We have a friend who had some renovations done on their home in 2005. They thought they had paid the contractor. He comes up three years later and hands them a bill and says it got lost in his bookkeeping. Since our friend doesn't have a receipt, is there a timeframe when a bill is supposed to be received? Does our friend have any reason to challenge this? The bill is more than $2,000.

Technically it is still valid if they also agree it is due; but they can certainly dispute it and force him to compromise. He will have a bit of hard time collecting on that in court.

It obviously is very bad business to do that.