Expiration
Tags: 20 jaar, 20 years, 5 jaar, 5 years, absolute limitation period, absolute verjaringstermijn, absoluut, korte, lange, limitation period, relatief, relatieve verjaringstermijn, relative limitation period, short, verjaring, verjaringstermijn.
Prescription means that after a certain period of time, the claim is no longer legally enforceable. The statute of limitation has been created to serve legal certainty. The idea behind this is that it should not be the case that a creditor does not take action for years, and then appears after a long time with a claim against the debtor.
Relative and Absolute Limitation Period
Dutch law has two limitation periods, the relative and the absolute limitation period. The relative limitation period is 5 years and commences at the time of claim ability, or in the case of claims for damages when one party has suffered damage and the liable person has been appointed as such. This period therefore partly depends on subjective characteristics.
That is why Dutch law also has an absolute limitation period. The absolute limitation period is 20 years. This period starts to run when the damage-causing event has happened. This does not depend on any subjective characteristic, but only on an objective characteristic.
A claim is time-barred if one of these limitation periods has expired.
To Lexicon summary