In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

For the purposes of this Act, the determination of whether goods are consumer goods is to be made by the debtor as at the time when the security interest in the goods attached within the meaning of the Personal Property Securities Act 1999.

This Act binds the Crown.

The purpose of this Act is to set out the rules that apply when a creditor takes possession of consumer goods under a security agreement to which this Act applies.

This Act applies to a security agreement—

This Act applies whether or not a financing statement has been registered under the Personal Property Securities Act 1999 in respect of the security interest.

This Act also applies as provided in section 51.

This Act applies where a creditor has a right to take possession of consumer goods, or to enter premises, or to enter premises when an occupier is not present, under, or in any way in connection with, a security agreement or by virtue of the creditor’s property in the consumer goods.

This Act does not confer a right to take possession of consumer goods, or a right to enter premises, or a right to enter premises when an occupier is not present.

This Act is to be read subject to subsection (2).

A creditor must not take possession of consumer goods unless—

In this section and section 8, consumer goods are at risk if the creditor has reasonable grounds to believe that the consumer goods have been or will be destroyed, damaged, endangered, disassembled, removed, or concealed contrary to the provisions of the agreement; but the onus of proving the existence of those grounds is on the creditor.

A creditor must serve a pre-possession notice on the debtor, and on every guarantor of the debtor, before taking possession of consumer goods.

This section does not apply if the consumer goods are at risk within the meaning of section 7(2).

Every pre-possession notice must be in writing in the form set out in Schedule 1,—

A creditor must not take possession of consumer goods in respect of which a pre-possession notice has been given unless—

Every person who contravenes any of sections 7 to 10 commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $3,000.

A debtor may apply to a court for relief if—

in contravention of this Act.

The court may, having regard to—

grant such relief to a debtor who applies under section 12 as is reasonable, whether or not the granting of the relief involves a variation in the terms of the security agreement.

The court may grant relief on such terms, if any, as to costs, expenses, damages, compensation, penalty, or otherwise as the court, in the circumstances of each case, thinks fit.

However, where the court determines that any application is vexatious, it must order—

A creditor or a creditor’s agent must not exercise a right to enter premises in a manner that is unreasonable.

The following are prohibited times for the purposes of this section:

A creditor or a creditor’s agent must not exercise a right to enter residential premises at a prohibited time unless the debtor consents in writing to the entry of those premises at a prohibited time.

The consent is not valid unless it is given—

The consent is not valid if the creditor or creditor’s agent seeks it in person at a prohibited time at any residential premises.

The following are disqualified persons for the purposes of this section:

Every disqualified person commits an offence, and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000, who, being a creditor or a creditor’s agent,—

Any creditor or creditor’s agent who enters, or attempts to enter premises, is, for the purpose of this section, presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to be entering for the purpose of taking possession of consumer goods or for another purpose in connection with consumer goods.

Every creditor or creditor’s agent who exercises a right of entry of premises must, on first entering the premises if anyone is present, and, if requested, at any subsequent time, produce—

This section applies if a creditor or creditor’s agent enters premises for the purpose of taking possession of consumer goods, or for any other purpose in connection with consumer goods, when the occupier of the premises is not present.

The creditor or creditor’s agent must, before leaving the premises, leave a notice in writing in a prominent place—

The creditor or creditor’s agent must take such steps as are reasonably practicable to ensure that the premises are not left obviously open.

Every person commits an offence against this Act, and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 who wilfully and forcibly obstructs a creditor or a creditor’s agent who is lawfully exercising any power to take possession of consumer goods.

In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires,—

A creditor who is entitled to take possession of an accession under this Act must remove the accession from the whole in a manner that causes no greater damage to the other goods or that puts the person in possession of the whole to no greater inconvenience than is necessarily incidental to the removal of the accession.

A person, other than the debtor, who has an interest in the other goods at the time the goods become an accession is entitled to reimbursement for any damage to that person’s interest in the other goods caused by the removal of the accession.

Any reimbursement payable under subsection (1) does not include reimbursement for a reduction in the value of the property caused by the absence of the accession or by the necessity of the replacement of the accession.

A person entitled to reimbursement under section 19C may refuse permission to remove the accession until the creditor has given adequate security for the reimbursement.

The court may, on an application made by a creditor, make an order—

The creditor who is entitled to remove the accession from the whole must give notice of the creditor’s intention to remove the accession to each of the following persons:

The notice referred to in subsection (1) must be given not less than 10 working days before the removal of the accession and must contain—

This section does not apply if—

A person, other than the debtor, who has an interest in the whole that under this Act is subordinate to a security interest in the accession may retain the accession on payment to the creditor with a security interest that has priority over all other security interests in the accession of the lesser of—

The court may, on the application of a person entitled to receive a notice under section 19F, make an order—

A creditor must serve a post-possession notice on the debtor, and on every guarantor of the debtor, within 21 days of taking possession of consumer goods.

Every post-possession notice must be in writing in the form set out in Schedule 2.

