Owed Money Since 2020? Hong Kong's Six-Year Clock, and What Restarts It

How long do you have to sue for a debt in Hong Kong?

Six years for most debts. A limitation period is the time the law allows for bringing a claim; once it has run, the defendant can rely on it to defeat the claim, however strong the evidence. Section 4(1)(a) of the Limitation Ordinance (Cap. 347) says that actions founded on simple contract or on tort shall not be brought after the expiration of 6 years from the date on which the cause of action accrued.

A simple contract is any contract not made by deed: a written agreement, an emailed quotation that was accepted, a loan between friends agreed in messages, an unpaid invoice. A specialty is an obligation in a deed executed under seal, and section 4(3) gives it 12 years. The other periods below matter if your claim is not, in fact, a plain debt.

When does the six-year clock start, and what stops it?

It starts when the cause of action accrued: the moment you could first have sued. For an unpaid invoice that is normally the day payment fell due, not the day you noticed it was late and not the day you last chased it. For a fixed-term loan it is normally the repayment date in the agreement. If you cannot name the date, find the document that fixes it before doing anything else.

Only one thing on your side stops the clock: bringing the action, which section 2 defines to include any proceeding in a court of law. In practice that means filing a claim. A demand letter, a reminder, a phone call or a complaint to the debtor's employer does nothing to the limitation period, because none of them is a proceeding and none of them is something the debtor did.

That is why debts that fell due in 2020 matter this autumn. An invoice due on 1 December 2020 reaches six years at the start of December 2026. An invoice due on 1 March 2020 passed that point in March 2026, and is barred unless something set the clock running again.

What restarts the clock on an old debt?

Section 23(3) applies where a right of action has accrued to recover any debt or other liquidated pecuniary claim, a fixed sum rather than damages for a court to assess. If the person liable acknowledges the claim or makes any payment in respect of it, the right is deemed to have accrued on the date of that acknowledgment or last payment, and not before. The six years start again.

The two routes have different formalities. Section 24(1) says every acknowledgment shall be in writing and signed by the person making it. A payment needs no writing at all. Section 24(2) adds that either may be made by an agent, and must be made to the creditor or the creditor's agent. The proviso to section 23(3) settles a detail people argue about: a payment of interest counts as a payment in respect of the principal debt.

Does a WhatsApp message count as a signed acknowledgment?

It can, but nothing makes it automatic. The question is whether the message satisfies section 24(1)'s two requirements, writing and signature, and the Electronic Transactions Ordinance (Cap. 553) answers each one separately.

Writing. Section 5(1) of Cap. 553 says that where a rule of law requires information to be in writing, an electronic record satisfies the requirement if the information is accessible so as to be usable for subsequent reference. A saved chat or email that you can still open and export is capable of meeting that.

Signature. Section 6(1) is stricter. Where a rule of law requires a person's signature and no government entity is involved, an electronic signature satisfies it only if three things hold: the signer used a method to identify himself and to indicate approval of the content; the method is reliable and appropriate for the purpose, having regard to all the relevant circumstances; and the recipient consented to that method. Section 2 defines an electronic signature as letters, characters, numbers or other symbols in digital form attached to or logically associated with an electronic record and adopted to authenticate or approve it.

Acknowledgments of debt are not among the matters Schedule 1 excludes from these sections; the exclusions cover wills, trusts, powers of attorney, deeds affecting land, oaths, affidavits and similar instruments. So an electronic acknowledgment is not ruled out. Whether a given message, such as an unsigned line from a number you have saved under the debtor's name, meets the three conditions in section 6(1) is a question of fact that a court decides, and one on which you should take advice before relying on it.

The safer course is obvious once the statute is in front of you: if the debtor admits the debt in a chat, reply and ask them to confirm it in a document they sign, or to pay something. A payment of any amount restarts the clock without any question of signature.

Can a debt that is already six years old be revived?

Hong Kong's Ordinance does not say it cannot, and that is a real difference from England. Section 29(7) of the Limitation Act 1980 in England and Wales provides that a right of action, once barred, shall not be revived by any subsequent acknowledgment or payment. Cap. 347 was modelled on the earlier English Act of 1939 (its sections carry the note "cf. 1939 c. 21"), and it contains no equivalent sentence.

Cap. 347 also deals expressly with the late case. The provisos to section 25(5) and section 25(6) set out whom an acknowledgment or payment binds when it is made after the expiration of the period of limitation, which assumes such an acknowledgment or payment can still have effect.

That is as far as the statute goes. How a court treats a particular late acknowledgment, and whether the debtor can argue it was not an acknowledgment of the claim at all, are questions for advice on your facts. What follows practically is narrower: if a debt is past six years and the debtor offers to pay something, the offer is worth taking in writing rather than refusing out of frustration.

Who does an acknowledgment bind: the debtor, a guarantor, a partner?

Not everyone in the same way. Section 25(5) says an acknowledgment of a debt binds the person who made it and that person's successors, but not any other person. Section 25(6) says a payment binds all persons liable for the debt. The proviso narrows that for late payments: one made after the limitation period has expired binds only the person who paid and their successors.

Where two people owe the same debt, or a guarantor stands behind a borrower, that difference decides whose clock you have restarted. Section 25(8) defines successors to include personal representatives and anyone on whom the liability devolves, whether on death, bankruptcy or otherwise.

When the clock starts later: fraud, concealment and disability

Two provisions move the starting point rather than restarting it. Under section 26(1), where the action is based on the defendant's fraud, or a fact relevant to your claim was deliberately concealed by the defendant, or the action is for relief from the consequences of a mistake, the period does not begin to run until you discovered it or could with reasonable diligence have discovered it. Section 26(3) treats a deliberate breach of duty, in circumstances where it is unlikely to be discovered for some time, as deliberate concealment.

Under section 22, if the person to whom the right accrued was under a disability on that date, the action may be brought within 6 years from when the disability ended or the person died, whichever came first, even though the ordinary period has expired.

It is year five. What should you do this month?

Decide, rather than drift. A debt approaching its sixth anniversary has three possible outcomes: the debtor restarts the clock, you file, or it lapses. Only the first two are in your control, and only one of those depends on you alone.

Common questions

How long do I have to sue for a debt in Hong Kong? Six years from the date the cause of action accrued for a debt under an ordinary contract, under section 4(1)(a) of the Limitation Ordinance (Cap. 347), and 12 years for a debt under a deed, under section 4(3). For an unpaid invoice the clock normally starts on the date payment fell due. Reminders and demand letters do not extend it; filing a claim stops it.

Does a part payment restart the limitation period in Hong Kong? Yes. Section 23(3) of Cap. 347 provides that where the person liable for a debt makes any payment in respect of it, the right of action is deemed to accrue on the date of the last payment, so a fresh six years begins. A payment needs no writing, and a payment of interest counts as a payment towards the principal.

Does a WhatsApp message count as an acknowledgment of debt? It can, but it is not automatic. Section 24(1) of Cap. 347 requires an acknowledgment to be in writing and signed. Under the Electronic Transactions Ordinance (Cap. 553) an electronic record can satisfy the writing requirement, but an electronic signature satisfies a signature requirement only if the method identifies the signer, is reliable and appropriate, and the recipient consented to it. Ask the debtor to sign a confirmation or make a payment instead of relying on a chat.