Oregon Statute of Limitations on Business Debt: What Creditors Owed by a Portland Company Need to Know

A creditor owed by an Oregon company usually has six years to sue on a contract or an open account, four years on a sale of goods, and ten years to enforce a judgment. Those periods come from the Oregon Revised Statutes, and the one most trade creditors live under, the six years on an account, is measured from the last charge or the last payment proved in the account, with one Oregon twist: a finance charge does not count as a charge.

Six years sounds like plenty of time, and compared with Utah or Colorado it is. It is also the reason Oregon accounts get placed late, which is the worst thing that can happen to a receivable. Below is what the statutes actually say, where the clock starts, what moves it, what happens when the customer or the contract points at another state, and what to do with a Portland account that has gone quiet. Laws vary by state and this is general information, not legal advice.

Key takeaways

• Oregon gives six years to an action upon a contract or liability, express or implied, under ORS 12.080, and does not shorten that for an unwritten agreement or an open account. A judgment can be enforced for ten years under ORS 12.070.
• An action to recover a balance on an account accrues from the last charge or payment proved in the account under ORS 12.090, and that section says interest, financing and carrying charges are not such a charge. A monthly service charge does not keep the account alive.
• A contract for the sale of goods gets four years under ORS 72.7250, and the original agreement can cut that to as little as one year. Read your own terms and your customer's before you assume you have time.
• If the claim is substantively based on another state's law, ORS 12.430 applies that state's limitation period in an Oregon court, which means a governing law clause can import a shorter clock or a longer one.
• 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 Oregon law and are ultimately subject to the court.

How long do you have to sue on a business debt in Oregon?

Direct answer

Six years on a contract or liability, express or implied, which covers a signed agreement, an oral one and an open account, under ORS 12.080. Four years on a contract for the sale of goods under ORS 72.7250. Ten years on a judgment under ORS 12.070. Oregon does not give unwritten contracts a shorter period than written ones.

Start with ORS 12.080, because that is where almost every commercial account lands. It says an action upon a contract or liability, express or implied, shall be commenced within six years, with a short list of exceptions, and the one that matters to a trade creditor is the sale of goods rule in ORS 72.7250. A service contract, a signed credit application, a subcontract, a lease of equipment, a consulting engagement that was never reduced to writing: six years, all of them. Washington treats an account receivable the same way, and the two states together make the Pacific Northwest the most forgiving corner of the West on this question.

That is unusual. Utah gives an open account four years. Colorado argues over three versus six. Nevada splits written and oral contracts. Oregon simply does not draw that line for a contract claim, so a creditor who lost the signed credit application in an office move has lost evidence, not time.

A judgment is its own category. ORS 12.070 gives ten years to an action upon a judgment or decree of any court of the United States or of any state. A creditor who wins is on a much longer clock than a creditor who is still deciding whether to act, which is one more reason the deciding should not take years.

When does the clock start on an Oregon open account?

Direct answer

Under ORS 12.090, in an action to recover a balance due upon an account, the cause of action accrues from the time of the last charge or payment proved in the account. Interest, financing and carrying charges are not such a charge. The six years run from the last real sale or the last real payment, not from each invoice.

This is the Oregon detail I would want every credit manager in the Portland metro to understand, because it is written against a habit most receivables departments have. Many systems add a finance charge to a past due balance every month. The statement keeps changing, the balance keeps growing, and it feels like the account is still active. Under ORS 12.090 it is not. The legislature named interest, financing and carrying charges and said they do not count. The account accrued on the day of the last charge for goods or services, or the day of the last payment, whichever was later, and the six years have been running since.

The flip side is helpful. An account that keeps trading keeps resetting. A customer in Hillsboro who orders every quarter and sends something every quarter, even late, is not aging out the way a stack of old invoices suggests, because the last charge or payment proved in the account keeps moving forward. Two habits follow from that. Keep the account history clean enough to prove the date of the last charge and the last payment without reconstructing it from emails, because the statute says proved in the account, and proof is the point. And treat a customer who has gone silent as a customer whose clock has started, not as an account that is merely aging. A credit hold with no new charges fixes the date from which Oregon measures your time, and it is usually the right commercial decision anyway.

Does a sale of goods get six years or four in Oregon?

Direct answer

Four, and possibly less. ORS 72.7250 requires an action for breach of any contract for sale to be commenced within four years after it accrued, and the original agreement may reduce that to not less than one year but may not extend it. The cause of action accrues at the breach, whether or not the creditor knew of it.

Oregon's version of the Uniform Commercial Code governs contracts for the sale of goods, which covers most of the distributors, manufacturers, nurseries, food processors and wood products suppliers reading this. ORS 12.080 defers to it by name. Three things in the section deserve attention. The period is four years, not six. The parties may shorten it in the original agreement, down to one year, and a customer's purchase order terms or master supply agreement can do exactly that if you signed them. And the clock starts at breach whether or not you knew about it, so a nonpayment that nobody noticed for a year still used up a year.

