Arkansas · Construction-defect rights
Here is what you have, and here is how to keep it.
Arkansas bars a homeowner's contract/property-damage construction-defect suit more than five years after substantial completion (four years for personal injury or wrongful death). Those periods do not apply where the deficiency was fraudulently concealed, and cannot be raised by someone in possession or control of the improvement.
What you have
The deadline does not protect a builder who concealed the problem.
In Arkansas, a claim of fraud, concealment or serious misconduct is not cut off by the ordinary construction deadline (Ark. Code § 16-56-112(d)).
If the builder or developer still controls the property, the deadline isn’t theirs to raise.
The exception most homeowners would never think to ask about: repose not assertable by any person in actual possession or control when the deficiency proximately causes injury/death (Ark. Code § 16-56-112(c)) It matters most where a builder still controls part of a project — a phased subdivision, an unfinished condo association.
THE DEADLINE DOES NOT PROTECT FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT. Arkansas's five-year bar (Ark. Code § 16-56-112) falls away where the builder fraudulently concealed the deficiency, and a party still controlling the property cannot raise it. Arkansas's window is short — five years from substantial completion for a property/contract claim, four for personal injury — so acting promptly matters.
The deadline
5 years to bring a construction-defect claim
Ark. Code § 16-56-112(a)
5 years from substantial completion for a homeowner's contract/property-damage defect claim (Ark. Code § 16-56-112(a)); it is 4 years for personal injury or wrongful death (§ 16-56-112(b)(1)). FRAUD CARVE-OUT: the limitations "shall not apply in the event of fraudulent concealment of the deficiency," nor may a person in actual possession/control raise them (§ 16-56-112(c)). A personal injury appearing in the third year gets a limited one-year extension, capped at five years (§ 16-56-112(b)(2)).
“No action in contract, whether oral or written, sealed or unsealed, to recover damages caused by any deficiency in the design, planning, supervision, or observation of construction or the construction and repair of any improvement to real property or for injury to real or personal property caused by such deficiency, shall be brought against any person performing or furnishing the design, planning, supervision, or observation of construction or the construction or repair of the improvement more than five (5) years after substantial completion of the improvement.”
Before you sue: We have not yet confirmed whether Arkansas requires written notice to the builder before a lawsuit. Some states do, and skipping it can get a case stayed or dismissed. Ask a Arkansas attorney before filing.
What to do now
Write it down the day you notice it. Photograph it with something for scale. Note the date, the room, and what you saw. If it gets worse, photograph it again - a sequence is far stronger than one picture. Keep every message with the builder. You are not starting a fight; you are keeping the option open. Some states require written notice to the builder before you can sue. We have not confirmed whether Arkansas does, so check with a licensed attorney before filing. A record made at the time is what most people are missing later.
The same defect, a different answer next door
The construction-defect deadline is a state-by-state accident of geography. The identical crack in the identical house can be dead in one state and live in another.