Northern Territory Consolidated Acts Northern Territory Consolidated Acts80. Time for commencing actions
(1) Subject to this section, an action under a provision of this Division may be commenced at any time within 3 years after the day on which the cause of the action accrued.
(2) For the purposes of this section, a cause of action shall be deemed to have accrued:
(a) in the case of an action other than an action under section 79, on the day on which the consumer or a person who acquired the goods from, or derived title to the goods through or under, the consumer first became aware, or ought reasonably to have become aware:
(i) in the case of an action under section 73 - that the goods were not reasonably fit for the purpose referred to in that section;
(ii) in the case of an action under section 74 - that the goods did not correspond with the description referred to in that section;
(iii) in the case of an action under section 75 - that the goods were not of merchantable quality;
(iv) in the case of an action under section 76 - that the goods did not correspond with the sample in quality or the goods had the defect referred to in that section;
(v) in the case of an action under section 77 - that the goods required to be repaired or that the part was required for the goods, as the case may be; or
(vi) in the case of an action under section 78 - of the failure of a supplier within the meaning of that section to comply with the express warranty referred to in that section; or
(b) in the case of an action under section 79, on:
(i) the day, or the first day, as the case may be, on which the seller within the meaning of that section made a payment in respect of, or otherwise discharged in whole or in part, his or her liability to the customer within the meaning of that section; or
(ii) the day on which a proceeding was instituted by that customer against that seller in respect of that liability or, if more than one such proceeding was instituted, the day on which the first such proceeding was instituted,
whichever was the earlier.
(3) In an action under a provision of this Division, it is a defence if the defendant proves that the action was not commenced within 10 years after the time of the first supply to a consumer of the goods to which the action relates.