Just a few days ago, Law 42/2015 of 5 October, reforming Law 1/2000 of 7 January on Civil Procedure, was published in the BOE (6/10/2015).

We believe it is important to highlight one of the most relevant novelties that it introduces and which affects the statute of limitations provided for in the Civil Code for personal actions without any other established period of time. Until now the period was 15 years; from now on, five.

The First Final Provision affects art. 1,964 CC, which is worded as follows:

“1.- The mortgage action prescribes at twenty years.

2.- Personal actions that do not have a special time limit prescribe after five years from the date on which compliance with the obligation may be required. In the case of continuous obligations to do or not to do, the period will begin each time they are not complied with”.

So, the question is, what about the obligations for which the statute of limitations is running out?

Well, the Law itself provides for a transitional regime which allows the application of a more flexible system to personal actions born before the entry into force of this Law, so that “the time of limitation of personal actions which have no special term of limitation, born before the date of entry into force of this Law, shall be governed by the provisions of Article 1939 of the Civil Code” (Trans. Disp. V).

Article 1.939 of the Civil Code, in turn, provides that “the statute of limitations commenced before the publication of this code shall be governed by the laws preceding it; but if all the time required for the statute of limitations has elapsed since it was enforced, the statute of limitations shall take effect, even if such earlier laws require a longer period of time”.

We can therefore conclude that the limitation periods are as follows:

Prescriptions periods of Article 1.964 of the Civil Code.

– Legal relationships born before 7/10/2000 are in any case prescribed, as the 15-year period has expired.

– Legal relations born between 7/10/2000 and 7/10/2005 will remain in force until the 15-year period has expired, since they have less than five years left to expire. Therefore, the previous period of 15 years provided for in art. 1.964 CC

– For legal relations born between 7/10/2005 and 7/10/2015, the new period of five years from the date of entry into force of the rule (7/10/2015) applies, and therefore the 7/10/2020 period will expire in any case.

– Finally, as regards legal relations born on or after 7/10/2015, the new period of five years will apply to them.