A creditor who intends to sell consumer goods must, in addition to any other notices that the creditor must give under this Act, give notice to the following persons, within 21 days of taking possession of consumer goods:

Subsection (1) does not apply if—

If a post-possession notice is not served as required by this Act,—

Where a creditor has taken possession of any consumer goods, the creditor must not, without the consent in writing of the debtor obtained after possession of the consumer goods has been taken, sell or dispose of the consumer goods or part with possession of the consumer goods (except for the purposes of storage or repair) until after the expiry of 15 days from the date of service of the post-possession notice on the debtor.

This section applies except as provided in an order under section 13(3) (vexatious applications).

If the creditor contravenes section 23,—

The creditor must offer the consumer goods for sale after the expiration of 15 days from the date of service of the post-possession notice on the debtor.

This section does not apply if—

Any sale by a creditor may be by auction or public tender or a private sale but, in any case, the creditor must ensure that every aspect of the sale, including the manner, time, place, and terms, is commercially reasonable and, in particular, must use all reasonable efforts to obtain the best price.

Unless the consumer goods are perishable or threaten to decline speedily in value, the creditor must give the debtor reasonable notice of—

The creditor and the debtor are each entitled to bid at any public auction or, where the consumer goods are offered for sale by public tender, to submit tenders, as the case may require, and if the creditor is the successful bidder or tenderer, the consumer goods, for the purposes of this Act, are deemed to have been sold for the amount of the creditor’s bid or tender.

The onus of proving that the consumer goods have been sold in accordance with this section is on the creditor.

Subsection (1) does not apply if—

The debtor is entitled to obtain, at the debtor’s expense, 1 valuation of the consumer goods as at the time possession was taken by the creditor.

The rules relating to valuations are as follows:

The debtor may, at any time after the creditor has taken possession of the consumer goods and at any time before the creditor sells or agrees to sell the consumer goods in accordance with this Act, reinstate the agreement by—

In this section,—

This section applies except as provided in an order under section 13(3) (vexatious applications).

Where the right to reinstate the agreement is exercised under section 28,—

Where the consumer goods are returned to the debtor pursuant to subsection (1)(a) and a particular default has not been remedied, the creditor does not have any right, arising out of that default, to take possession of the consumer goods unless,—

The debtor may, at any time after the creditor has taken possession of the consumer goods and at any time before the creditor sells or agrees to sell the consumer goods in accordance with this Act, require the creditor to sell the consumer goods to any person introduced by the debtor who is prepared to purchase the consumer goods for cash at a price not less than the estimated value of the consumer goods set out in the post-possession notice served on the debtor.

This right may be exercised by giving to the creditor a notice in writing signed by the debtor, or his or her agent.

This section applies except as provided in an order under section 13(3) (vexatious applications).

The debtor may, at any time after the creditor has taken possession of the consumer goods and at any time before the creditor sells or agrees to sell the consumer goods in accordance with this Act, settle the debtor’s obligations under the security agreement—

In this section, the amount required to settle the agreement—

Where the right to settle the agreement is exercised,—

If the consumer goods have not been sold within 3 months, the debtor may either—

The period of 3 months commences with the date on which the creditor takes possession of the consumer goods.

Upon application under this section, the court may make such order as it thinks fit.

The following rules apply to a sale required under subsection (1)(b):

A purchaser for value and in good faith who takes possession of consumer goods sold by a creditor takes the consumer goods free from the following interests:

Subsection (1) applies whether or not registrations relating to security interests that are subordinate to the security interest of the creditor selling the consumer goods have been removed from the register.

If consumer goods have been sold under section 26 or section 32, all security interests in the consumer goods and their proceeds that are subordinate to the security interest of the creditor who sold the consumer goods are extinguished on the sale of the consumer goods.

Where consumer goods are sold pursuant to section 26 or section 32, the creditor must, within 10 days after the sale of the consumer goods, give the debtor and the persons referred to in section 21A(1) a statement of account in writing, showing—

If a creditor has sold consumer goods under section 26 or section 32, the creditor must pay the following persons the amount of any surplus by satisfying the claims of those persons in the following order:

The security interests to which subsection (1)(a) applies must be paid in the order of their priority as determined by Part 7 or Part 8 of the Personal Property Securities Act 1999.

Subsection (1) applies despite the extinguishment of a security interest under section 32B.

The creditor may pay the surplus into court if there is a question as to who is entitled to receive payment under section 34.

The surplus may be paid out only on an application by a person claiming an entitlement to the surplus.

The persons referred to in section 34 are entitled to recover the amount of any surplus from the creditor.

If the net proceeds of sale are less than the amount required to settle the agreement under section 31 as at the date of the sale, the creditor is not entitled to recover more than the balance left after deducting those proceeds from that amount (whether under a judgment or otherwise).

In any legal proceedings in relation to a security agreement, after the creditor has taken possession of the consumer goods, the court before which such proceedings are brought may vary or discharge any judgment or order of any court (whether a District Court or not) against the debtor for recovery of money so far as is necessary to give effect to the provisions of sections 34 and 35.

A secured credit sale agreement is terminated by the return of the consumer goods comprised in the agreement if they are returned—

Subject to section 36B, if a secured credit sale agreement is terminated under subsection (1), the rights and liabilities of the creditor and the debtor are to be determined as if the consumer goods had been repossessed by the creditor on the date that they were returned by the debtor.

