BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 1859 |
By: Simmons |
Business & Industry |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties contend that rental-purchase agreements represent a type of agreement that may be unfamiliar to a consumer presented with such an agreement outside of a traditional rent‑to‑own establishment. C.S.H.B. 1859 seeks to assist such consumers by requiring certain disclosures to be provided before a rental-purchase agreement is presented to the consumer.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
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RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 1859 amends the Business & Commerce Code to require a person who in the ordinary course of business regularly leases, offers to lease, or arranges for the leasing of merchandise under a rental-purchase agreement, or who is assigned an interest in such an agreement, if merchandise is not displayed or offered to consumers primarily for lease under such an agreement, to make certain disclosures specified by the bill relating to the price of and periodic payments for specific merchandise to a consumer before presenting a rental-purchase agreement for such merchandise to the consumer for execution. The bill requires such disclosures to be made separately from the agreement. The bill requires such a person to provide to a consumer at the time the rental-purchase agreement is presented to the consumer certain additional disclosures specified by the bill relating to the consumer's acknowledgement of the terms of the agreement and sets out the requirements for such additional disclosures.
C.S.H.B. 1859 establishes that, for purposes of provisions governing rental-purchase agreements, merchandise is displayed or offered to consumers primarily for lease under a rental-purchase agreement if the merchandise is displayed or offered at a place of business that derives at least 50 percent of its revenue from rental-purchase agreements.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2017.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 1859 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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