Compare that with Colorado, where the sale of goods section points at the general contract period and says it may not be varied by agreement, and with Washington and Utah, where a seller's own terms can cut the period to one year. Oregon sits with Washington and Utah: the agreement controls. The practical consequence for a goods seller is that the six years in ORS 12.080 is not your number. Four is, and if you sell into Oregon on the customer's forms, read the limitations clause before you decide how long you can wait.

Does a payment or a promise to pay restart the clock in Oregon?

Direct answer

A payment can. ORS 12.240 says that when a payment of principal or interest is made after it has become due on an existing contract, the limitation runs from the last payment. A promise or acknowledgment only counts if it is in a writing signed by the debtor under ORS 12.230. A phone call promising a check changes nothing.

Two sections do the work here and they pull in the same direction. ORS 12.230 says no acknowledgment or promise is sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract, so as to take the case out of the statute, unless it is contained in some writing signed by the party to be charged. The controller's email confirming the balance and committing to a payment schedule is worth getting for more than one reason, and the voicemail saying the check is coming Friday is worth nothing on this question. The same section adds that it does not alter the effect of any payment, and ORS 12.240 then says what that effect is: a payment of principal or interest made after the obligation is due, on an existing contract, starts the limitation from the time of the last payment.

For an open account the last payment already sets the accrual date under ORS 12.090, so the two sections agree. What neither section says is whether a payment made after the six years have already run brings a dead claim back. ORS 12.240 is written around an existing contract and a payment after it has become due, not around an expired one, and Washington's statute, which says in so many words that nothing revives an expired claim, is the neighbor to keep in mind. The safe reading for a creditor is to treat an expired account as expired, to put the dates in order, and to ask an Oregon attorney before relying on a late payment to resurrect anything. The better practice is to never let an account get close enough to the line for the question to matter.

What if the customer is in another state, or the contract picks another state's law?

Direct answer

Oregon adopted the Uniform Conflict of Laws-Limitations Act. Under ORS 12.430, if a claim is substantively based on the law of one other state, that state's limitation period applies in an Oregon court, and under ORS 12.440 that state's accrual and tolling rules apply too. ORS 12.450 lets a court fall back to Oregon's period if the result is unfair.

This is where Oregon differs from the borrowing statutes in most of its neighbors, and it matters more than it looks. Utah's rule only closes the door: a claim already time barred where it arose cannot be filed in Utah. Oregon's rule picks the period. If your credit agreement with a Portland customer says it is governed by the law of your home state, and the claim is substantively based on that state's law, an Oregon court applies your state's limitation period, shorter or longer, along with your state's rules on when the claim accrued and what tolls it. A three year home state period can arrive in Oregon with the contract, and so can a longer one.

The practical rule is the one I give for every state: find out which period is the shortest among the states that could plausibly apply, and work the account against that one. Oregon also suspends the period while a defendant is out of the state and cannot be served, or is concealed within it, under ORS 12.150, but a company that can be served through its registered agent in Salem is not getting your clock paused by its owner being in Boise. Treat tolling as a question for counsel, not a plan.

Can you take an Oregon business debt to small claims court?

Direct answer

Yes, within limits. Under ORS 46.405 an action for the recovery of money may be brought in the small claims department of the circuit court if the amount claimed does not exceed $10,000, and must be brought there if it does not exceed $750. A company may appear without a lawyer in small claims under ORS 46.415.

Every Oregon circuit court has a small claims department, and the design is deliberately informal: no formal pleadings beyond the claim, a hearing meant to dispense justice promptly and economically, and a rule in ORS 46.415 that a party which is not a natural person may appear without an attorney, which is what makes the court usable for a corporation or an LLC. The claim has to state that you made a good faith effort to collect before filing, so the demand letters you sent are not just leverage, they are a pleading requirement.

Two cautions before you file. The $10,000 figure is a ceiling on the claim, not an invitation to cut a larger balance down to fit, and a creditor who does that is leaving money on the table permanently. And if the customer answers with a counterclaim over $10,000, ORS 46.461 lets the case be moved out of small claims into the regular circuit court, which is a different proceeding with different costs. A customer with a dispute about the goods is a customer who will do exactly that.

For most accounts in the range we handle, from $1,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, the right first step is still a professional collection effort before anyone files anything. A filing is public, it is adversarial, and once a claim moves toward court the interest question gets decided by the contract and by ORS 82.010, which sets a legal rate of nine percent a year on money after it becomes due when the parties have not agreed to a rate, and says an open account bears interest from the date of its last item. An agency effort costs nothing unless it collects, and it keeps the courthouse in reserve.

Does a collection agency need an Oregon license?

Direct answer

Yes. Under ORS 697.015 a person may not operate as a collection agency in Oregon without registering with the Department of Consumer and Business Services under ORS 697.031 and keeping that registration current. ORS 697.045 ties a registered agency's standing to collect, settle and sue on assigned claims to that registration.

Oregon regulates collection agencies through registration rather than a license by name, and the effect is the same. ORS 697.005 defines a collection agency as a person that solicits claims for collection, or collects or attempts to collect claims owed to another person, and ORS 697.015 says nobody may operate as one in the state without registering with the Department of Consumer and Business Services. ORS 697.031 sets the registration procedure, which for an agency based in Oregon includes a $10,000 bond or irrevocable letter of credit, and carries separate procedures for an out-of-state collection agency. ORS 697.045 then gives a registered agency a property right in a claim assigned to it in writing, with the ability to collect it, compromise it and bring an action on it in its own name, and lets the assignor withdraw the claim at any time without charge unless the agreement says otherwise.

