Hire-Purchase (Amendment) Act, 1960

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HIRE-PURCHASE (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1960.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

PART I

Preliminary and General Section

Section 1

Short title, collective citation and construction.

Section 2

Commencement.

Section 3

Definitions.

Section 4

Laying of orders before Houses of the Oireachtas.

Section 5

Expenses.

PART II

Control of Hire-Purchase, Credit-Sale and Letting of Goods

Section 6

Control of hire-purchase, credit-sale and letting of goods.

Section 7

Furnishing of information.

Section 8

Authorised officers.

Section 9

Powers of authorised officers.

Section 10

Prohibition on disclosure of information.

Section 11

Contravention of order.

Section 12

Offences in relation to bodies corporate and unincorporated bodies.

Section 13

Penalties.

Section 14

Prosecution of offences.

PART III

Amendment of the Principal Act

Section 15

Further provisions relating to postponed orders for specific delivery of goods.

Section 16

Recovery of possession of motor vehicles let under hire-purchase agreements.

Section 17

Liability of guarantor where goods are returned to owner.

Section 18

Appropriation of payments by owner in respect of hire-purchase agreements.

Section 19

Jurisdiction of the courts.

Section 20

Amendment of definition of hire-purchase price.

Section 21

Amendment of section 3 of the Principal Act.

Section 22

Amendment of section 4 of the Principal Act.

Section 23

Restriction of section 5 of the Principal Act.

Section 24

Amendment of section 7 of the Principal Act.

Section 25

Amendment of section 16 of the Principal Act.

PART IV

Miscellaneous

Section 26

Remittal or transfer of actions.

Section 27

Judgments in actions for the recovery of goods let under hire-purchase agreements to be given only by a Judge or the Master of the High Court.

Section 28

Sale by dealer of goods let to him under a hire-purchase agreement.

Section 29

Repeals.

SCHEDULE Acts Referred to Hire-Purchase Act, 1946 1946, No. 16 Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851 , 1851, c. 93 Enforcement of Court Orders Act, 1926 1926, No. 18 Courts of Justice Act, 1924 1924, No. 10 Courts of Justice Act, 1936 1936, No. 48 Number 15 of 1960.

HIRE-PURCHASE (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1960.

AN ACT TO AMEND THE LAW WITH RESPECT TO THE HIRE-PURCHASE, SALE UPON CREDIT AND LETTING OF GOODS AND FOR THAT PURPOSE TO AMEND THE HIRE-PURCHASE ACT, 1946 . [8th June, 1960.] BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

PART I.

Preliminary and General Short title, collective citation and construction.

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Hire-Purchase (Amendment) Act, 1960.

Commencement.

2.—This Act shall come into operation on such day as the Minister by order appoints.

Definitions.

3.—In this Act— “the Principal Act” means the Hire-Purchase Act, 1946 ; “authorised officer” means an officer appointed to be an authorised officer under section 8 of this Act; “the Minister” means the Minister for Industry and Commerce.

Laying of orders before Houses of the Oireachtas.

4.—Every order under

Part II

of this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and if a resolution annulling the order is passed by either such House within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

Expenses.

5.—The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

PART II.

Control of Hire-Purchase, Credit-Sale and Letting of Goods.

Control of hire-purchase, credit-sale and letting of goods.

6.—(1) The Minister may by order provide for the regulation and control of the letting, whether under hire-purchase agreements or otherwise, and the selling by credit-sale agreements of goods or of any class or description of goods.

Furnishing of information.

7.—Any person who carries on, or is employed in connection with, the business of letting goods, whether under hire-purchase agreements or otherwise, or selling goods by credit-sale agreements shall, whenever so required by the Minister, furnish to the Minister any books, documents, records, particulars, or information in that person's power or control which the Minister may require for enabling him to exercise his functions under this Part of this Act.

Authorised officers.

8.—(1) The Minister may appoint such and so many of his officers as he thinks fit to be authorised officers for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

Powers of authorised officers.

