Mauritius
Hire Purchase and Credit Sale Act
Act 6 of 1964
- Commenced on 2 May 1964
- [This is the version of this document at 30 June 2017.]
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Hire Purchase and Credit Sale Act.2. Interpretation
In this Act—"annual percentage rate" means the annual percentage rate prescribed by the Minister under section 3 (3);"authorised officer" means a public officer designated by the Minister for the purpose of ensuring compliance with this Act;"bailment" means an agreement, other than a leasing contract, under which goods are rented to a bailee on a temporary basis in consideration for a monthly rental and property in the goods remains with the bailor;"bailor" means a person who rents goods to a bailee under a bailment;"buyer" means a purchaser of goods under a credit sale agreement;"cash price" means the price at which goods are sold on a cash sale basis, where such price, after deduction of any discount, is paid at the time of the purchase;"chargeable price" means the amount on which charges are imposed and which is equal to the difference between the cash price and the down payment;"charges" means such amount, not exceeding the annual percentage rate or the monthly flat rate, on the chargeable price as may be prescribed by the Minister under section 3 (3);"contract of guarantee", in relation to a hire purchase or a credit sale agreement, means a contract made at the request, express or implied, of the hirer or buyer, to guarantee the performance of the hirer's or buyer's obligations under the agreement and "guarantor" shall be construed accordingly;"credit price" means the total sum, not being in excess of the sum of the cash price and charges accrued, payable by the buyer under a credit sale agreement in order to complete the purchase of goods to which the agreement relates;"credit sale agreement" means an agreement for the sale of goods on credit and under which the dealership in the goods passes to the buyer upon the sale;"dealer"—(a)means a person—(i)who lets or has let goods to a hirer under a hire purchase agreement;(ii)who sells or has sold goods to a buyer under a credit sale agreement;(iii)to whom the dealer's rights and liabilities under a hire purchase or credit sale agreement have passed by assignment or by operation of law;(b)includes a lending and financing agency;(c)does not include a bailor;"down payment" means an amount referred to in section 4 (3) (a) and (4) (a);"goods"—(a)means, subject to paragraph (b), the goods and services specified in the Fourth Schedule;(b)does not include, with respect to a hire purchase agreement, an air ticket;"hire purchase agreement"—(a)means an agreement for the sale of goods under which the property in the goods shall pass to the hirer upon payment by instalments of the whole amount due;(b)includes any credit or financing agreement with a lending and financing agency for the purchase of goods;"hire purchase price" means the total sum payable by the hirer under a hire purchase 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, and not exceeding the sum of the cash price and charges accrued;"hirer" means a hire purchaser;"leasing contract" means a leasing contract entered into by a company providing lease financing and which is approved as a tax incentive company under the First Schedule to the Income Tax Act;"lending and financing agency" means a body corporate whose business is that of money lending or financing of hire purchase and credit sale transactions or similar transactions;"Minister" means the Minister to whom responsibility for the subject of commerce is assigned;"monthly flat rate" means the monthly flat rate prescribed by the Minister under section 3 (3);"repayment period" means the maximum number of months allowed by a dealer to a hirer or buyer under a hire purchase or credit sale agreement for the payment of the balance remaining due after the down payment has been effected;"surcharge" means an amount payable for the late payment of an instalment, which shall not exceed such rate as may be prescribed by the Minister under section 3 (3).[S. 2 amended by Act 15 of 1988; Act 29 of 1989; Act 1 of 1995; Act 26 of 2000; s. 17 of Act 14 of 2005 w.e.f. 21 April 2005.]3. Application of Act
4. Requirements for agreement
5. Right of hirer to determine agreement
5A. Right of buyer to determine agreement
6. Avoidance of certain provisions
Subject to section 11 (1), any provision in a hire purchase or credit sale agreement whereby—7. Duty of dealers to inform
8. Duty of hirer to inform
9. Implied conditions and warranties
10. Appropriation of payments
Notwithstanding any other enactment, a hirer or buyer who is liable to make payments in respect of 2 or more hire purchase or credit sale agreements to the same dealer shall, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, be entitled, on making any payment in respect of the agreements which is not sufficient to discharge the total amount then due under all the agreements, to appropriate the sum so paid by the hirer or buyer 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 2 or more of the agreements in such proportions as the hirer or buyer thinks fit, and, if the hirer or buyer fails to make any such appropriation, the payment shall by virtue of this section be appropriated towards the satisfaction of the sums due under the respective hire purchase or credit sale agreements in the proportions which those sums bear to one another.[S. 10 amended by Act 1 of 1995; Act 26 of 2000.]11. Right to recover possession and claim payment
11A. Payment of instalment under credit sale agreement
12. Powers of Court in actions by dealers
13. Postponement of order for delivery
14. Postponed orders
15. Powers of Court to deal with payments
16. Successive hire purchase agreements
Where goods have been let under a hire purchase agreement and, at any time after one half of the hire purchase price has been paid or tendered, the dealer makes a further hire purchase agreement with the hirer comprising those goods, section 1 2 shall have effect in relation to that further agreement as from its commencement.[S. 16 amended by Act 1 of 1995.]17. Bankruptcy of hirer
Where, under the powers conferred by this Act, the Court has postponed the operation of an order for the specific delivery of goods to any person, the goods shall not during the postponement be treated as goods which are by the consent or permission of that person in the possession, order, or disposition of the hirer for the purposes of section 47 of the Bankruptcy Act.18. Hirer's refusal to surrender goods
Where, while by virtue of this Act the enforcement by a dealer of a right to recover possession of goods from a hirer is subject to any restriction, the hirer refuses to give up possession of the goods to the dealer, the hirer shall not, by reason only of the refusal, be liable to the dealer for wrongful retention of the goods.[S. 18 amended by Act 1 of 1995.]19. Installation charges
20. Embezzlement
For the purposes of section 333 of the Criminal Code, a hire purchase agreement or a bailment made under this Act shall be deemed to be a contract of lease or hiring ("louage").[S. 20 amended by Act 15 of 1988.]20A. Advertisements
21. Exemption from registration
Notwithstanding any other enactment, a deed witnessing a hire purchase agreement or a credit sale agreement under this Act shall be exempt from registration under the Registration Duty Act and the Registration and Transcription of Deeds and Inscription of Mortgages, Privileges and Charges (Rodrigues) Act.[S. 21 amended by Act 15 of 1988; Act 1 of 1995; Act 38 of 1999; Act 26 of 2000.]22. ***
23. Regulations
24. Offences
25. Authorised officers
History of this document
30 June 2017 this version
Consolidation
02 May 1964
Commenced