What is the PPSR?
The Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) is a new national online security register. The PPS Register will allow lenders and businesses to register their security interests (encumbrances). Secured parties, buyers and other interested parties can search the PPS Register to find out if a security interest is registered over the personal property. PPSR will commence on the 30th of January 2012. It will replace all state and territory registers, including registers of interests in motor vehicles, including:
- REVS (Register of Encumbered Vehicles)
- VCheck (Vehicle Information Check)
- VSR (Vehicle Securities Register)
The PPSR
Why Register
Retention of Title
should be searched to ensure that the dealership can provide clear title to a vehicle.
What items can I search on?
PPSR searches are performed by serial number. Dependent upon the type of Vehicle the provided seral number may be:
- VIN (i.e. vehicles)
- CHASSIS (i.e. caravans)
- HIN (i.e. boats)
Important Note:
- When searching for boat motors on PPSR, you will need to search by HIN and enter the motors engine number. All boat motors engine numbers have been migrated into the HIN serial type on the PPSR register.
- Vehicles built before 1988 cannot be registered on PPSR and a search on these VINs will provide no results
Why is an accurate VIN or CHASSIS number required on the PPSR Register?
The correct VIN, CHASSIS or HIN number is essential when making a registration and searching on the national PPS Register because failure to use the correct number will result in an inability to find the registration on the PPS Register and therefore an ineffective registration.
No protection is provided by the PPS Act if an incorrect VIN or chassis number is provided.
Note: There will be no provision for searching or registering an interest by plate or engine number on the PPS Register.
What do PPSR Certificates & Statements look like?
View PPSR Verification Statement (Received after Registering an Interest)
View PPSR Verification Statement (Received after Amending an Interest)
View PPSR Verification Statement (Received after Discharge of Registration)
Should I Register My Interest in a Motor Vehicle?
The New rules
Retention of title arrangements
The new rules that are most likely to affect small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are those relating to retention of title business practices.
Under PPS reform, businesses can no longer rely solely on retaining title to their goods to reclaim them if they supply to customers who become insolvent or bankrupt – they need to register on the PPS Register.
Under the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth), the supplier can register their interest on the PPS Register in order to protect that interest, and their right to repossess the goods, if the customer failed to pay.
For continuous supply of goods situations, the supplier needs only to register once for each customer – not for every supply.
Lessors
Under PPS reform, lessors can no longer rely only on ownership to ensure they can reclaim their goods if the lessee becomes insolvent or bankrupt – they need to register on the PPS Register.
Banking and finance
Banks and finance companies may chose to review the adequacy of standard charge and mortgage documents to see if they can be simplified. As with all business sectors, they should also ensure they have the correct information about the grantor to make an effective registration.
Many banks and finance companies have taken advantage of the special business‑to‑government (B2G) channel to ensure that multiple transactions can be processed efficiently. If you would like more information about B2G, please contact us.
Motor vehicle industry
The commencement of PPS reform has a significant impact on the motor vehicle industry, because transactions for securities interests in this industry are predicted initially to be the majority of registrations on the new national PPS Register.
The application of the PPS Act to retention of title arrangements in the spare parts sector and to vehicle leases represents a significant change for the industry. Each state and territory register of encumbered vehicles/ vehicles securities register have been replaced by the PPS Register. All registrations made prior to October 2011 have been migrated to the PPS Register automatically.
Glossary
Glossary
Further Reading
ComLaw Website - Personal Property Securities Act 2009
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