(1) A representation,
warranty, or statement made to the hirer or prospective hirer, whether orally
or in writing, by the owner or dealer or any person acting on behalf of the
owner or dealer in connection with or in the course of negotiations leading to
the entering into of a hire-purchase agreement shall confer on the hirer
—
(a) as
against the owner, the same rights (including the right to rescind the
agreement) as the hirer would have had if the representation, warranty, or
statement had been made by an agent of the owner; and
(b) as
against the person who made the representation, warranty, or statement, and
any person on whose behalf such person was acting in making it the same right
of action as the hirer would have had against them or either of them if the
hirer had entered into the hire-purchase agreement with such first-mentioned
person or the person on whose behalf he was acting (as the case requires) as a
result of negotiations.
(2) A covenant,
condition, or term in a hire-purchase agreement or other document purporting
to exclude, limit, or modify the operation of this section or to preclude any
right of action or any defence based on or arising out of any such
representation, warranty or statement is void.
(3) Without prejudice
to any other rights or remedies to which an owner may be entitled, an owner is
entitled to be indemnified by the person who made the representation,
warranty, or statement, and by any person on whose behalf the representation,
warranty, or statement was made against any damage suffered by the owner
through the operation of the foregoing provisions of this section.
[Section 6 amended: No. 107 of 1973 s. 6.]