Personal Property Securities Register – Is Your Security About to Lapse?

November 5, 2018

It has been almost 7 years since the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) was established, creating a national online register for security over personal property (including livestock, vehicles, plant and equipment and grain).

The significance of this is that as the most common PPSR registrations are effective for 7 years, the earlier registrations will soon be expiring, meaning the person who registered the security will no longer be a secured creditor.

PPSR registrations are most commonly used where:

1. The seller of personal property (secured party) takes security over the personal property of the buyer (grantor) to secure payment;
2. The lender of money (secured party) takes security over the personal property of the borrower (grantor) to secure repayment; or
3. The owner of plant (secured party) hires that plant to the grantor

The advantage of the registration is the secured party is a secured creditor, so if the grantor defaults in payment, the secured party can take possession of the secured property to recover the amount owed. The secured party also has priority over unsecured creditors if the grantor becomes bankrupt.

We also use PPSR registrations to protect the owner of plant hired to or used by another party (grantor) to make sure that the creditors of the grantor cannot sell the plant to pay the debts of the grantor.

If you registered on the PPSR for a 7-year period when the PPSR was first introduced, then your registrations will start to expire from January 2019; and you will become an unsecured creditor.

We recommend reviewing your PPSR registrations to see if they need to be renewed.

Please contact us if you would like help with the PPSR.