National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009

A licensee must not enter into, or offer to enter into, a consumer lease for household goods with a consumer who will be the lessee under the lease if the amount that would be required to be paid under the lease by the lessee would not meet the requirements prescribed by the regulations.

For example, the regulations may provide that the amount of a payment must not exceed a specified percentage of the lessee’s income.

A person commits an offence if:

the person is subject to a requirement under subsection (1); and

the person engages in conduct; and

the conduct contravenes the requirement.

If the licensee enters into a consumer lease for household goods in contravention of subsection (1), then:

the lessee is not liable (and is taken never to have been liable) to pay any amount under that consumer lease that exceeds the base price of the goods hired under that consumer lease (whether or not the liability is imposed consistently with the National Credit Code); and

the lessee may recover as a debt due to the lessee any amounts paid by the lessee that, in accordance with paragraph (a) of this subsection, the lessee is not liable to pay (or is taken never to have been liable to pay).