What is hire-purchase agreement

A hire-purchase agreement, being an agreement to hire coupled with an option (not an obligation) to purchase, developed in the middle of the nineteenth century as a means of financing the retail acquisition of furniture, sewing machines and musical instruments.It is said that this rental-purchase method covered the acquisition of pianos in the 1840's and Singer sewing machines in the 1860's.Two English cases of the 1890's consolidated the development of hire-purchase as a finance product. The prevalence of hire-purchase increased in the early decades of this century. In the depression years of the 1930's however, abuse of the agreements became more prolific.