Builder dispute time limits: how long do I have to claim?

Every claim about building work has a deadline, called a limitation period, set by the Limitation Act 1980. If a claim is started after the period has expired, the builder can rely on that as a defence. This guide explains which period applies to which kind of claim, and when each starts to run.

The periods at a glance

Contract: six years, or twelve under a deed

Most claims against a builder are contract claims. Section 5 of the 1980 Act says a claim founded on a simple contract cannot be brought more than six years after the date on which the cause of action accrued. That includes a claim for breach of the terms the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats as included in the contract, described in your rights when a builder does poor work.

Section 8 gives twelve years where the contract is a deed. Under section 1 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989, a deed must make clear on its face that it is intended to be a deed, and an individual's signature must be witnessed.

When time starts for defective work

In contract, the cause of action accrues when the contract is broken. It does not wait for the damage to appear or for the customer to find out. For defective building work, the breach is usually treated as happening when the work was completed and handed over, often called practical completion. The six years can therefore expire before a hidden defect comes to light.

Negligence and latent damage

Negligence is a separate claim that does not depend on a contract. Section 2 gives six years from the date the cause of action accrued, which in negligence is generally when damage is suffered. Section 14A adds an alternative for latent (hidden) damage: three years from the earliest date on which the claimant had both the knowledge needed to bring a claim and the right to bring it, if that ends later. Knowledge includes what the claimant could reasonably have found out, including with expert advice. Section 14B imposes a longstop: no such claim can be brought more than fifteen years after the negligent act or omission, whether or not the damage has been discovered.

Two limits matter.

• Section 14A applies only to claims in negligence. The courts have held that it does not extend the time for a claim framed in contract (Booker v RT Financial Services UK Ltd [2016] EWHC 3186 (Ch)).
• Negligence law restricts claims for pure economic loss, meaning financial loss that does not flow from personal injury or from damage to other property. The cost of repairing a defect in the building itself is treated as pure economic loss. In Murphy v Brentwood District Council [1991] 1 AC 398, the House of Lords held that a council which had approved plans for defective foundations owed the homeowner no duty of care in respect of his economic loss.

In Robinson v PE Jones (Contractors) Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 9, a defect in a house emerged about twelve and a half years after completion. The buyer's contract claims were out of time. The Court of Appeal held that unless a builder has assumed responsibility to the client in the way a professional adviser typically does, the builder's duty in negligence is limited to taking reasonable care to protect the client against personal injury or damage to other property, so the negligence claim failed too. This is why the contract claim is usually the main route.

The Defective Premises Act 1972

• Section 1 applies to a person taking on work for or in connection with the provision of a dwelling, whether by building it or by converting or enlarging a building. The duty is to see that the work is done in a workmanlike or professional manner, with proper materials, so that the dwelling will be fit for habitation when completed.
• Section 2A, inserted by section 134 of the Building Safety Act 2022, imposes a similar duty on a person who, in the course of a business, takes on work on any part of a building containing a dwelling. That brings in work on an existing home. It applies only to work completed after the section came into force on 28 June 2022.

The time limits are in section 4B of the Limitation Act 1980, inserted by section 135 of the 2022 Act:

1. A claim under section 1 or section 2A must be brought within 15 years of the date on which the right of action accrued.
2. For a section 1 claim where the right of action accrued before 28 June 2022, the period is 30 years. The change is retrospective, subject to safeguards in section 135 for the defendant's human rights and for claims already settled or decided.
3. Under sections 1(5) and 2A(8) of the 1972 Act, the right of action accrues when the dwelling (section 1) or the work (section 2A) was completed. A claim about later work done to rectify the original work accrues when that later work was finished.
4. The date-of-knowledge rule in section 14A does not apply to these claims. Section 32 does.

The duty is tied to fitness for habitation, which the Act does not define. The courts have required a claimant to show that the work left the dwelling unfit for habitation; poor workmanship alone is not enough.

Deliberate concealment

Under section 32 of the 1980 Act, where any fact relevant to the claimant's right of action has been deliberately concealed by the defendant, the limitation period does not begin to run until the claimant has discovered the concealment or could with reasonable diligence have discovered it. Section 32(2) adds that deliberately committing a breach of duty in circumstances where it is unlikely to be discovered for some time amounts to deliberate concealment of the facts involved in that breach.

What does not stop the clock

Time stops running when the claim is brought. Proceedings start when the court issues the claim form (rule 7.2 of the Civil Procedure Rules). Where the court office received the claim form on an earlier date, the claim is treated as brought on that earlier date (Practice Direction 7A, paragraph 6.1). Complaint letters and negotiations do not pause time. Paragraph 17 of the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct says that it and the pre-action protocols do not alter the statutory time limits. See resolving a builder dispute.

There are two exceptions.

• A standstill agreement. The parties can agree that time is suspended. Both sides must agree.
• Section 33B of the 1980 Act, as amended in April 2026. It applies where alternative dispute resolution of a consumer contract dispute, by a provider that meets the requirements of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, starts before the time limit expires. A limit that would otherwise expire before that process ends, or less than eight weeks after it ends, expires instead eight weeks after it ends. Whether a scheme qualifies depends on the provider's status under that Act.

What a solicitor will want from you

• The contract, quote or order, and whether it was signed as a deed.
• The date the work was completed or handed over, and the dates of any later remedial visits.
• When and how each defect was first noticed, and any report on its cause. See evidence in a builder dispute.
• Anything suggesting the builder knew of a defect and covered it up.
• The dates of any referral to a dispute resolution scheme, and any standstill agreement.

Run the free case check

This guide is general information about the law of England and Wales. It is not legal advice. Which time limit applies, and the date it started to run, depend on the facts of each case, and a claim started after the period has expired can be defeated on that ground alone.