Hire-Purchase Act 1969

2020 REVISED EDITION

This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021

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.

[15 October 1969]

PART 1

PRELIMINARY

Short title and application

1.—(1) This Act is the Hire-Purchase Act 1969.

(2) This Act shall apply to hire-purchase agreements or conditional sale agreements made on or after 1 September 2012.

(3) In the case of agreements made before 1 September 2012, this Act shall continue to apply as if section 9 of the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) (Amendment) Act 2012 had not been enacted.

(4) The Minister may by order amend, vary, delete or add to any of the Schedules.

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

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;

“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 1961;

“conditional sale agreement” means an agreement for the sale of goods under which the purchase price or part of it is payable by instalments, and the property in the goods is to remain in the owner (notwithstanding that the hirer is to be in possession of the goods) until such conditions as to the payment of instalments or otherwise as may be specified in that agreement are fulfilled;

“court” means a Magistrate’s Court or 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 or a conditional sale agreement with the owner were carried out or by whom or on whose behalf the transaction leading to a hire-purchase agreement or a conditional sale agreement with the owner was arranged;

“goods” includes any replacement or renewal by the hirer of any part or parts of any goods and any accessory added or addition made to any goods 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 or a conditional sale 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” means an agreement, other than a conditional sale agreement, under which —

(a)

goods are bailed in return for periodical payments to the hirer; and

(b)

the property in the goods will pass to the hirer if the terms of the agreement are complied with and one or more of the following occur:

(i)	the exercise of an option to purchase by the hirer;
(ii)	the doing of any other specified act by any party to the agreement;
(iii)	the happening of any other specified event;

“hirer” means the person who takes or has taken goods from an owner under a hire‑purchase agreement or a conditional sale 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;

“licensed insurer” means an insurer who is for the time being licensed under section 11 of the Insurance Act 1966;

“motor vehicle” means a motor vehicle within the meaning of the Road Traffic Act 1961;

“owner” means a person by whom goods are bailed to a hirer under a hire‑purchase agreement or a conditional sale agreement and includes a person whom the owner’s rights or liabilities under the agreement have passed by assignment or by operation of law;

“purchase price” means the total sum payable by the hirer under a hire-purchase agreement or a conditional sale 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;

“regulated agreement” means a hire-purchase agreement or a conditional sale agreement which relates to the goods specified in the First Schedule, but does not include any agreement in which the hirer is engaged in the trade or business of selling goods of the same nature or description as the goods comprised in the agreement;

“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 or a conditional sale 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 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 purchase price.

(3) Where, by virtue of 2 or more agreements, none of which by itself constitutes a hire‑purchase agreement or a conditional sale 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 or a conditional sale agreement, as the case may be, 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 or a conditional sale 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.

Search within Legislation