Texas law gives someone a certain amount of time to bring a lawsuit for an unpaid debt. This time period is often commonly referred to as the statute of limitations.
Once the time period set out by the statute of limitations is up, a person is prohibited from filing suit to recover the debt. This means the debt is time-barred.
In the past, taking certain actions such as making a paymentor verbally acknowledging that you owe thedebt could restart the clock on the limitations period. This created a problem called zombie debt where the time period set out by the statute of limitations could be constantly restarted.
Anew state law introduced in 2019 aims to protect people from zombie debt. This law prevents debt buyers from suing to try to collect the debt even if a payment is made on the debt after the statute of limitations has expired.It also requires debt buyers to provide written notice if they are taking action past the limitations period. Debt buyers are defined by Section 392.307 of the Texas Finance Code as a person who purchases a consumer’s debt from a creditor. Please see the statute for a full definition.
You still owe time-barreddebts, but creditors and debt buyers losetheir most powerful way of collecting — a lawsuit.
