Have a debt does not mean that this lasts forever, some they can disappear as long as he creditor does not exercise his right to demand compliance. Here is the small crux of the matter.
The raison d’être of the legal concept of debt prescription, which is regulated in the civil code, is due to two reasons: First of all, sanction the creditor’s negligent conduct by dispensing with their right to demand compliance with the debt. Y Secondly, for legal certainty: a debt cannot remain unlimited in time, because it would go against the basic principle of legal certainty.
Some debts are subject to a term determined, from which they can no longer be claimed. However, it must be clear that the prescription is the extinction of the obligation to pay the debts. It is important to know that the prescription of the debt is not automatic. For the debt to be prescribed, it must go to court with documents that prove that the payment date has passed and request the prescription of the debt.
What is needed for a debt to prescribe
1. The creditor has not initiated during a certain period of time any judicial or extrajudicial action to get the debtor to pay him.
2. The debtor has not recognized at any time that it has an outstanding debt. And if at any time the creditor makes a claim, the prescription will be interrupted and the counter will reset to zero.
How debts prescribe
In Spanish law there is the prescription of debts. That is the creditor has a certain term to claim the debtor debt payment. Depending on the type of debt, the statute of limitations will be different. After that period, the debt will no longer be claimable.
The prescription exists, as we mentioned, due to the fact that there is a certain term to request a right, require conduct or, where appropriate, impose a penalty or sanction. Depending on the type of debt, the time to prescribe is shorter or longer. The Law 42/2015, of October 5, modified article 1964 of the Civil Code related to the prescription of debts reducing the term for filing personal actions from 15 years to 5 years.
This shortening of the term supposes a certain advantage for the debtor It is the creditor who has to notify and interrupt the prescription through payment requirements to the debtor within that period in those five years and not 15.
just make one extrajudicial collection claim or with any action (burofax or certified letter, for example) demanding payment of the debt so that the term mentioned above was interrupted and recomputed from the beginning in five years What is the Civil Code?
Limitation periods according to the type of debts
However, depending on the type of debt, the statute of limitations will be different.
• 20 years: for mortgage debt.
• 15 years: for credit card debts, commercial operations (with suppliers).
• 5 years: to demand payment of alimony, rent.
• 4 years: to claim payment of tax and Social Security debts.
• 3 years: to pay judges, lawyers, registrars, notaries, experts, teachers, servants and laborers, lodging, medicines to pharmacists and consumer debts to merchants. Also to claim promissory notes (6 months for checks).
• 1 year: to demand non-contractual liability, that is, the obligations derived from fault or negligence since the aggrieved party knew about it.
How Catalonia debts prescribe
Debts in Catalonia prescribe at a different time because they have a specific prescription regime in accordance with its Civil Code. The civil law of Catalonia has territorial effectiveness, it is the one in force in Catalan territory and constitutes the common law of Catalonia;
The statute of limitations on these debts would be 10 years in Catalonia. Art. 121.20, while, by the Civil Code they have established a limitation period of five years (Art. 1964 of the Civil Code).
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