Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hire Purchase DBF
Hire Purchase DBF
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Hire Purchase is a system of acquiring goods on credit whereby the seller of the goods is regarded
as the dealer; the purchaser is regarded as the hirer and the finance company as the
owner.
A hire purchase agreement must be in writing and printed. Any oral agreement is not a valid hire
purchase agreement. The main legislation governing the hire purchase transactions in
Malaysia is the Hire Purchase Act 1967, which came into force on 11 April 1968.
The most common type of hire purchase agreement in Malaysia is for the purchase of motor vehicle
2.1 Definition
Where the property in goods passes at the time of agreement or upon any time
before the delivery of goods; or
Where the dealer of the same goods contracts to buy the same goods from another.
Hirer : 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.
Owner : A person who lets or has let goods to a hirer under a hire-purchase
agreement and includes a person to who the owner’s rights
or liabilities under the agreement have passed by assignment or
by operation of law.
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Section 2(1) of Hire Purchase Act 1967 defined consumer goods as goods purchased for
personal, family and house hold purposes.
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Case : Credit Corporation (M) Bhd v. The Malaysia Industrial Finance Corporation & Anor.
Facts : In that case the plaintiff purchased a car and entered into a hire purchase agreement
with a hirer. The car was registered in the name of the hirer with the plaintiffs claim
for ownership indorsed on the register and the registration card. The first
defendant purchased the car from a third party and entered into a hire purchase
agreement with the second defendant. After terminating the hire, the plaintiff
repossessed the car. The plaintiff thereupon sought a declaration that it was
the owner of the car. The defendant counterclaimed for trespass, conversion and
wrongful detention and damages.
Held : It was held that upon the true construction of the plaintiff agreement which was of a
type to which the Hire Purchase Act applied, until the hirer had exercised his option
to purchase the car by paying the total rentals and fulfilling all his
obligations under the agreement, no property in the car passed to the hirer.
The court was also of the view that even though the hirer was the registered
owner of the car he was only in law the person who had possession and use
of the car and this fact did not necessarily make him the legal owner of the
car. Even though the registration card of the car named the debtor as the "registered
owner" this fact does not make him the legal owner.
Authority Formalities
( as provided in HPA 1967)
Section 4(1) Imposes on the owner or its agents to serve on the prospective
hirer document which contains the description of the goods and the
prospective hirer’s financial obligations under the agreement.
Section 4(4) Failure to obey Section 4(1) will render the HP Agreement void.
Section 4(5) An owner shall be guilty of an offence.
Section 4A(1) Requires the agreement to in writing is void if the handwriting is ‘is
not clear and legible”.
Section 4A(2) HPA which is not in writing shall be void.
Section 4A(3) The owner shall be guilty of an offence if does not comply Section
4A(1).
Section 4B (1) Requires the agreement to be signed by or on behalf of all the
parties to the agreement.
Section 4B(2) HPA must duly completed before the hirer is required to sign.
Signing of blank forms is illegal; as decided in Ming Lian
Corporation Sdn Bhd v. Haji Noordin.
Section 4B(3) HPA that does not comply with Section 4A & 4B shall be void.
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Section 4B(4) The owner or dealer shall be guilty of an offence if does not comply
with Section 4A and 4B.
Section 4C(1) The agreement must contain these information: the date the hiring
starts; the number of installments to be paid by hirer; the amount of
each installments, the time for payment; the description of goods;
and the address where the goods are kept
Section 4D Requires where more than one item is purchased, there must be a
separate hire-purchase agreement for each item. Any contravention
renders the agreement void.
Section 39 No addition or alteration can be made to the agreement; if there are
alterations or additions, they will have no effect unless the hirer
consented by signing or initializing the agreement in the margin
opposite the change-
Section 5(1) Requires the owner to serve on the hirer and the guarantors a copy
of the hire-purchase agreement within fourteen days after it is
made. Failure to comply will render the agreement unenforceable
by the owner but it is not void [ Section 4(1A)]
Section 31(1) In the absence of a prescribed minimum deposit required of a hirer,
an owner entering into the hire-purchase agreement must first
obtain from the hirer a deposit in cash or in goods, or partly in cash
and partly in goods, to a value not less than one-tenth of the cash
price of the goods.
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Part III of the Act lays down various warranties and conditions to protect hirers and guarantors.
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Rights Explanation
Section 9 of HPA 1967 At any time before the final payment, upon written
The right to a copy of statement request the hirer has a right within 14 days to be
relating to his financial position supplied such information: the amount paid to the
owner; the amount due; the amount payable and
amount of interest on overdue installment if any.