Nothing in this section or section 36B limits or affects any right that the debtor has apart from this section to terminate a secured credit sale agreement.

If a secured credit sale agreement fixes or provides for the fixing of the amount (if any) to be paid by the debtor in the case of the voluntary termination of the agreement by the debtor, the amount (if any) that the creditor is entitled to recover from the debtor must not exceed that amount.

The creditor must, unless the creditor elects to regard the goods as still having a value that is not less than 80% of the cash price, sell the consumer goods in accordance with section 26, and sections 33 to 35 apply accordingly with any modifications that are necessary.

If the creditor elects to regard the goods as having a value that is not less than 80% of the cash price, the creditor must, within 14 days of the termination of the agreement, serve on the debtor a statement in accordance with section 33, which must set out, instead of the items mentioned in section 33(a) and (b), the value which the creditor attributes to the consumer goods.

Except to the extent that sections 7 to 36 are specifically applied by this section or need to be applied in order to determine whether, following the termination of a secured credit sale agreement as provided in section 36A, there is a balance owing by the creditor to the debtor or by the debtor to the creditor, nothing in those sections (other than section 34(2)), applies to the voluntary return to the creditor by the debtor of the consumer goods comprised in a secured credit sale agreement if that return results in the termination of the agreement as provided in section 36A.

The provisions of this section and of sections 7 to 36 do not apply to the consumer goods comprised in any secured credit sale agreement if the parties to that agreement subsequently enter into a written agreement for the voluntary return of those goods which excludes those provisions, and the debtor has had, before making the agreement for the voluntary return of the goods, professional and independent advice as to the legal implications of that agreement.

Any time prescribed by this Act for the service or giving of any notice or other document or for the commencement of any proceedings may, on an application made to the court (either before or after the expiration of that time but after notice to the other party to the agreement), be extended by that court for such further period, and upon such conditions, as the court thinks fit.

Any notice or other document required or authorised by this Act to be served on or given to any person must be in writing and is sufficiently served or given if—

If the person is absent from New Zealand, the notice or other document may be served on or given to the person’s agent in New Zealand.

If the person is deceased, it may be served on or given to the person’s personal representatives.

If the person is not known, or is absent from New Zealand and has no known agent in New Zealand, or is deceased and has no personal representatives, the notice or other document must be served or given in such manner as may be directed by an order of the court.

If any such notice or other document is sent to any person by registered letter, it is deemed to have been delivered to the person on the fourth day after the day on which it was posted, and in proving the delivery it is sufficient to prove that the letter was properly addressed and posted.

Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this section, the court may in any case make an order directing the manner in which any notice or other document is to be served or given, or dispensing with the service or giving thereof.

This section does not apply to notices or other documents served or given in any proceedings in any court.

A District Court has jurisdiction to exercise any of the powers conferred by any of the provisions of this Act in any case where—

A Disputes Tribunal established under the Disputes Tribunals Act 1988 has jurisdiction to exercise the powers conferred on a court by any of the provisions of this Act in any case where, subject to this section, the total amount in respect of which an order of the Tribunal is sought is not more than $3,000.

Subject to this section, an order of a Disputes Tribunal under any of the provisions of this Act must not—

and an order of a Tribunal that exceeds any such restriction is entirely of no effect.

Where, in respect of any proceedings properly before a Disputes Tribunal, the jurisdiction of the Tribunal has been extended under an agreement made pursuant to section 13 of the Disputes Tribunals Act 1988, subsections (1) and (2) of this section are to be read as if every reference in those subsections to $3,000 were a reference to $5,000.

Any reference in this section to $3,000 is, if a greater amount is from time to time specified in section 10 of the Disputes Tribunals Act 1988, to be read as a reference to that greater amount.

The reference in subsection (3) of this section to $5,000 is, if a greater amount is from time to time specified in section 13 of the Disputes Tribunals Act 1988, to be read as a reference to that greater amount.

Despite anything to the contrary in section 25 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011, the limitation period in respect of an offence against this Act ends on the date that is 2 years after the date on which the offence was committed.

The provisions of this Act have effect despite any provision to the contrary in any security agreement.

Section 56 of the Sale of Goods Act 1908 is to be read subject to the provisions of this section.

Every creditor commits an offence against section 13(i) of the Fair Trading Act 1986 who purports to contract out of any provision of this Act.

The fact that an act which contravenes any of the provisions of this Act has been committed in the course of the performance of any contract does not—

The Governor-General may from time to time, by Order in Council, add to or omit anything from any form in a schedule of this Act, or otherwise amend any such form, or revoke any schedule and substitute a new one.

Amendment(s) incorporated in the Act(s).

Amendment(s) incorporated in the Act(s).

This Act also applies to any hire purchase agreement entered into before the commencement of this Act.

However, this Act does not apply to any repossession commenced before the commencement of this Act, and the Hire Purchase Act 1971 continues to apply as if this Act had not been passed.

A repossession is deemed to have commenced if a notice has been served under section 26 of the Hire Purchase Act 1971 or possession of goods has been taken in contravention of that section.