Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: New Hampshire does not use the death-based or publication-triggered rule most states use. Deadline once administration is granted: 6 months to exhibit a demand, 1 year to sue, both from the original grant of administration.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in New Hampshire?
| Deadline once administration is granted | 6 months to exhibit a demand, 1 year to sue, both from the original grant of administration |
“No action shall be sustained against an administrator if begun within six months after the original grant of administration, nor unless the demand has been exhibited to the administrator and payment has been demanded. … No suit shall be maintained against an administrator…unless it is begun within one year next after the original grant of administration, exclusive of the time such administration may have been suspended…”
What makes New Hampshire different
New Hampshire uses no death-date or publication-triggered model at all; its 6-month demand deadline and 1-year suit deadline both run from the date letters of administration are ORIGINALLY GRANTED, not death.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on New Hampshire’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 556:1, 556:3, 556:5, 556:29 |
| New Hampshire courts (general reference) | New Hampshire judicial branch |
| New Hampshire Secretary of State / legislature | New Hampshire state government |
| Confidence | High |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.
Related: how long you have to contest a will in New Hampshire.