Section10 of HPA 1967 The hirer can direct payment to a particular agreement
Right to appropriation of payment or payment to any two or more agreements in such
proportions he thinks fit.
Section 11 of HPA 1967 It is common under the agreement that hirer must keep
Right to apply for an order of goods to the goods at the address stated in the agreement. The
be removed hirer may apply to the court to move the goods to a new
address.
Section 12 of HPA 1967 The rights may be assigned with the consent of the
Right to assign owner but if the consent unreasonably withheld, then
consent may be waived.
Section 13 of HPA 1967 The right, title and interest of a hirer can pass by
Right by operation of law operation of law to the personal representative of the
hirer. This occurs on the death or the bankruptcy of the
hirer.
Section 14 of HPA 1967 This section confers the hirer the right to an early
Right to early completion of agreement- completion of the hire-purchase agreement. The hirer
need to give written notice to the owner on or before
the day specified in the notice to tender payment to the
owner the net balance due.
Section 15 (1) of HPA 1967 The section confers the right on the hirer to terminate
Right to terminate the agreement the agreement at any time by returning the goods to the
owner
Section 18 of HPA 1967 Upon receipt of repossession notice from the owner, the
Right of hirer on repossession by hirer may within twenty-one days give notice to the
owner owner requiring him to: redeliver the goods that has
been repossessed (subject to compliance of Section 19)
and sell the goods to any person introduced by the hirer
who is prepared to buy for cash at a price not less the
estimated value of the goods set out in the notice.
Goods must be stored in the place specified in the hire purchase agreement.
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The owner is entitled to recover of the goods the hirer has committed a breach of his
contractual obligations relating to the payment of installments under the hire purchase
agreement.
Section 16A further provides that where a hirer is deceased, an owner shall not exercise
any power of taking possession of goods comprised in a hire-purchase agreement
arising out of any breach of the agreement relating to the payment of installment unless
there have been four successive defaults of payments.
Section 16A provides that a hirer who returns goods comprised in a hire-purchase
agreement within 21 days after the service on him of the notice in the form set out
in the Fourth Schedule shall not be liable to pay:
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8.2 At Repossession
Owner may repossess after fulfils a procedure. The procedures are provide under
Hire Purchase Act and Recovery of possession and maintenance of Records 1976
Section 16(1) of Hire Purchase Act 1967
The right of the owner to repossess arises if there is a default of the hirer to
pay two successive payments. To repossess, the owner must serve a notice
of 21 days to the hirer as in the 4 th Schedule. Period of 21 days is given to the
hirer to surrender the goods or pay the arrears.
After the period of 21 days has expired (the period is to be calculated from
the day notice to repossess is delivered), owner or his agent may repossess
by showing his identification.
If the hirer has deceased, Section 16 (1A) of Hire Purchase Act 1967 provides that
repossession only arises after default to pay FOUR (4) successive months.
Section 16 (2) of Hire Purchase Act 1967
The owner need not serve the 4 th Schedule Notice if there are reasonable
grounds for believing for believing that the hirer will remove or conceal the
goods.
(i) Pays or tenders to the owner any amount due by the hirer under the hire-
purchase agreement in respect of thee period of hiring up to the date
of payment or tender;
(ii) Remedies any breach of the agreement or pays or tenders to the owner the
costs and expenses reasonably and actually incurred by the owner in
doing any act, matter, or thing necessary to remedy the breach; and
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(iii) Pays or tenders to the owner the reasonable costs and expenses of the
owner of incidental to his taking possession of the goods and of his
returning them to the hirer. [Section 19(1)]
(i) By notice in writing given to the hirer at the time of the return of the goods
he specifies the breach and requires it to be remedied; and
(ii) The hirer fails within 21 days or within the time specified in the notice
(whichever is the longer) after receiving the notice to remedy the
breach.
In contrast, for hire-purchase contracts not governed by the Hire-Purchase Act, the owner
can proceed to recover the hire-purchase facility in the usual way.
Section 34 of Hire Purchase Act 1967 declares certain provisions in a hire-purchase agreement to
be void. They are as follows:
A provision that restricts any rights conferred on the hirer to determine a hire-purchase
agreement;
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The Hire Purchase Act 1967 (Amendment 2010) came into force on June 15, 2011
Purpose : To give more protection to consumers and covers hire purchase ranging
from refrigerators to furniture, as well as motor vehicles.
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