Hire-Purchase Act 1964
| Year | 1964 |
Hire-Purchase Act 1964
1964 CHAPTER 53
An Act to amend the law relating to hire-purchase and credit-sale, and, in relation thereto, to amend the enactments relating to the sale of goods; to make provision with respect to dispositions of motor vehicles which have been let or agreed to be sold by way of hire-purchase or conditional sale; to amend the Advertisements (Hire-Purchase) Act 1957; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[16th July 1964]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Credit-Sale in England and WalesAmendment of Law Relating to Hire-Purchase and
1 Extension of application of Hire-Purchase Act 1938.
(1) The Hire-Purchase Act 1938 (in this Part of this Act referred to as ‘the principal Act’) shall (except as provided by section 2 of this Act) apply as amended by subsection (5) of this section to all hire-purchase agreements and credit-sale agreements under which the hire-purchase price or total purchase price, as the case may be, does not exceed 2000.
(2) In accordance with the preceding subsection, in section 1 of the principal Act (which specifies a limit of 1000 in the case of livestock and of 300 in all other cases), for paragraphs (b ) and (c ) there shall be substituted the figure ‘2000’.
(3) If at any time after the commencement of this Act it appears to Her Majesty in Council that the limit specified in section 1 of the principal Act (whether by virtue of the last preceding subsection or of a previous Order in Council under this subsection) should be further raised, Her Majesty may by Order in Council direct that section 1 of the principal Act shall be further amended so as to substitute, for the sum specified in that section, such larger sum as may be specified in the Order.
(4) No recommendation shall be made to Her Majesty to make an Order in Council under the last preceding subsection unless a draft of the Order has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.
(5) In section 4(1) of the principal Act there shall be inserted the words ‘Provided that, if the court is satisfied in any action that a sum less than the amount by which one-half of the hire-purchase price exceeds the total of the sums paid and the sums due in respect of the hire-purchase price immediately before the termination would be equal to the loss sustained by the owner in consequence of the termination of the agreement by the hirer, the court may make an order for the payment of that sum in lieu of that amount’.
2 Exclusion of bodies corporate.
2. The principal Act shall not apply to any hire-purchase agreement or credit-sale agreement which is made by or on behalf of a body corporate (whether incorporated in the United Kingdom or elsewhere) as the hirer or buyer of the goods to which the agreement relates.
3 Requirements relating to hire-purchase agreements and credit-sale agreements.
(1) The requirements specified in section 2(2) of the principal Act (which specifies requirements relating to hire-purchase agreements) and the requirements specified in section 3(2) of that Act (which specifies requirements relating to credit-sale agreements) shall apply to the hire-purchase agreement or credit-sale agreement, as the case may be, and not to a note or memorandum of such an agreement; and accordingly—
(a ) in paragraph (a ) of the said section 2(2) and in paragraph (a ) of the said section 3(2) (which in each case requires that a note or memorandum of the agreement shall be made and signed by the hirer or buyer, as the case may be, and by or on behalf of all other parties to the agreement), for the words ‘a note or memorandum of the agreement is made and’, there shall be substituted the words ‘the agreement is’, and
(b ) in paragraphs (b ) to (d ) of the said section 2(2) and in paragraphs (b ) and (c ) of the said section 3(2), for the words ‘note or memorandum’, in each place where they occur, there shall be substituted the word ‘agreement’.
(2) In the said section 2(2), after paragraph (d ), there shall be inserted the words ‘and
(e ) either—
(iii) if the relevant document was sent to the hirer for his signature, then at the time when it was sent there was also sent to him a copy of that document in the form in which it then was’;
and in the proviso to the said section 2(2) for the words ‘or (d )’ there shall be substituted the words ‘(d ) or (e )’.
(3) In section 3(2) of the principal Act, after paragraph (c ), there shall be inserted the words ‘and
(d ) either—
(iii) if the relevant document was sent to the buyer for his signature, then at the time when it was sent there was also sent to him a copy of that document in the form in which it then was’;
and in the proviso to the said section 3(2) for the words ‘or (c )’ there shall be substituted the words ‘(c ) or (d )’.
(4) The Board of Trade may by regulations provide that in any document which, on being signed as mentioned in section 2(2)(a ) or section 3(2)(a ) of the principal Act,—
(a ) constitutes a hire-purchase agreement to which that Act applies, or
(b ) constitutes a credit-sale agreement to which that Act applies under which the total purchase price exceeds 30,
the signature of the hirer or buyer shall be inserted in a space marked in such manner, and accompanied in the document by such words, as may be specified in the regulations; and the regulations may include provision as to the location of those words in relation to the space in which the signature is inserted, and may prescribe such other requirements (whether as to type, size, colour or disposition of lettering or otherwise) as the Board may consider appropriate for securing that the words come to the attention of the hirer or buyer at the time when he is about to sign the document.
(5) A document to which any regulations made under the last preceding subsection apply shall not be invalid by reason only that the regulations are not complied with; but—
(a ) in the case of a document which constitutes a hire-purchase agreement, section 2(2) of the principal Act shall have effect in relation to compliance with the requirements of any such regulations as it has effect in relation to compliance with the requirements specified in paragraphs (b ) to (e ) of the said section 2(2), and
(b ) in the case of a document which constitutes a credit-sale agreement, section 3(2) of the principal Act shall have effect in relation to compliance with the requirements of any such regulations as it has effect in relation to compliance with the requirements specified in paragraphs (b ) to (d ) of the said section 3(2).
(6) Section 3 of the principal Act shall have effect as if, for any reference to 5, there were substituted a reference to 30.
4 Right of cancellation of certain hire-purchase and credit-sale transactions.
(1) The provisions of this section shall have effect where a person (in this section referred to as ‘the prospective hirer or buyer’) signs a document (in this section referred to as ‘the relevant document’) which—
(a ) constitutes a hire-purchase agreement to which the principal Act applies, or would constitute such an agreement if executed by or on behalf of another person as owner of the goods to which it relates, or
(b ) constitutes a credit-sale agreement to which that Act applies under which the total purchase price exceeds 30, or would constitute such an agreement if executed by or on behalf of another person as seller of the goods to which it relates,
and (in either case) the relevant document is signed by the prospective hirer or buyer at a place other...
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