Resources

Seven-year registrations are the most common registration period. If you registered in 2012 when the PPSR commenced, your registrations are due for renewal from 30 January 2019.

If you leave your registration renewals to the last minute, you run the risk of your registrations lapsing. Renewing your registration even one second past the end date is too late. Once it expires, it can’t be renewed. 

Late registration can mean the claim to the property as registered on the PPSR is unsecured and all the property that was registered before expiration is up for grabs. Your business will go to the bottom of the list of claimants to that property.

Even if a business quickly re-registers after letting a previous registration expire, the security on your property can be ineffective if the debtor becomes insolvent within six months of the new registration being lodged.

A PPS lease is a lease or bailment of goods treated under the PPSA as creating a security interest in the goods leased or bailed. It only applies when the arrangement runs for more than two years. 

Registration of a security interest arising under a PPS lease provides notice of the owner's legal interest in the goods while it is in the possession of the lessee or bailee. Failure to register an interest can result in the owner losing priority in the goods.

Registrations of PPS leases on the PPSR must meet specific timing requirements to have priority over other security interests in the same personal property. If a PPS lease exists, register the security interest as soon as possible on the PPS to obtain priority in the property.

Every time a registration on the PPSR is created, amended or discharged, the secured party receives a verification statement confirming the registration details. There is no verification statement issued when a registration expires.

The verification statement is proof of the PPS registration. It’s essential to ensure the details listed on it are correct, as certain mistakes will deem the registration ineffective.

Use our software solution ESIS to avoid the time-consuming task of opening each registration confirmation email, extracting the relevant information, matching it to each customer and storing it safely. ESIS automates the process – creating registrations in bulk and storing the data in a secure, searchable database.  

Not all registrations on the PPSR can be amended. Go to the government PPSR website for a comprehensive list.

To amend a registration, you will need the PPS registration number and associated token or the secured party group (SPG) number and access code.

Use an EDX Assurance Review to find out if your existing registrations contain errors that need fixing. 

Data collected from six years of conducting Assurance Reviews shows us that more than 80% of businesses that have registered on the PPSR are making serious errors which may limit or invalidate their interests in the property in question should the debtor become insolvent.

The PPSR search function can help your business make better credit decisions. If you’re considering opening a trade credit account with a new customer, a PPSR search will give you an insight into their financial stability. If you’re buying an asset, a PPSR search will reveal any creditors with security interests in the purchased asset.

If your search shows there is outstanding debt registered on the PPSR for the goods you are interested in buying, it’s unwise to go ahead with the purchase as there is a genuine chance the finance company listed on the PPSR will repossess the goods. 

Perform fast and accurate searches from a database of registered security interests using our search solution ESIS.
 

The secured party group (SPG) is made up of one or more secured parties. Every secured party must be part of a secured party group and cannot exist separately on the PPS registry.

Once you have set up an SPG, you cannot change the secured parties within it. If you need to add or remove secured parties, you must create a new SPG.

The secured party is the body holding a security interest in personal property. Examples include financier, mortgagee, chargee, lender, Retention of Title supplier, lessor. 

In the trade credit industry, the secured party is usually the supplier, and the grantor is the debtor (the one who owes the debt). The secured party can register a security interest on the PPSR against the personal property of a grantor. 

The grantor is the body granting the security right over the collateral. In other words, an individual or organisation who owns or has an interest in the personal property to which the security interest is attached.

In the trade credit industry, the grantor is usually the debtor (the one who owes the debt), and the secured party is the supplier. Grantors include those who use their business assets as security for a loan, receive property under a Retention of Title arrangement, or lease personal property from another party for an extended period.

PPS regulations prescribe the way you must describe grantors. If you don’t use the correct grantor identifying information in your PPS registration, you risk your registration not being valid.

There are many benefits for businesses to register security interests on the PPSR. A successful registration gives you a valid security interest over the personal property you’ve sold on payment terms or leased to a customer. If a customer goes bust before paying you, PPS registration helps you recover your goods or money. This protection even applies if your goods or assets are sold on or installed onto other goods.

Registration on the PPSR also determines the priority of security interests – which security interest should take precedence over another. When there is not enough money to pay back all the creditors, a super-priority (PMSI) <link to page 4.3 Resources/Jargon Buster> interest will put you at the head of the queue.

Insolvency practitioners will ignore a security interest not registered on the PPSR, and it will be the last you see of any collateral or property subject to that security interest.

There is a grey area here in the PPSA, so best practice is for the terms of trade to be signed. 

The alternative is if you can show that the customer – either by something they have done or haven't done – intends to be bound by the terms. Of course, it's hard to show this, particularly when it comes to the issue of terms of trade. To overcome the problem of getting customers to sign the terms and send them back, including a cover letter with a sentence like: "Here are the new terms. The placing of your next order is deemed to be the acceptance of these terms". 

The Personal Property Securities Act 1999 (PPSANZ) came into force in New Zealand in May 2002, bringing with it the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR).

It was another ten years before the PPSR came to Australia. The Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (known as PPSA or PPS Act) was introduced in November 2009 and commenced in May 2011. The PPSR came into effect on 30 January 2012.

PPSR stands for Personal Property Securities Register. The PPSR is a national online database that shows all registered security interests that businesses have in their personal property. Personal property includes goods, crops, livestock, debtors, cash, vehicles, plant and machinery.

Yes, EDX can manage the registration process for you or alternatively, provide you with the custom software and procedures you need to do it yourself. We’ve been simplifying the PPSR for businesses around Australia since the legislation was first introduced.   

There are benefits to adding low-value accounts, such as preventing shoot-throughs. Most of our clients register all their active accounts although we have a few clients with large ledgers that have a minimum threshold. Contact our team of PPSR experts for specific advice related to your business.

You can start registering if you have a Retention of Title clause in your terms and conditions (T&Cs). Regardless you should review your T&Cs regularly to ensure they meet best practice. PPSA clauses, the Privacy Act and Unfair Contracts legislation, should be included in your T&Cs.

Yes, if the account is closed and you don’t anticipate any further purchases. However, you may leave the registration if it’s an ongoing account that gets paid up and the customer makes regular purchases.

No, you register the grantor, not the goods. There are no amounts or credit limits required.