Queensland Consolidated Acts Queensland Consolidated Acts(1) In any proceedings under this Act or arising out of a hire-purchase agreement or instituted pursuant to subsection (4) where it appears to the court that the transaction is harsh and unconscionable or is otherwise such that the Supreme Court would give relief on an equitable ground the court may reopen the transaction and take an account between the parties thereto.
(2) The court reopening any transaction under this section may, notwithstanding any statement or settlement of accounts or any agreement purporting to close previous dealings and create a new obligation--
(a) reopen any account already taken between the parties; and
(b) relieve the hirer and any guarantor from payment of any sum in excess of such sum in respect of the cash price, terms charges, and other charges as the court adjudges to be fairly and reasonably payable; and
(c) set aside either wholly or in part or revise or alter any agreement made or security given in connection with the transaction; and
(d) give judgment for any party for such amount as, having regard to the relief (if any) which the court thinks fit to grant, is justly due to that party under the agreement; and
(e) if it thinks fit give judgment against any party for delivery of the goods if they are in the party's possession.
(3) Where it appears to the court that any person other than the owner has shared in the profits of or has any beneficial interest prospectively or otherwise in the transaction which the court holds to be harsh and unconscionable the court may add that person as a party to the case and may give judgment against that person for such amount as it thinks fit or for the delivery of the goods if they are in the party's possession and the court may make such other order in respect of that person as it thinks fit.
(4) Proceedings may be instituted in any court (including a Magistrates Court constituted in accordance with the provisions of this Act) by the hirer or any guarantor under a hire-purchase agreement for the purpose of obtaining relief under this section.
(4A) However, nothing in subsection (4) shall authorise the bringing of proceedings in a court where the total amount payable under the hire-purchase agreement concerned exceeds the monetary limit to which the jurisdiction of such is subject or, in the case of a Magistrates Court, the monetary limit to which the jurisdiction of a Magistrates Court, constituted under the Magistrates Courts Act 1921, is subject.
(5) In any proceedings under this section the court shall have and may exercise all or any of the powers conferred by subsections (1), (2), and (3) notwithstanding that the time for the payment of any of the amounts payable under the agreement may not have arrived.
(6) A hirer or guarantor under a hire-purchase agreement is not entitled to institute proceedings under this section--
(a) in a case where the owner has taken possession of the goods comprised in the agreement--after the expiration of a period of 4 months from the time when the owner serves the notice in the form of schedule 4; or
(b) in any other case--after the expiration of a period of 4 months from the time when the transaction is closed.