Title PEP, Personal Property

§ 448. Separability. If any provision of this article or the application of such provision in certain circumstances shall be held invalid, the validity of the remainder of this article and its applicability to other circumstances shall not be affected.

§ 45-a. Salary or earnings of public officer or employee. 1. No assignment of, or power of attorney to collect or other instrument affecting, the whole or any part of his salary or earnings by an officer or employee of the state or of any political subdivision thereof or of any …

§ 46. Definitions. In this article unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires: 1. "Assignment" means any assignment of or order for payment of any earnings, whether given outright or as security. "Assignment" shall not include a payroll deduction, nor any part of ea…

§ 46-a. No implied repeal. Nothing in this article shall be deemed to limit any other statutory provision. Any express statutory provision, in force at the time this article takes effect, and which is inconsistent with any provision of this article, shall prevail.

§ 46-b. Assignments of future earnings collectible only as prescribed. Assignments of future earnings shall be collectible only as prescribed in sections forty-eight to forty-eight-d, inclusive, of this chapter.

§ 46-c. Formal requisites of assignments of less than one thousand dollars and of assignments securing certain guarantees amounting to fifteen hundred dollars or less. No assignment of future earnings, securing or relating to any indebtedness aggregating less than one thousand d…

§ 46-d. Guarantee of certain purchases secured by assignment of earnings. No guarantee given to the seller to secure the payment of goods, wares or merchandise amounting to fifteen hundred dollars or less sold for any use other than a commercial or business use, the payment of w…

§ 46-e. Personal execution of assignment by assignor; delivery of copies of papers. No assignment of future earnings shall be valid for any purpose whatever unless such assignment is personally executed by the assignor. A copy thereof and of any papers attached thereto together …

§ 46-f. Limit on interest and other charges. Except as provided in\narticle nine of the banking law, no person shall directly or indirectly\nreceive or accept, whether by discount or otherwise, for the use and\nsale of his personal credit or for making or continuing any advance …

§ 47. Public filing of assignment before filing with employer. Except as provided in section forty-nine of this chapter, an assignment of future earnings or a true copy thereof, must be filed with the county clerk as provided for in section forty-seven-a before such assignment o…

§ 47-a. Place of filing. An assignment of future earnings or a true copy thereof authenticated by a notary public or commissioner of deeds, together with an itemized statement setting forth the amount then due the assignee and the date and amount of payments theretofore made upo…

§ 47-b. Filing, entering and indexing. 1. The filing officer shall mark upon the assignment or true copy thereof filed with him the date of its filing and shall file such assignment or true copy thereof in his office for public inspection. He shall keep a separate book in which …

§ 47-c. Refiling. The filing of assignments shall be valid for a period of two years only. The validity of the filing may in each case be extended for successive additional periods of one year from the date of refiling by filing in the office of the county clerk of the county in…

§ 47-d. Cancellation of assignment. Upon the payment or satisfaction of the indebtedness, and upon written demand delivered personally or by registered mail by the assignor, the assignee shall execute and acknowledge or prove, and deliver to the assignor a certificate setting fo…

§ 47-e. Vacating of an assignment, by order of a court. 1. An assignment may be vacated by a judgment of a court of record upon a special proceeding brought by the assignor, his employer or any person having an interest therein. Before such judgment shall be granted an order to …

§ 48. Notice to be mailed to assignor prior to filing with employer. 1. No assignment of future earnings shall be filed with the assignor's employer until twenty days shall have elapsed after a written notice shall have been mailed to the assignor by certified mail, return recei…

§ 48-a. Manner of collection; percentage of earnings deductible; restriction against multiple deductions. Subject to subdivision two of this section, any assignment of future earnings shall be collectible from the assignor's employer at the time of each payment of such earnings …

§ 48-b. Amount of exempt earnings. Notwithstanding anything contained in this article, no portion of the assignor's future earnings shall be withheld by reason of any assignment, unless such earnings exceed the sum of eighty-five dollars per week.

§ 48-c. Assignment of future earnings by person unemployed; effect of loss of employment. If the assignor is not employed at the time he makes an assignment of future earnings, but is thereafter employed, his future earnings shall nevertheless become collectible by the assignee …

§ 48-d. Payroll deductions not included. Payroll deductions may be made by the employer notwithstanding any restriction in this article, and shall be deductible in addition to the payments under any wage assignment permitted by this article; provided however that in any case whe…

§ 49. Certain provisions not applicable to banks, trust companies or credit unions. 1. The provisions of section forty-seven of this article shall not be applicable to any bank, trust company or credit union doing business in the state of New York. 2. The provisions of section f…

§ 49-a. Statement to be filed by lenders upon assignment. 1. Every person, firm or corporation engaged in or seeking to engage in the business of lending money upon security of an assignment of, or of purchasing upon discount future or accrued earnings, shall file with the clerk…

§ 500. Definitions. For the purposes of this article: 1. "Advertisement" means a commercial message in any medium that directly or indirectly promotes or assists a rental-purchase agreement. 2. "Cash price" means the price of the merchandise described in the rental-purchase agre…

§ 501. Form. 1. A rental-purchase agreement must be written in plain\nEnglish and in any other language used by the merchant in an\nadvertisement related to the rental-purchase agreement. Numerical\namounts must be stated in figures.\n 2. Disclosures required by this section mus…

§ 502. Availability. Every rental purchase agreement shall indicate that a consumer at his or her request shall be permitted to review a completed rental-purchase agreement for up to forty-eight hours prior to signing. A copy of the fully completed rental-purchase agreement and …

§ 503. Total cost. 1. A merchant shall maintain records that establish\nthe merchant's cost for each item of merchandise that is the subject of\nthe rental-purchase agreement. A copy of each rental-purchase agreement\nand of the records required by this subdivision shall be main…

§ 504. Early purchase option. 1. The consumer has the right to acquire\nownership of the merchandise at any time by tendering to the merchant\nall past due payments and fees and an amount equal to the cash price\nstated in the rental-purchase agreement multiplied by a fraction t…

§ 504-a. Interruption or reduction of income in certain instances. 1. If any consumer who has signed a rental-purchase agreement experiences an interruption or reduction of twenty-five percent or more of income due to involuntary job loss, involuntary reduced employment, illness…

§ 504-b. Maintenance of merchandise. 1. The merchant shall maintain the property subject to the rental-purchase agreement in good working order while the agreement is in effect without charging any fee to the consumer in addition to the regularly scheduled rental payments set fo…

§ 505. Advertisement. 1. An advertisement for a rental-purchase agreement that refers to or states the amount of a payment or the right to acquire ownership of any one particular item under the agreement shall clearly and conspicuously state: (a) that the transaction advertised …

§ 506. Exempted transactions. This article does not apply to: 1. Agreements for the rental of merchandise in which the person who rents the merchandise has no legal right to become the owner of the property at the end of the rental period; 2. A lease of a safe deposit box; and 3…

§ 507. Enforcement. 1. A consumer who has suffered a loss due to a violation of this article by a merchant is entitled to recover from the merchant actual damages, reasonable attorney's fees and court costs. 2. Whenever a court finds that a consumer has been injured because a me…

§ 508. Administration by the attorney general. The attorney general may make rules and regulations necessary for the administration of this article; provided, however, that such rules and regulations shall not attempt to regulate or characterize rental-purchase agreements as a s…

§ 550. Laws repealed. Of the laws enumerated in the schedule hereto annexed, that portion specified in the last column is hereby repealed.

§ 551. When to take effect. This chapter shall take effect immediately.