Every building you design starts two legal clocks the moment construction wraps up. One clock, the statute of limitations, measures how long a claimant has to file suit after discovering an injury or defect. The other, the statute of repose, sets a hard deadline measured from the date of substantial completion, and it does not care when the problem was found.

Why does this matter for architects? Because these two statutes define the window of your legal exposure on every project. A roof leak discovered eight years after substantial completion might still fall within the statute of limitations (the owner just found it), but the statute of repose may have already slammed the door shut.

The distinction is not academic. It directly affects how long you need to carry professional liability insurance, how your contracts should address accrual of claims, and whether a client can come after you for a latent defect that shows up years or even decades later. States set their own periods for both statutes, and the ranges vary widely. Some states give claimants as little as two years from discovery; others allow ten or more years from substantial completion before repose kicks in.

For the ARE, you need to understand how each statute works, what triggers them, and how they interact with contract provisions like accrual clauses. You also need to recognize the strategic implications for risk management in practice.