§ 6. Pensions, maintenance and fixed periodic payments have their own time limits

§ 6 applies to claims that recur at fixed intervals. It may be every month. Every quarter. Every year. Typical examples are pension, life annuity, lifelong support agreement and maintenance payments. The law also includes "other performance owed" if it is similar to these.

These are not ordinary instalments on a loan. That is important. If you pay off a loan with monthly instalments, there is a principal underneath. Principal means the loan amount itself. § 6 applies to payments that are not instalments on the principal. In other words, it applies to payments that are independent ongoing performance owed.

The rule distinguishes between two things. First, there is the right itself to receive the payments going forward. It can become time-barred if 10 years pass since the last payment. If nothing has ever been paid, the 10 years are counted from the day the first payment could have been demanded.

Second, there are the individual periodic payments. A periodic payment means a single payment that falls due at a specific time. If you were to receive NOK 5,000 every month, each monthly payment is a periodic payment. These individual payments can become time-barred under §§ 2 and 3. This often means 3 years from each individual due date (forfallsdato).

But maintenance payments have a special rule. For claims for maintenance payments, the time limit for the individual periodic payments that have fallen due is 10 years. This gives stronger protection than the ordinary 3-year time limit.

This may seem heavy, but think of it this way: § 6 has one rule for the whole ongoing arrangement, and one rule for each individual payment. The ongoing arrangement can lapse after 10 years of inactivity. But old individual payments can become too old earlier, unless it concerns maintenance payments.

When do unpaid monthly payments become time-barred?

If you are entitled to a fixed monthly payment, you must keep track of each individual month. Each payment can have its own limitation period (foreldelsesfrist). If the payment for January 2026 is not paid, the time limit for the January payment can start then. If February is not paid either, the February payment gets its own time limit. And so on.

This is why ongoing claims are risky. You cannot just look at the whole agreement as a whole. You must look at the individual due dates. If you wait for many years, the oldest instalments may be time-barred, even though more recent instalments can still be claimed.

For maintenance payments, the rule is milder for the person who is to receive the money. There, § 6 says that the time limit for claims for maintenance payments is 10 years. This means that each individual maintenance claim lasts longer than ordinary periodic payments. This can have great practical importance for children, parents and former spouses or cohabitants.

Pensions and life annuities are typically more formal arrangements. But the principle is the same: an ongoing payment cannot lie completely untouched forever. If no payment is made for 10 years, the right to the payments itself can become time-barred. If payments are made, the 10-year time limit is counted from the last payment.

Lifelong support agreement is an old term, but it still appears in some agreements. It often means that someone has transferred a property, typically a farm, in return for receiving housing, food, money or other benefits for the rest of their life. If such benefits have been agreed at fixed intervals, § 6 may apply.

What does "not an instalment on the principal" mean?

This expression is important. § 6 does not apply to ordinary repayments on a loan. If you owe NOK 200,000 and pay NOK 5,000 a month, the payments are usually instalments on the principal. Then you must look at other rules, especially § 5 on loans of money (pengelån) and promissory notes (gjeldsbrev).

§ 6 applies when the payments are not repayment of a larger loan amount. A pension is not repayment of a loan. Maintenance payments are not repayment of a loan. A life annuity is normally an ongoing payment. A lifelong support agreement is normally an ongoing agreed right.

The difference matters a lot. If you use the wrong rule, you may get the wrong time limit. You may think that old monthly claims are still alive when they are in fact time-barred. Or you may think that the entire claim is lost, even though more recent instalments can still be claimed.

A simple rule of thumb is this: If the payment reduces a specific debt amount, it is often an instalment. If the payment is a fixed payment you are entitled to because the agreement or decision says so, without a main debt being paid off, § 6 may apply.

Comparison table

What happens if you get it wrong?

If you wait too long, individual payments can lapse one after another. That can be expensive. You may still be entitled to more recent payments, but lose the oldest ones. That is why it is not enough to say that the agreement still exists. You must look at each payment.

If no payment is made for 10 years, the right to the ongoing payment itself can also become time-barred. Then the problem is bigger. Then it is not only about old individual amounts, but about the right to the arrangement.

For the person who has to pay, § 6 can also be important. You cannot always reject the entire claim because something is old. You must distinguish between time-barred and not time-barred instalments. For maintenance payments, you must remember that the time limit is 10 years.

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Make an overview. Write down each individual due date and amount. Mark what has been paid and what is missing. Do not lump everything into one sum before you know which instalments can still be claimed.

Send a written claim early. If it concerns many instalments, make a table. Write the month, amount, due date and status. This makes the claim easier to understand and easier to prove.

If you pay an ongoing payment, label the payments clearly. Write which month the payment relates to. That way you avoid later disputes about which instalments have actually been paid.