Price of work done:
how long do you have?
Last reviewed: 2026-08-19 · quoted from the India Code bare-Act PDF
When the work is done.
The Schedule row, as the Act prints it
Article 18Description: For the price of work done by the plaintiff for the defendant at his request, where no time has been fixed for payment.
Period: Three years.
Time from which period begins to run: When the work is done.
Open the bare Act on India Code →
In plain English
Contractors, service providers and freelancers with no fixed payment date must sue within three years of completing the work. Raising an invoice later does not postpone the start of limitation.
Where this comes up
- Building contractor's final bill left unpaid after completion
- Freelance designer or consultant who finished the assignment but was never paid
- Repair or fabrication work done on request without written payment terms
What can reset or extend this period
General rules for entries in the Suits division. The full statutory quotes (ss.5, 12, 18-19, 6-8) are on the finder page.
No condonation — ever
Section 5 applies only to appeals and applications, never to suits. A time-barred suit must be dismissed under s.3 'although limitation has not been set up as a defence'. There is no discretionary mercy for suits.
Acknowledgment and part-payment reset the clock
A written acknowledgment of liability signed by the party (s.18), or a part-payment acknowledged in the payer's handwriting or signed writing (s.19), gives a fresh period — but only if made BEFORE the current period expires. An acknowledgment of an already-barred debt creates no fresh period under this Act.
Computation exclusions
s.12(1) excludes the first day; s.4 lets you file on the reopening day if the period expires while the court is closed; s.14 excludes time spent prosecuting in good faith in a court without jurisdiction; s.15 excludes stay/injunction periods and statutory-notice time; s.17 postpones the start until discovery in cases of fraud, concealment or mistake. But s.9: once time begins to run, no subsequent disability stops it.
Legal disability
If the person entitled to sue is a minor or of unsound mind when the period would start, ss.6-7 let them sue within the same period after the disability ceases — capped by s.8 at three years from cessation, and denied entirely to pre-emption suits (Article 97).
Frequently asked
I sent the invoice a year after finishing the work. Does limitation run from the invoice?
No. The Schedule's third column says time runs 'when the work is done'. Delaying the invoice does not delay the start of limitation.
What if the contract fixed a payment date?
Then Article 18 does not fit ('where no time has been fixed for payment'); the claim typically falls under Article 55 (breach of contract) with time running from the breach.
This is a reference to the statutory text, not advice on a live matter. Limitation is brutally fact-sensitive — when the cause of action accrued, whether an acknowledgment or part-payment reset the clock, and which exclusions under ss.4-15 apply all turn on your specific facts. This page is a reference to the statutory text, not advice on a live matter, and it does not create an advocate-client relationship. A single day's error can be fatal to a claim: s.5 condonation never applies to suits, and several special-statute deadlines (Arbitration s.34(3), IBC s.61(2)) are hard ceilings no court can extend. Verify every period against the bare Act as currently amended and against current case law, and take advice on your own facts before acting. Provisions here were reviewed on 19 August 2026.