debt
with no writing required. Whether it revives the whole debt or only part
depends on what you said (or didn't say) about the payment at the time.

Can a debt collector still sue me after the statute of limitations
runs?
Kansas doesn't stop them from filing, but you can raise the expired
deadline as a defense, and if you do, the suit should fail. Kansas has no
separate law making the attempt itself illegal, unlike a handful of other
states.

Does the deadline differ for credit card debt specifically?
No. Kansas applies the same written or oral contract period to consumer
credit-card debt as it does to any other contract debt.

Statutes and sources

• K.S.A. § 60-511, "The following actions shall be brought within five
  (5) years: (1) An action upon any agreement, contract or promise in
  writing.", https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch60/060_005_0011.html
  (accessed 2026-07-09)
• K.S.A. § 60-512, "The following actions shall be brought within three
  (3) years: (1) All actions upon contracts, obligations or liabilities
  expressed or implied but not in writing.", https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch60/060_005_0012.html
  (accessed 2026-07-09)
• K.S.A. § 60-520, "(a) Effect. 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.", https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch60/060_005_0020.html
  (accessed 2026-07-09)
• K.S.A. § 60-516, "Where the cause of action has arisen in another
  state or country and by the laws of the state or country where the
  cause of action arose an action cannot be maintained thereon by reason
  of lapse of time, no action can be maintained thereon in this state
  except in favor of one who is a resident of this state and who has held
  the cause of action from the time it accrued.", https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch60/060_005_0016.html
  (accessed 2026-07-09)
• K.S.A. § 84-3-118, "(a) Except as provided in subsection (e), an
  action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay a note payable at a
  definite time must be commenced within six years after the due date or
  dates stated in the note or, if a due date is accelerated, within six
  years after the accelerated due date.", https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch84/084_003_0118.html
  (accessed 2026-07-09)
• K.S.A. § 60-208, "(c) Affirmative defenses. (1) In general. In
  responding to a pleading, a party must affirmatively state any
  avoidance or affirmative defense, including: ... (P) statute of
  limitations; and (Q) waiver.", https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch60/060_002_0008.html
  (accessed 2026-07-09)