Nevada does not give creditors one deadline. It gives them several, and which one applies to your unpaid invoices depends on paperwork most credit departments never look at twice. A signed agreement buys you six years. An open account for goods sold and delivered gets four. A contract for the sale of goods sits under the Uniform Commercial Code, which is also four, and your own terms may have quietly cut that down further.
If you are owed money by a Las Vegas company, or by any Nevada business, the practical question is not what the law says in general. It is which clock started, when it started, and how much of it is left. Here is how that works, with the statutes so you can check the language yourself.
- Nevada gives six years on a contract founded on a written instrument and four years on an open account or an unwritten agreement, under NRS 11.190.
- If you sold goods, the UCC deadline in NRS 104.2725 is four years, and the parties may agree to shorten it to as little as one year but cannot lengthen it.
- The clock runs from the last transaction, last item charged or last credit given, and a payment made after the debt came due restarts it from that payment.
- Since a 2023 amendment to NRS 11.200, a payment or acknowledgment made after the period has already expired does not revive it. In Nevada an expired claim stays expired.
- Want a late charge or interest on past due invoices? Put it in your signed credit application or contract, whether your terms are due upon receipt or net 30.
- If you have a signed agreement that allows for collection costs or collection agency fees, those charges may be included in the amount sought during collection. If legal action becomes necessary, recoverable fees and costs are determined under applicable Nevada law and are ultimately subject to the court.
How long is the statute of limitations on business debt in Nevada?
Nevada allows six years to sue on a contract, obligation or liability founded upon an instrument in writing, and four years on an open account for goods sold and delivered or on a contract not founded on a written instrument. Those periods are set out in NRS 11.190, subsections 1(b), 2(a) and 2(c).
The statute is short and worth reading in the original. NRS 11.190(1)(b) gives six years for “an action upon a contract, obligation or liability founded upon an instrument in writing.” NRS 11.190(2)(a) gives four years for “an action on an open account for goods, wares and merchandise sold and delivered,” and 11.190(2)(c) gives four years for “an action upon a contract, obligation or liability not founded upon an instrument in writing.”
Three years also appears in the chapter, at NRS 11.190(3)(a), for a liability created by statute. That one catches creditors out when the claim is not really a contract claim at all.
| Type of Nevada commercial claim | Period | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Contract founded on a written instrument | 6 years | NRS 11.190(1)(b) |
| Open account for goods, wares and merchandise sold and delivered | 4 years | NRS 11.190(2)(a) |
| Contract not founded on a written instrument | 4 years | NRS 11.190(2)(c) |
| Breach of a contract for the sale of goods (UCC) | 4 years, reducible by agreement to not less than 1 | NRS 104.2725(1) |
| Liability created by statute | 3 years | NRS 11.190(3)(a) |
Which deadline applies if you sold goods on a signed contract?
Probably four years, not six. NRS 104.2725 is Nevada’s version of UCC section 2-725 and it governs breach of a contract for sale. It states that an action must be commenced within four years after the cause of action accrued, and that the parties may reduce the period to not less than one year but may not extend it.
This is the trap that costs distributors and manufacturers the most money, and it has nothing to do with how carefully the account was documented. A supplier with a signed contract assumes the six year written rule protects them. If what they sold was goods, the UCC rule is the one that applies, and four years is what they actually have.
Then it gets sharper. NRS 104.2725(1) lets the parties shorten that period by agreement. Terms and conditions on the back of a credit application, a purchase order or a master supply agreement can contain a clause limiting claims to one year. Whoever drafted it usually meant it to run against the buyer. It runs against you too.
The practical step is not complicated. Pull your standard terms, find any clause that limits the time to bring a claim, and have counsel tell you what period you are actually working with. Doing that once for your whole customer base is cheaper than discovering it on a single large account.
When does the Nevada clock actually start running?
Under NRS 11.200(1), the time in NRS 11.190 dates from the last transaction, the last item charged or the last credit given. If the debtor makes a payment on principal or interest after the debt became due, the limitation starts over from the date of that last payment.
Most creditors assume the clock starts on the invoice date. On a single one off sale it often does. On a running account it usually does not, and the difference can be a year or more.
NRS 11.200(1) ties the start to the last activity on the account rather than to any individual invoice. On a mutual, open and current account where both sides have demands against each other, NRS 11.210 goes further and dates the accrual from the last item proved in the account on either side. For a supplier who has been shipping to the same Nevada customer for years, with credits and returns mixed in, the live date is the one the ledger shows, not the one on the oldest unpaid invoice.
That cuts both ways. It means a long running account may have more time than the aging report suggests. It also means a customer who stops ordering entirely has started a clock that nothing else will reset.
Can a partial payment restart the statute of limitations in Nevada?
Only while the period is still running. A payment made after the debt came due restarts the clock under NRS 11.200(1). Once the period has expired, NRS 11.200(2) says that a payment, an affirmation of the debt or other activity by the debtor does not revive the limitation.