9.—(1) An authorised officer may, for the purpose of obtaining any information which the Minister may require for enabling him to exercise his functions under this Part of this Act, at all reasonable times enter premises at which the business of letting goods, whether under hire-purchase agreements or otherwise, or selling goods by credit-sale agreements is carried on and do any one or more of the following things— (a) inspect the premises, (b) require the person who carries on such business and any person employed in connection therewith to produce to him any books, documents or records relating to such business which are in that person's power or control and to give him such information as he may reasonably require in regard to any entries in such books, documents or records, (c) inspect and copy or take extracts from such books, documents or records, (d) require such person to give to him any information he may reasonably require in regard to the persons carrying on such business (including, in particular, in the case of an unincorporated body of persons, information in regard to the membership thereof and of its committee of management or other controlling authority) or employed in connection therewith, (e) require such person to give to him any other information which he may reasonably require in regard to such business.

Prohibition on disclosure of information.

10.—(1) No person shall disclose information available to him by virtue of the powers of obtaining information conferred on him by this Part of this Act.

Contravention of order.

11.—(1) A person who contravenes (whether by act or omission) any provision of an order under this Part of this Act for the time being in force shall be guilty of an offence.

Offences in relation to bodies corporate and unincorporated bodies.

12.—Where an offence under this Part of this Act is committed by a body corporate or by a person purporting to act on behalf of a body corporate or an unincorporated body of persons, and is proved to have been so committed with the consent or approval of, or to have been facilitated by any default on the part of any person being, in the case of a body corporate, a director thereof, or, in the case of an unincorporated body, a member of the committee of management or other controlling authority thereof, that person shall also be guilty of the offence.

Penalties.

13.—Every person who commits an offence under this Part of this Act shall on summary conviction thereof be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Prosecution of offences.

14.—(1) Proceedings in relation to an offence under this Part of this Act may be brought and prosecuted by the Minister.

PART III.

Amendment of the Principal Act.

Further provisions relating to postponed orders for specific delivery of goods.

15.—(1) Where a postponed order for the specific delivery of goods to the owner has been made, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, under paragraph (b) of subsection (4) of section 13 of the Principal Act, the powers of the court under paragraphs (a) and (c) of subsection (4) of section 14 of that Act (which respectively enable the court to vary the conditions of the postponement or to make an order for the delivery of part of the goods to the owner and for the transfer to the hirer of the owner's title to the remainder) may be exercised, notwithstanding that any condition of the postponement has not been complied with, at any time before the goods are delivered to the owner in accordance with an execution order within the meaning of the Enforcement of Court Orders Act, 1926 , issued in pursuance of the order; and where such an execution order has been issued (whether before or after the commencement of this Act) the court shall— (a) if the court varies the conditions of the postponement under the said paragraph (a), suspend the execution order on the like conditions; (b) if the court makes an order under the said paragraph (c) for the specific delivery of a part of the goods to the owner and for the transfer to the hirer of the owner's title to the remaining part thereof, cancel the execution order so far as it provides for the delivery of the last-mentioned part of the goods.

Provided that where a guarantor is a party to the action, no such order shall be made before the date fixed for the hearing of the action.

Recovery of possession of motor vehicles let under hire-purchase agreements.

16.—(1) Section 6 of the Principal Act shall not apply in relation to a provision in an agreement made after the commencement of this Act whereby an owner of a motor vehicle which has been let under a hire-purchase agreement or a person acting on his behalf is— (a) authorised to enter premises (other than a house used as a dwelling or any building within the curtilage thereof) for the purpose of taking possession of the motor vehicle, or (b) relieved from liability for any such entry.

Liability of guarantor where goods are returned to owner.

17.—(1) Where— (a) goods are let under a hire-purchase agreement, whether made before or after the commencement of this Act, and (b) the owner recovers possession thereof or an order is made by the court under paragraph (a) of subsection (4) of section 13 of the Principal Act for the specific delivery thereof to the owner, then, subject to subsection (3) of this section, the liability of a guarantor under a contract of guarantee in relation to the agreement shall not exceed the amount, if any, which the hirer would have been liable to pay under section 5 of the Principal Act if he had determined the agreement under that section at the time of the recovery or the making of the order, as the case may be.

Appropriation of payments by owner in respect of hire-purchase agreements.

18.—Where— (a) a hirer is entitled under section 10 of the Principal Act to appropriate a payment made after the commencement of this Act, and (b) the hirer fails to make an appropriation under that section, and (c) one-third of the hire-purchase price has been paid under each of the hire-purchase agreements in respect of which are due sums in or towards the satisfaction of which the entitlement exists, the owner may, notwithstanding the provisions of the said section 10, appropriate the payment in or towards the satisfaction of the sum due under any one of the agreements or in or towards the satisfaction of the sums due under any two or more of the agreements in such proportions as he thinks fit and, if he fails to make any such appropriation as aforesaid, the payment shall, by virtue of that section, be appropriated towards the satisfaction of the sums due under the respective hire-purchase agreements in the proportions which those sums bear to one another.

