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Section 7: Extinction of obligations by prescriptive periods of twenty years.

Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 · 1973 c. 52View on legislation.gov.uk

Part I: Prescription

An obligation to which this section applies is extinguished on the expiry of the continuous period of 20 years after the date on which the obligation became enforceable.

This section applies to an obligation of any kind (including an obligation to which section 6 of this Act applies), not being an obligation to which section 22A of this Act applies or an obligation specified in Schedule 3 to this Act as an imprescriptible obligation or an obligation to make reparation in respect of personal injuries within the meaning of Part II of this Act or in respect of the death of any person as a result of such injuries or any obligation to pay damages arising from liability under section 148 or section 149 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (see section 18ZD of this Act).

Subsection (4) applies if—

a relevant claim is made in relation to an obligation to which this section applies,
the claim is made before the time at which the prescriptive period mentioned in subsection (1) would, but for subsection (4), expire, and
at that time—
the claim has not been finally disposed of, and
the proceedings in which the claim is made have not otherwise come to an end.

The prescriptive period is extended so that it expires—

when the claim is finally disposed of, or
when the proceedings in which the claim is made come to an end (where the proceedings come to an end without the claim having been finally disposed of).

In subsections (3) and (4), the references to proceedings in which a relevant claim is made include references to any other process in or by which a relevant claim is made.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.