Hire-Purchase Agreement:

In a hire-purchase agreement, the owner hires goods to the hirer with an option to purchase the goods when he has made the payment of a certain sum.

By this system, the purchaser who is unable to pay the full price of the asset at one lump sum, gets facilities to acquire an asset and after making the payment of an initial amount called premium, the purchaser pays the balance consideration money in installments.

After the payment of all the installments, the property in the goods passes to the hirer. The hirer has an option to return the goods during the period of hire. In a hire-purchase agreement, the hirer has the right to terminate the agreement for hire at his pleasure and is not bound to pay the value of the goods.

A hire-purchase agreement is a form of bailment; the hirer is given the right to purchase the goods on certain conditions. That, however, is an option not an obligation to purchase.

The hirer may elect to purchase the goods and when he does so, after he fulfills all the conditions prescribed in the agreement, the title to the goods will pass to him. But he may elect not to do so, and in that event he is entitled to return the goods and terminate the agreement in the manner provided therein.