Jurisdiction of the courts.

19.—(1) In an action commenced after the commencement of this Act by the owner of goods let under a hire-purchase agreement to enforce a right to recover possession of the goods from the hirer— (a) the Circuit Court shall have jurisdiction where the hire-purchase price does not exceed one thousand pounds, and (b) the District Court shall have jurisdiction where the hire-purchase price does not exceed one hundred pounds.

Amendment of definition of hire-purchase price.

20.—(1) For the purposes of the Principal Act, any sum payable by the hirer under a hire-purchase agreement by way of a deposit or other initial payment, or credited or to be credited to him under such an agreement on account of any such deposit or payment, whether that sum is to be or has been paid to the owner or to any other person or is to be or has been discharged by a payment of money or by the transfer or delivery of goods or by any other means, shall form part of the hire-purchase price.

Amendment of section 3 of the Principal Act.

21.—Paragraph (d) of subsection (2) of section 3 of the Principal Act is, as respects hire-purchase agreements made after the commencement of this Act, hereby amended by the substitution of “fourteen” for “seven”.

Amendment of section 4 of the Principal Act.

22.—Paragraph (c) of subsection (2) of section 4 of the Principal Act is, as respects credit-sale agreements made after the commencement of this Act, hereby amended by the substitution of “fourteen” for “seven”.

Restriction of section 5 of the Principal Act.

23.—(1) Section 5 of the Principal Act shall not apply in relation to hire-purchase agreements made after the commencement of this Act in respect of plant or machinery (other than mechanically propelled vehicles) which is intended for use in an industrial process and the cash price (within the meaning of section 3 of the Principal Act) of which exceeds two hundred pounds.

Amendment of section 7 of the Principal Act.

24.—Subsection (1) of section 7 of the Principal Act is, as respects requests of the kind referred to in that subsection received after the commencement of this Act, hereby amended by the substitution of “seven” for “four”.

Amendment of section 16 of the Principal Act.

25.—Section 16 of the Principal Act is, as respects the enforcement after the commencement of this Act of a right to recover possession of goods let under a hire-purchase agreement, hereby amended by— (a) the insertion after “those goods” of “or any of them”, and (b) the insertion after “the commencement thereof” of “as if one-third of the hire-purchase price had been paid or tendered”.

PART IV.

Miscellaneous.

Remittal or transfer of actions.

26.—(1) The jurisdiction of the High Court to remit or transfer actions under section 25 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 , may, in relation to an action pending in the High Court by the owner of goods let under a hire-purchase agreement— (a) to enforce a right to recover possession of the goods from the hirer, or (b) to enforce payment of a sum due under the hire-purchase agreement or under any contract of guarantee relating thereto, at any time before judgment is given in the action, be exercised by the High Court of its own motion and without application in that behalf having been made to it by any party to the action.

Judgments in actions for the recovery of goods let under hire-purchase agreements to be given only by a Judge or the Master of the High Court.

27.—Notwithstanding anything contained in rules of court, in an action in the High Court or the Circuit Court commenced after the commencement of this Act by the owner of goods let under a hire-purchase agreement claiming, whether solely or together with any other claim, the enforcement of a right to recover possession of the goods from the hirer, judgment may be obtained only from a Judge or, where appropriate, from the Master of the High Court.

Sale by dealer of goods let to him under a hire-purchase agreement.

28.—Where the hirer of goods of any class or description is a dealer in goods of that class or description and sells the goods of which he is the hirer when ostensibly acting in the ordinary course of his business as such dealer, the sale shall be as valid as if he were expressly authorised by the owner to make the sale, provided that the buyer acts in good faith and has not at the time of the sale notice that the hirer has not authority to make the sale.

Repeals.

29.—Subsection (5) of section 13 and section 20 of the Principal Act are, as respects actions commenced after the commencement of this Act, hereby repealed.

SCHEDULE.

Additional Paragraph to be included in Note or Memorandum of Hire-Purchase Agreement relating to a Motor Vehicle.

Section 16.

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