Hire-Purchase Act · 2024 Revised Edition · Part · Guarantors
22. Rights of guarantor against owner
Official textFrom Attorney General's Chambers, unchanged
The guarantor under this Part may at any time secure his discharge by paying the amount due to the owner from the hirer.
guarantor
“guarantor” means a person who has guaranteed the performance by a hirer of all or any of his obligations under a hire-purchase agreement, but does not include the dealer or a person engaged, at the time of the giving of the guarantee, in the trade or business of selling goods of the same nature or description as the goods comprised in the agreement;
Upon such payment being made, he is entitled to —
sue the hirer in the name of the owner for any breach of the hirer’s obligations under the hire-purchase agreement subject to providing the owner with a suitable indemnity for costs, or sue in his own name if he takes a legal assignment of the hire-purchase debt; and
insist upon the transfer to himself of all securities taken by the owner from the hirer to secure performance of the hirer’s obligations.
The guarantor is entitled in the event of any claim being made against him by the owner on the guarantee to avail himself of any set-off or counterclaim which the hirer may possess against the owner.
owner
“owner” means a person who lets or has let goods to a hirer under a hire-purchase agreement and includes a person to whom the rights or liabilities of the owner under the agreement have passed by assignment or by operation of law;
Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, a guarantor who exercises his rights under this section shall pay to the owner any reasonable costs incurred by the owner (including legal expenses) in preparing, drawing,
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stamping or registering the indemnity, assignment or transfer, as the case may be.
Terms defined in s 2
guarantor
Defined · s 2“guarantor” means a person who has guaranteed the performance by a hirer of all or any of his obligations under a hire-purchase agreement, but does not include the dealer or a person engaged, at the time of the giving of the guarantee, in the trade or business of selling goods of the same nature or description as the goods comprised in the agreement;
hire-purchase agreement
Defined · s 2“hire-purchase agreement” includes a letting of goods with an option to purchase and an agreement for the purchase of goods by instalments (whether the agreement describes the instalments as rent, hire or otherwise), but does not include any agreement — (a) whereby the property in the goods comprised therein passes at the time of the agreement or upon or at any time before delivery of the goods; or (b) under which the person by whom the goods are being hired or purchased is a person who is engaged in the trade or business of selling goods of the same nature or description as the goods comprised in the agreement;
hirer
Defined · s 2“hirer” means the person who takes or has taken goods from an owner under a hire-purchase agreement and includes a person to whom the rights or liabilities of the hirer under the agreement have passed by assignment or by operation of law;
owner
Defined · s 2“owner” means a person who lets or has let goods to a hirer under a hire-purchase agreement and includes a person to whom the rights or liabilities of the owner under the agreement have passed by assignment or by operation of law;