The “Statute of Limitations” is the term to refer to the shelf life of any civil legal claim. In Oregon, we codify the statute of limitations in ORS 12. The concept exists to set a maximum timeframe for which courts have jurisdiction over an issue, allowing claims to simply be too old to be considered. In part, this is based on Athenian law where all minor lawsuits could be brought only for 5 years because, according to Demosthenes, the statute of limitations reduced the number of “sycophants” who brought frivolous lawsuits against one another through false charges and false accusations [original etymology thinks it may have had something to do with illegally exported figs or theft of figs, hence the term beginning with the word “sykos” or “fig”]. By putting a drop dead date on legal claims, the complainant must be diligent, the evidence will necessarily be fresh-ish, and no person will be unjustly struck with a dusty lawsuit long since forgotten.
Lawsuits based on contracts have a limitation of six years under ORS 12.080, with the timeline generally beginning upon the discovery of the issue or the moment when a reasonably diligent person could have discovered the issue. So for instance, if a person sells you a house under the premise that it has never had mold issues, but they secretly painted over the mold spots in a way that a reasonably diligent person would never have been able to discover, you could contest the person’s contractual representations that there was no mold for up to 6 years after the mold deception was discovered. Hence, if someone breaches a contract and it is known, 6 years from that breach [beginning the calendar day after the breach] to bring the claim. Under ORS 12.060, lawsuits to enforce contracts for the sale of real estate are valid from 5 years of the maturity of the final payment in the contract [e.g. real estate sales, e.g. “you sold me the house,” compared to ORS 12.080 contract breaches where you would be arguing “you said you’d get a warranty on the house”]
Under ORS 12.110, actions for injury to your person or to the rights of another person not arising from a contract can only be brought for 2 years. So, if the prospective buyer cracks their ankle on a broken stair and wants to sue for negligence, it will typically occur within 2 years.