This is the part of Nevada law worth writing down, because the two halves of NRS 11.200 point in opposite directions and it is easy to remember only one of them.
While the clock is live, a partial payment is powerful. A customer who sends anything toward an aging balance resets the period from the date of that payment. Getting a small payment out of a slow account is good collection practice anyway, and in Nevada it also buys time on the legal claim.
Once the clock has run out, that lever is gone. The 2023 amendment to NRS 11.200 added subsection 2, which states that notwithstanding any other provision of law, any payment on a debt, affirmation of a debt or other activity taken relating to a debt by a debtor after the time in NRS 11.190 has expired does not revive the applicable limitation.
So the strategy of chasing a token payment to resurrect a very old Nevada account does not work, and it is not a good use of anyone’s time. The conclusion for a credit manager is simple. Act while the period is alive, because in Nevada there is no second chance at it once it closes.
What interest can you add to an unpaid Nevada invoice?
Whatever your signed terms allow, so put it in writing. Whether your invoices are due upon receipt or on terms like net 30, any late charge or interest rate you want to apply belongs in a signed credit application or contract.
Once a claim moves toward court, Nevada’s statutory rate comes into play where no contract sets one: NRS 99.040 ties it to the prime rate at the largest bank in Nevada plus 2 percent, and it adjusts each January 1 and July 1, so check the current figure rather than assuming last year’s applies.
The more useful point is upstream of the statute. A written contract or a signed credit application that sets a service charge gives you a stronger and clearer position than relying on the statute. If your credit application does not address interest or collection costs, that is a document worth revising before the next account goes bad. We keep templates and checklists for exactly this in our free credit and collections resources.
What should you do when a Las Vegas account is aging?
Date the account from the last activity rather than the oldest invoice, work out which period applies to what you sold, and escalate well before the deadline. A claim placed with months to spare has real leverage. A claim placed with weeks left is a much harder file.
Three things move a Nevada file in the right direction.
Fix the date first. Before anything else, find the last transaction, last charge, last credit and last payment on the account. That date, not the invoice date, is where you start counting. Do it for every Nevada customer in your aging, not just the one that prompted the question.
Know what you sold. Goods point toward the four year UCC rule in NRS 104.2725. Services on a signed agreement point toward the six year rule. Mixed contracts need a closer look, and that look is worth taking before the shorter period would have run.
Escalate early. Waiting is the most expensive thing a creditor does. The longer an account ages, the more likely the debtor has moved assets, changed entities or taken on other creditors. Nevada also requires a license from the Commissioner to do collection agency business in the state under NRS 649.075, so confirm that whoever you place with is licensed to work your claim.
If you are weighing whether an account is worth pursuing, that is a conversation worth having early rather than late. Our commercial debt collection services are contingency based, so the review costs nothing and you find out where the account stands. We covered the same ground for Arizona in our guide to how long Phoenix businesses have to collect a debt, and you can compare periods across the country on our statute of limitations by state page.
Owed money by a Nevada company?
Send Sven the aging report and the last activity dates. Commercial (B2B) claims only, worked on contingency, so there is no fee unless we collect. You will get a straight read on which accounts still have time and which ones need to move now.
Prefer the phone? 866-341-6316. Or schedule a free consultation online.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Nevada statute of limitations erase the debt?
No. It limits the time to bring a lawsuit on the claim. The obligation itself does not disappear, and a debtor may still choose to pay. What changes is your ability to enforce it in court, which is usually the leverage that matters in a commercial file.
Our customer signed a credit application. Is that a written instrument?
It depends on what the document contains and what was sold. A signed credit application with clear terms is a much stronger position than an unsigned account, but if the underlying transaction was a sale of goods, NRS 104.2725 may still set the period at four years. Have counsel review the actual documents rather than assuming the six year rule applies.
The debtor promised to pay an old Nevada balance. Does that reset anything?
If the period has already expired, no. NRS 11.200(2) states that a payment, an affirmation of a debt or other activity by a debtor after the time in NRS 11.190 has run does not revive the limitation. If the period is still open, a payment made after the debt came due does restart it under NRS 11.200(1).
Which date should we use on a long running account?
The last activity date. NRS 11.200(1) ties the period to the last transaction, last item charged or last credit given, and NRS 11.210 dates a mutual, open and current account from the last item proved on either side. Pull the full ledger rather than the oldest open invoice.
Do you handle consumer accounts in Nevada?
No. We work commercial claims only, meaning business to business debts where one company owes another. Consumer collections are a different regulatory world and are not what we do.
Sources: Nevada Revised Statutes 11.190, 11.200 and 11.210, 104.2725, 99.040 and 649.075 on leg.state.nv.us, reviewed September 2026. Laws vary by state and change over time, and the facts of each account matter. This article is general information from a commercial collections professional, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for advice from a Nevada attorney. Written by Sven Nelson, The Guy That Gets You Paid, working with C2C Resources.