Hire-Purchase Act - Singapore Statutes Online

Hire-Purchase Act

(CHAPTER 125)

(Original Enactment: Act 1 of 1969)

REVISED EDITION 1999

(30th December 1999)

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 any of the Schedules.

(4) The Minister may, in any order made under subsection (3), make such transitional and savings provisions as he may consider necessary or expedient.

[38/2004 wef 01/11/2004]

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Act —

“action” includes counterclaim and set-off;

“business day” means any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday;

[38/2004 wef 01/11/2004]

“cash” includes a cheque drawn on a banker;

“certificate of entitlement” means a permit issued by the Registrar of Vehicles under section 10A of the Road Traffic Act (Cap. 276);

[38/2004 wef 01/11/2004]

“court” means a Magistrate’s Court or a District Court;

[38/2004 wef 01/11/2004]

“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 replacement or renewal by the hirer of any part or parts thereof and any accessory added or addition 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;

“motor vehicle” means a motor vehicle within the meaning of the Road Traffic Act (Cap. 276);

[38/2004 wef 01/11/2004]

“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;

“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 and for the issue of a certificate of entitlement.

(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 2 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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