66Procedure where hire-purchase goods are distrained

66 Procedure where hire-purchase goods are distrained

[Section 66 Amended by 25 Geo. V No. 78 ]

(1)  Where any goods or chattels have been distrained for rent due by a tenant or lodger in respect of any premises, and such goods or chattels or any part thereof are comprised in a hire-purchase agreement, the owner of such last-mentioned goods or chattels (hereinafter referred to as "the owner") may, within 7 days after such distraint has been made, or at any time before the removal of the goods or chattels so distrained, deliver to the landlord of such premises, or to the agent or bailiff of such landlord, a statutory declaration, stating that he is such owner, and setting out the particulars of the goods or chattels comprised in the hire-purchase agreement, and the amount still unpaid, and upon payment of which such goods or chattels as last aforesaid would, if the hire-purchase agreement had been fully carried out, have become the property of the hirer.

(2)  Upon delivery of any such declaration as aforesaid –

(a) if there are, upon the premises upon which the distress has been levied, sufficient other goods or chattels to satisfy the distress, no further proceedings shall be taken under such distress in respect of the goods or chattels comprised in the hire-purchase agreement;

(b) in any other case, the landlord or his agent or bailiff may, in addition to the distraint already made by him, make a further distraint upon the goods and chattels liable to distress, for such an amount as is referred to in subsection (1) , and proceed to a sale thereof in the manner provided by law, and the proceeds of such sale shall be applied by the landlord, in so far as the same shall extend, in manner following:

(i) first in payment of the costs of and incidental to the distress and sale;

(ii) secondly in payment to the owner of such amount as is referred to in subsection (1) ;

(iii) thirdly in satisfaction of the amount due to the landlord –

and the balance, if any, of such proceeds shall be paid by the landlord to the hirer.

(3)  For the purposes of this section a hire-purchase agreement does not include an agreement whereby the goods comprised therein have become the absolute property of the person therein expressed to be the hirer thereof.