Most civil claims in Cyprus have to be filed within six years. That is the period for breach of contract and for most civil wrongs under the Limitation of Actionable Rights Law, Law 66(I)/2012. The exceptions are where people get caught: negligence and nuisance claims get three years, professional fees three, defamation only one, while mortgages get twelve and court judgments fifteen. If nothing in the Law fits your claim, the fallback is ten years.
The clock starts when the cause of action is complete, which the Law defines as the moment all the facts that give you the right to sue exist. For an unpaid invoice that is the due date. For a defective kitchen it is usually the breach, not the day you noticed the cupboard doors sagging.
The main time limits
Law 66(I)/2012 came into force on 1 July 2012 and replaced the old Limitation Law, Cap. 15. Under an amendment made by Law 207(I)/2015, the periods began counting from 1 January 2016, so for older causes of action the 2016 date is the effective start.
| Claim | Period | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Breach of contract | 6 years | 7(1) |
| Fees of lawyers, doctors, dentists, architects, civil engineers, contractors and other independent professionals | 3 years | 7(2) |
| Civil wrongs (tort) generally | 6 years | 6(1) |
| Negligence, nuisance, breach of statutory duty | 3 years | 6(2) |
| Defamation and malicious falsehood | 1 year | 6(4) |
| Cheques, bills of exchange, credit cards, overdrafts, leasing, hire purchase | 6 years | 8 |
| Mortgages and pledges, including foreclosure | 12 years | 5 |
| Claims by heirs and legatees, and challenges to a will | 8 years from the death | 9 |
| Enforcing a court judgment | 15 years from finality | 10 |
| Anything not covered elsewhere | 10 years | 4 |
The three-year rule for professional fees catches people out from the other side. A builder or architect who has not chased an unpaid bill within three years of it falling due has very likely lost it, even though an ordinary contract claim would have six.
Loans have their own rule. Where a loan has no fixed repayment date and needs no prior notice, time does not start until the lender serves a written demand (section 7(3)). If the loan is secured by a mortgage, the twelve-year period under section 5 applies instead.
Negligence, personal injury and the discovery rule
Section 6(2) cuts negligence, nuisance and breach of statutory duty claims to three years. That covers most car accidents, injuries at work and claims against professionals for careless work. Where someone suffered bodily injury but only learned of it later, the three years run from the day they found out.
For injury and death claims, section 6(3) gives the court a discretion to disapply the limit altogether. It weighs the reasons for the delay, how long the claimant was unable to act, their efforts to collect evidence and how the defendant responded, and what the delay has done to the evidence. The discretion ends two years after the limitation period expired. Our guides to car accident compensation and medical negligence claims cover how these rules play out in practice.
There is a temporary wrinkle as well. Section 27A, added by Law 58(I)/2021 and extended twice, suspended the limitation period for negligence and breach of statutory duty claims for 39 months from the 2021 amendment, which was published on 20 April 2021. That suspension has now run out, but it can still add time to negligence claims whose clock was running between 2021 and mid-2024, so work out the dates carefully before assuming an old claim is dead.
When the clock does not start, pauses or restarts
The Law has three separate mechanisms, and the difference matters.
Under section 12, some relationships keep the clock from starting at all. It does not run between spouses during the marriage, between parents and children while the child is a minor, between cohabiting partners while they live together, and between trustees or executors and beneficiaries who are minors.
Section 13 pauses the clock if, in the last six months of the period, force majeure or the defendant's own conduct prevented you from suing. It also pauses on the claimant's death until three months after an executor or administrator is appointed, and while a mediation is under way. Once the reason for suspension ends, the period cannot expire for at least six months (section 15).
Section 17 goes further and resets the clock to zero. That happens when the other side acknowledges your claim in writing, when you file a claim or start an arbitration, and, for money debts, when the debtor makes a part payment. The part payment rule is narrower than many people assume: the payment must exceed 50% of the total debt, interest included. A token €50 on a €10,000 debt does not restart anything, while a signed acknowledgement does.
Time also stops counting while the claimant is a minor or unable to manage their affairs through mental or physical illness and has no representative (section 16). Fraud, deliberate concealment and claims for relief from a mistake work differently: time only starts when the claimant discovered, or with reasonable diligence could have discovered, the fraud, concealment or mistake (section 14).
The court can extend the period by two years
Section 22 lets the court extend any limitation period under the Law by up to two years if it considers that fair and reasonable in the circumstances. You apply by originating summons before filing the claim, or by interim application once the defendant has pleaded limitation.
It is a safety net with no guarantee attached, and asking for it means explaining the delay to a judge. Do not plan a case around it.
Limitation has to be raised by the defendant
Section 20 says the court will not consider limitation on its own initiative. The defendant has to plead it in the defence (section 21). A time-barred claim that the defendant fails to challenge can therefore succeed. The reverse also holds: a debtor who pays a time-barred debt without realising it was time-barred cannot claw the money back (section 19).
Under the Civil Procedure Rules in force since 1 September 2023, many claims need a pre-action letter before you file. An imminent limitation deadline is an accepted reason to issue first and comply with the protocol afterwards, which our guide to debt collection in Cyprus explains.
Claims with their own deadlines
Law 66(I)/2012 does not override some special time limits written into other laws, as section 24 lists:
- claims under the Defective Products (Civil Liability) Law;
- the special time limits in section 58 of the Civil Wrongs Law, Cap. 148;
- section 34 of the Administration of Estates Law, Cap. 189;
- the Sale of Land (Specific Performance) Law, which matters for buyers who deposited their contract at the Land Registry;
- section 15 of the law on property relations between spouses, which governs claims for a share of matrimonial property.
The Law also does not apply to public-law rights (section 25). Challenging a decision of a ministry or other public body is a separate process with a much shorter deadline, 75 days under Article 146 of the Constitution, and employment claims have their own rules in the Labour Disputes Court.
Section 23 suspends limitation for causes of action linked to property in the areas not under the effective control of the Republic, for property managed by the guardian of Turkish Cypriot properties, and for claims by or against missing persons. Anyone with a claim touching those categories needs specific advice, since the suspension depends on facts that can be hard to establish.
Working out your own deadline
- 1Identify the claim type. A builder's defective work can be pleaded in contract (six years) and in negligence (three), and the shorter period may be the only one left.
- 2Fix the date the cause of action was complete: the breach, the due date, the injury, or the date of death for inheritance claims.
- 3Check for anything that suspended or interrupted time: a written acknowledgement, a payment over 50%, mediation, minority.
- 4Count back from the deadline, not forward from today. Getting records, an expert report or a pre-action response can take months.
If your claim falls in the last year of its period, treat it as urgent. Filing the claim interrupts the clock, and a lawyer can issue proceedings quickly if needed. Our guide to suing a developer shows how these deadlines apply to property disputes.
Worried a time limit is running on your claim? Browse litigation and dispute lawyers in our directory and get your dates checked by a qualified Cyprus advocate. The periods here reflect Law 66(I)/2012 as consolidated on CyLaw in October 2026; this is general information, not advice on a particular claim.