Hire-Purchase Act - Singapore Statutes Online

Hire-Purchase Act

(CHAPTER 125)

(Original Enactment: Act 1 of 1969)

REVISED EDITION 1985

(30th March 1987)

An Act to regulate the form and contents of hire-purchase agreements and the rights and duties of parties to such agreements and for matters connected therewith.

[15th October 1969]

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title and application

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Hire-Purchase Act.

(2) This Act shall apply in respect only of hire-purchase agreements relating to the goods specified in the First Schedule.

(3) The Minister may by order amend, vary, delete or add to the First Schedule.

(4) This Act shall apply only to hire purchase agreements entered into after the commencement of this Act.

(5) It is hereby declared for the removal of doubts that nothing in section 5(1) of the Civil Law Act [Cap. 43] shall be taken to introduce into Singapore any part of the statutory law of England relating to hire-purchase whether or not the goods in question are goods specified in the First Schedule.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Act —

“action” includes counterclaim and set-off;

“cash” includes a cheque drawn on a banker;

“court” means a District Court;

“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” includes any replacements or renewals 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;

“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” 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 or 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;

“hire-purchase price” means the total sum payable by the hirer under a hire-purchase agreement in order to complete the purchase of goods to which the agreement relates, exclusive of any sum payable as a penalty or as compensation or damages for a breach of the agreement;

“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 hirer’s rights or liabilities under the agreement have passed by assignment or by operation of law;

“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 owner’s rights or liabilities under the agreement have passed by assignment or by operation of law;

“statutory rebate” —

(a)

in relation to terms charges —

(i)

means the amount derived by multiplying the terms charges by the sum of all the whole numbers from one to the number which is the number of complete months in the period of the agreement still to go (both inclusive) and by dividing the product so obtained by the sum of all the whole numbers from one to the number which is the total number of complete months in the period of the agreement (both inclusive); or

(ii)

where it is agreed in a hire-purchase agreement that the terms charges have been calculated on a simple interest basis at a rate specified in the agreement on the amount outstanding from month to month, means the amount of interest attributable to the period of complete months still to go under the agreement; and

(b)

in relation to insurance, means the sum of the amount of premium paid in respect of —

(i)	any annual period not yet commenced; and
(ii)	the current annual period less the amount of premium which would have been paid at the insurers’ short period rates for the period which the policy has been in force provided no claim has arisen during this period;

“third-party insurance” means any insurance in relation to liability in respect of death or bodily injury caused by or arising out of the use of a motor vehicle being insurance required by law;

“vehicle registration fees” means any amount to be provided under a hire-purchase agreement by the owner for payment by or on behalf of the hirer under the provisions of this Act in connection with the registration and use of a motor vehicle, including any amount payable for third-party insurance.

(2) Where an owner has agreed that any part of the hire-purchase price may be discharged otherwise than by the payment of money, any such discharge shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be a payment of that part of the hire-purchase price.

(3) Where, by virtue of two or more agreements, none of which by itself constitutes a hire-purchase agreement, there is a bailment of goods and either the bailee may buy the goods or the property in the goods will or may pass to the bailee, the agreements shall, for the purposes of this Act, be treated as a single hire-purchase agreement made at the time when the last agreement was made.

(4) The court shall have jurisdiction to try any action or proceeding arising out of or in relation to a hire-purchase agreement to which this Act applies, including an action for an injunction and an action to rescind a contract, notwithstanding that apart from this subsection the court would have no jurisdiction to do so.

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