Statute of Limitations on Debt Collection in Kansas

At a glance

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. Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB v. Holverson, 60 Kan. App. 2d 142, 154, 492 P.3d 492 (2021), holds that a notice that does not clearly and unequivocally accelerate the debt does not trigger the foreclosure limitations period. See also FGB Realty Advisors, Inc. v. Keller, 22 Kan. App. 2d 853 (1996), for accrual analysis on 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)