Legal defense term for when a service provider takes too long to request payment?

I had a furnace service on my rental property 8/2014. Rental in NY & I m AZ so I did credit card by phone. The company contacted me 4/2015 to say they never received payment. I closed the credit card account in 10/2014 so I don t have records. I think it s possible they charged the card, but I don t know. They said they d check their records but never called back. Over a year later 4/2016 they call again asking for payment. I know there is a legal term you can use as a defense to situations where they didn t request payment in x amount of days/months and therefore there s reasonable doubt about the validity of the debt and whether or not it s been paid. Anyone know?
Added (1). I am not looking for statute of limitations. I actually found it, it's called laches. I can't contact the credit card company because 1) it was a boyfriend's credit card that he closed in 10/2014, and 2) I don't even know which bank or institution the card was from. There's no mortgage so I own the property outright, so a mechanic's lean for $300 is unlikely to cause much trouble as I never plan to sell.

Read more: Legal defense term for when a service provider takes too long to request payment?