Section 500-102 - DefinitionsThe following words, terms and phrases, when used in this act, shall have the meaning ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(1)"Banking institution" means any bank, bank and trust company, trust company, savings bank, private bank or any national banking association, organized and doing business under the provisions of any law of this Commonwealth, or of any other state of the United States, or under the provisions of any law of the United States of America.(2)"Cash price" means the cash sales price stated in a home improvement installment contract for which the contractor would sell or furnish to the buyer and the buyer would buy or obtain from the contractor the goods and services which are the subject matter of such contract, if the sale were a sale for cash, instead of a home improvement installment sale, and may include any taxes.(3)"Collateral" means any real or personal property subject to any pledge, security interest, mortgage, encumbrance, judgment or other lien which secures the performance of any obligation of the buyer, or any surety or guarantor for the buyer, under a home improvement installment contract or any extension, deferment, renewal or other revision thereof.(4)"Down payment" means the amounts paid in money and in goods to the home improvement contractor and all allowances given by the home improvement contractor to the buyer prior to or substantially contemporaneous with the execution of a home improvement installment contract.(5)"Finance charge" whether expressed as such or as "credit service charge," "service charge," "time price differential" or the like, means that amount by which the time sale price exceeds the aggregate of the cash price and the amounts, if any, included for insurance premiums and official fees.(6)"Financing agency" means a person other than a home improvement contractor engaged, directly or indirectly, as principal, agent or broker in the business of purchasing, acquiring, financing, soliciting or arranging for the financing or acquisition of home improvement installment contracts or any obligation in connection therewith: Provided, That the term shall not include any person to the extent that he makes bona fide commercial loans to contractors or financing agencies and takes assignments of, or an interest in, an aggregation of such contracts only as security for such commercial loans under which, in the absence of default or other bona fide breach of the loan contract, ownership of such contracts remains vested in the assignor and collection of payments on such contracts is made by the assignor.(7)"Goods" means all chattels personal which are furnished or used in the modernization, rehabilitation, repair, alteration or improvement of real property, including carpeting, but not including the construction of new homes.(8)"Holder" means any person, including a contractor, who is currently entitled to the rights of a contractor under a home improvement installment contract.(9)"Home improvement contractor" or "contractor" means a person who sells goods and services, or agrees to furnish or render services, to a retail buyer pursuant to a home improvement installment contract, but not including the construction of new homes.(10)"Home improvement installment contract" or "contract" means an agreement covering a home improvement installment sale, whether contained in one or more documents, together with any accompanying promissory note or other evidence of indebtedness, to be performed in this Commonwealth pursuant to which the buyer promises to pay in installments all or any part of the time sale price or prices of goods and services, or services. The meaning of the term does not include such an agreement, if (i) it pertains to real property used for a commercial or business purpose; or (ii) it covers the sale of goods by a person who neither directly nor indirectly performs or arranges to perform any services in connection with the installation of or application of the goods; or (iii) it covers only an appliance designed to be freestanding and not built into and permanently affixed as an integral part of the structure such as a stove, freezer, refrigerator, air conditioner, other than one connected with a central heating system, hot water heater and the like; or (iv) it covers the sale of goods and the furnishing of services or the furnishing of services thereunder for a cash price stated therein of three hundred dollars ($300) or less; (v) the loan is contracted for or obtained directly by the retail buyer from the lending institution, person or corporation; or (vi) the loan is insured, or a written commitment to insure it has been issued, pursuant to national housing legislation.(11)"Home improvement installment sale" or "sale" means the sale of goods and furnishing of services or the furnishing of services by a contractor to a retail buyer pursuant to a home improvement installment contract wherein the cash price is stated to be in excess of three hundred dollars ($300).(12)"Official fees" means the fees required by law to be and actually paid to the appropriate public officer for obtaining any permit or filing or recording or releasing any judgment, mortgage or other lien or perfecting any security interest taken or reserved as security in connection with a home improvement installment contract.(13)"Person" means an individual, partnership, association, business corporation, banking institution, nonprofit corporation, common law trust, joint stock company, or any other group of individuals, however organized.(14)"Principal amount financed" means the cash price of the goods and services which are the subject matter of the home improvement installment sale minus the amount of the buyer's down payment, plus the amounts, if any included for insurance and official fees.(15)"Retail buyer" or "buyer" means a person who buys goods and services, or services from a contractor pursuant to a home improvement installment contract.(16)"Services" means work, labor and services furnished in connection with the installation or application of goods in the modernization, rehabilitation, repair, alteration or improvement of real property, but not including the construction of new homes.(17)"Time balance" means the sum of the principal amount financed and the finance charge.(18)"Time sale price" means the total of the cash price of the goods and services or services, the finance charge and the amounts, if any, included for insurance premiums and official fees.1963, Aug. 14, P.L. 1082, art. I, § 102. Amended 1967, Oct. 19, P.L. 449, § 1.