Section 31
Minimum deposits
Where the minimum amount of the deposit in respect of any goods or class of goods is not prescribed, an owner who enters into a hire-purchase agreement without having first obtained from the proposed hirer thereunder 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 comprised in the agreement, shall be guilty of an offence under this Act.
(1A)
An owner shall collect the deposit upon the signing of the hire-purchase agreement.
(1B)
If any owner, dealer, agent or person acting on behalf of the owner fails to deliver the goods intended for the hire-purchase agreement to the intending hirer, the owner, dealer, agent or person acting on behalf of the owner shall refund the full amount of the deposit to the intending hirer.
(2)
In this section and in section 32 “hire-purchase agreement”
does not include any agreement or arrangement that is entered into solely for the purpose of giving effect to an assignment or transfer of the rights and liabilities under an existing hire-purchase agreement from the hirer to another person.
(3)
Any person who contravenes subsections (1A) and (1B) shall be guilty of an offence under this Act.
Certain payments, etc., not to be treated as deposits for the purposes of this Part