For a creditor the lesson is to ask. An agency that cannot show you its Oregon registration is an agency whose demand letters your customer can ignore and whose access to an Oregon courtroom is in question. That is why it is important to use a certified commercial collection agency. Sven works with C2C Resources, which is certified by the Commercial Law League of America, endorsed by the International Association of Commercial Collectors, carries a $500,000 surety bond, and holds collection licenses in the states that require them. Our where we collect page lists the states we work, Oregon included.

What should a creditor do with a Portland account right now?

Direct answer

Fix the date of the last real charge and the last payment, ignoring finance charges, because that is where Oregon measures from. Pull the signed paperwork and read any limitations and governing law clause in it. Put the account on hold so no new charges blur the record. Then place it while most of the six years are still ahead.

Here is the order I would work an Oregon account in. First, establish the dates: the last charge for goods or services, the last payment, and the date of any signed acknowledgment or written promise from the customer. Strip the finance charges out of that history, because ORS 12.090 does. Those dates tell you which period applies and when it started, and they are the first thing an Oregon attorney will ask for if the account ever goes that far.

Second, read the documents, not the system. If the customer signed your credit application, read what it says about interest, collection costs and governing law, because under ORS 12.430 the governing law clause may decide which state's clock you are on. If you sold goods on the customer's purchase order terms, read their limitations clause, because ORS 72.7250 lets the original agreement cut the period to one year. On service charges the rule is simple: if your invoices are due on receipt, Oregon's interest statute applies a legal rate to money after it becomes due when the contract specifies none; if you extended credit terms such as net 30, any service charge or interest has to be in the written credit agreement, and a charge that first appears on a past due statement will be disputed.

Third, decide. Six years is the longest runway in the states we cover, and it is a trap, because an account that is three years old in Portland still looks collectable on paper and the people who made the purchasing decision are long gone. The same creditor pattern in the neighboring states is in the Washington, Utah, Colorado and Nevada guides, and the full statute of limitations by state table is the place to check a customer somewhere else. Oregon construction creditors have a second, much shorter clock to watch, the lien deadline, and that is covered in the construction collections guide.

Book a Call with Sven

Prefer the phone? 866-341-6316. Or schedule a free consultation online. You can see how the process works on our commercial debt collection services page, and the resources page has credit application and collection letter templates for the paperwork side of this.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Oregon statute of limitations different for a business debt than for a consumer debt?

The six year period in ORS 12.080 applies to actions on a contract or liability generally, business or consumer. What differs is the paperwork around a commercial account: a credit application, purchase orders and a history of charges and payments that decide when the account accrued and whether the sale of goods rule applies instead. We handle commercial (B2B) claims only, so this article is written for the creditor side of a business account.

Our Portland customer never signed anything. Do we still get six years in Oregon?

Oregon does not split written and unwritten contracts the way many states do. ORS 12.080 gives six years to an action upon a contract or liability, express or implied, and ORS 12.090 measures an account from the last charge or payment proved in it. The exception is a contract for the sale of goods, which ORS 72.7250 puts at four years. What you lose without a signature is proof, not time, so keep the purchase orders, delivery records and emails.

We add a monthly finance charge to the statement. Does that keep the Oregon account alive?

No. ORS 12.090 says that interest, financing and carrying charges are not a charge that moves the accrual date of an account. The account accrues from the last real charge for goods or services or the last payment proved in it. A statement that grows by a service charge every month is still an account that stopped on the day of the last sale or the last payment.

Can we charge interest on a past due Oregon invoice if our terms never mention it?

It depends on your terms. Oregon sets a legal rate by statute for money after it becomes due when the parties have not agreed to a rate, and says an open account bears interest from the date of its last item, which matters most on invoices that are due on receipt. Where you extended credit terms such as net 30, any service charge or interest belongs in the written credit agreement the customer signed, and a charge that appears for the first time on a past due statement is the first thing a customer disputes.

What size of claim can you help with?

We work commercial claims from $1,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, under 120 days past due, on contingency, so there is no fee unless we collect. Commercial (B2B) collections only. We do not collect consumer debt. That covers accounts owed by companies in Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Salem, Eugene, Bend, Medford and the rest of Oregon. Yes, we collect internationally. Talk to us about your specific account.

Sources: Oregon Revised Statutes, 2025 Edition, as published by the Oregon State Legislature: ORS chapter 12 (12.070, 12.080, 12.090, 12.150, 12.230, 12.240, 12.430, 12.440 and 12.450), ORS chapter 72 (72.7250), ORS chapter 46 (46.405, 46.415 and 46.461), ORS chapter 82 (82.010) and ORS chapter 697 (697.005, 697.015, 697.031 and 697.045), all reviewed October 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 an Oregon attorney. Written by Sven Nelson, The Guy That Gets You Paid.