Hire-Purchase Act · 2024 Revised Edition · Part · General
31. Part
Official textFrom Attorney General's Chambers, unchanged
No deposit —
to the extent that it is in cash and that it is made out of moneys borrowed directly or indirectly —
from or through the owner (if the owner is not a banker);
from or through an agent or servant of the owner;
from or through a dealer; or
from or through any person whose business or part of whose business it is, by agreement with the owner or any person acting on behalf of the owner, to advance money to enable deposits to be paid in respect of hire-purchase agreements with the owner;
to the extent that, where the deposit is in goods or partly in goods and the amount allowed in respect of the goods is substantially greater than the value of the goods, that amount exceeds that value;
to the extent that it is made out of an amount allowed or credited in respect of, or by reference to, amounts paid by the hirer as rent or hire under a bailment of the goods before the making of a hire-purchase agreement in respect of the goods; or
to the extent that it is provided by goods that were, to the knowledge of the owner or dealer, acquired by the hirer for the purpose of being used by the hirer to provide the deposit under the agreement, shall be taken into account for the purpose of determining whether section 30
has been complied with.
Hire-Purchase 32
The provisions of this Part are deemed to have been complied with by the owner if a deposit in accordance with those provisions has been obtained by the dealer or an agent or servant of 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;
Any person who knowingly enters into, or procures, arranges, or otherwise assists or participates in, a transaction contravening this section is guilty of an offence.
Terms defined in s 2
dealer
Defined · s 2“dealer” means a person, not being the hirer or the owner or a servant of the owner, by whom or on whose behalf negotiations leading to the making of a hire-purchase agreement with the owner were carried out or by whom or on whose behalf the transaction leading to a hire-purchase agreement with the owner was arranged;
goods
Defined · s 2“goods” includes any replacement or renewal by the hirer of any part or parts thereof and any accessories added or additions made thereto by the hirer during the period of the hiring;
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;