Hire-Purchase and Credit Sale Agreements (Control) Order 1973

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
CitationSI 1973/2129
Year1973

1973 No. 2129

HIRE PURCHASE

The Hire-Purchase and Credit Sale Agreements (Control) Order 1973

14thDecember 1973

17thDecember 1973

18thDecember 1973

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 1 and 7 of the Emergency Laws (Re-enactments and Repeals) Act 1964(a) and all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby orders as follows:—

1. This Order may be cited as the Hire-Purchase and Credit Sale Agreements (Control) Order 1973 and shall come into operation on 18th December 1973.

2.—(1) The goods to which this Order applies are—

(a) goods (whether new or secondhand) of any of the descriptions specified in items 1 to 19 inclusive in Part I of Schedule 1 hereto not being goods of a description specified in Part II of that Schedule;

(b) any other goods (including goods of any of the descriptions specified in Part II of Schedule 1) comprised in a hire-purchase or credit sale agreement with goods to which this Order applies by virtue of sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph.

(2) In this Order—

"cash price" means, in relation to any hire-purchase or credit sale agreement in respect of any goods, the price at which the prospective hirer or buyer may, at the date of the agreement, purchase or agree to purchase the goods for cash;

"commencement date" means the date on which this Order comes into operation;

"credit sale agreement" means an agreement for the sale of goods in which the whole or part of the purchase price is payable by instalments, whether the agreement is absolute or conditional;

"dispose of" includes the disposal of—

(i) ownership, or any proprietary interest; or

(ii) the right to possession; or

(iii) possession, whether or not accompanied by any disposal of ownership or of any proprietary interest or of the right to possession;

"hire-purchase agreement" means—

(i) in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, an agreement for the bailment of goods under which the bailee may buy the goods or

(a) 1964 c. 60.

under which the property in the goods will or may pass to the bailee; whether on the performance of any act by the parties to the agreement or any of them or in any other circumstances;

(ii) in Scotland, any contract, in whatsoever terms it may be expressed and whether it be truly one of sale or hire, whereby goods are taken on hire by one person from another person in consideration of periodical payments to be made by the first mentioned person to the other person, with an option to the first mentioned person to become the buyer of the goods;

"short-term credit sale agreement" means a credit sale agreement under which the property in all the goods passes unconditionally to the buyer on or before delivery of the goods to him and which provides for the whole of the purchase price, or where part of that price is to be paid before the agreement is entered into, the balance, to be paid either by approximately equal instalments at equal intervals spread over a period of less than nine months commencing with the date of the agreement or by one payment to be made within the period of three months commencing with the date of the agreement.

(3) For the purposes of this Order the payment of any amount shall be deemed not to be actual payment of that amount if, for the purpose of facilitating the making of that payment or any part of it, money has been borrowed or otherwise acquired or agreed or arranged to be borrowed or otherwise to be acquired (whether by the person making the payment or by some other person) under or as a result of an agreement or arrangement to which any relevant person is a party and for this purpose a relevant person is—

(a) in relation to a hire-purchase or credit sale agreement, any of the following—

(i) the person disposing of goods under the agreement,

(ii) a person who has supplied or is to supply those goods to another person with a view to their being disposed of under the agreement,

(iii) the manufacturer of those goods,

(b) in relation to goods in the possession of a person in anticipation of the making of a hire-purchase or credit sale agreement, any of the following—

(i) any person who has caused or is permitting that possession,

(ii) any person who has supplied those goods to another with a view to their being disposed of under a hire-purchase or credit sale agreement to the person in possession of them,

(iii) the manufacturer of those goods.

(c) in relation to goods disposed of by one person to a second person for the purpose of enabling the second person to dispose of them to a third person under a hire-purchase or credit sale agreement, any of the following—

(i) the first person,

(ii) the second person,

(iii) the manufacturer of the goods.

3. A person shall not dispose of any goods to which this Order applies in pursuance of a hire-purchase or credit sale agreement unless the requirements specified in Schedule 2 hereto are or have been complied with in relation to that agreement.

4. A person shall not dispose of any goods to which this Order applies to a second person for the purpose of enabling the second person to dispose of those goods to a third person under a hire-purchase or credit sale agreement unless, before those goods are disposed of to the second person, the third person shall have made actual payment of the amount which the third person would have been required to pay in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 3 of Schedule 2 hereto if he had entered into a hire-purchase or credit sale agreement comprising those goods with the first person in the ordinary course of business on the date when the goods were disposed of to the second person.

5. A person shall not, by virtue of a hire-purchase or credit sale agreement, be in possession of any goods to which this Order applies unless—

(a) that agreement complies with the requirements specified in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 2 hereto, and

(b) a payment was made by him before he entered into the first such agreement under which he held those goods complying with the requirements specified in paragraph 3 of Schedule 2 hereto as those requirements had effect on the date on which the said first agreement was entered into; and

(c) that agreement provides for the payment of the balance due in respect of each description of goods comprised therein either—

(i) by approximately equal instalments at equal intervals spread over a period not exceeding the period specified in column 3 of Part I of Schedule 1 hereto in relation to that description of goods being a period commencing with the date of the first such agreement under which he held those goods:

Provided that, where a hire-purchase or credit sale agreement has been varied by the lengthening or shortening of the period over which the balance due thereunder is payable, this sub-head shall be deemed to be complied with in respect of the remainder of that period if the balance remaining at the date of the variation is payable by approximately equal instalments at equal intervals spread over the remainder of that period, or

(ii) in the case of a hire-purchase agreement, by one payment to be made within the period of three months commencing with the date of the first such agreement under which he held those goods.

6.—(1) A person shall not knowingly cause or permit any goods to which this Order applies, owned by him, to be in possession of another person by virtue of a hire-purchase agreement if the possession of those goods by that other person contravenes the provisions of Article 5.

(2) A person shall not knowingly cause or permit any goods to which this Order applies, owned by him immediately before he enters into a credit sale agreement, to be in possession of another person by virtue of any such agreement if the possession of those goods by that other person contravenes the...

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