Oregon · Construction-defect rights
Here is what you have, and here is how to keep it.
Oregon gives you ten years from completion, with two years for negligence and six for contract from discovery. You must give the contractor notice and a chance to repair before filing.
What you have
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: not assertable by a person in actual possession/control (O.R.S. § 12.135(7)(b)) It matters most where a builder still controls part of a project — a phased subdivision, an unfinished condo association.
You have ten years from substantial completion for a home or small commercial building (O.R.S. s.12.135), with the ordinary limitations period and a two-year discovery rule running inside it. A party still in actual possession and control of the property cannot raise the deadline against you.
The deadline
10 years to bring a construction-defect claim
O.R.S. § 12.135(2)(b)
For a RESIDENTIAL (or small-commercial) structure: 10 years after SUBSTANTIAL COMPLETION or ABANDONMENT (O.R.S. § 12.135) — large commercial structures get 6 years. The applicable ordinary limitations period runs concurrently inside the repose, with a 2-year discovery rule (subsection (5)(a)). Exception: the repose does NOT apply to a person in actual possession and control of the improvement (owner, tenant or otherwise) at the time the cause of action accrues (subsection (7)(b)). NOTE: the (5)(a) provision is a DISCOVERY rule, not a fraud carve-out — Oregon's § 12.135 contains no fraud/concealment exception, so fraud_exempts_repose = false. 2025 c.578 (HB 3746) renumbered the section (the residential repose is now (2)(b); subsection numbers above are from the pre-2025 text) and added (4): a homeowners or unit-owners association's tort action gets 7 years after substantial completion or abandonment, plus 1 year from discovery for a defect found in year 6 to 7, for structures whose declaration is first recorded on or after the Act's effective date.
“Ten years after substantial completion or abandonment of the construction, alteration or repair of a small commercial structure or residential structure”
Before you sue: Notice of defect and opportunity to repair required before filing a residential defect action. (O.R.S. s.701.565)
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. Oregon requires written notice to the builder before you sue: see "Before you sue" on this page for the exact rule. Describe each defect in reasonable detail; 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.