Protect Your Personal Property
Posted on 6th March 2018 by Kelsi Keep
The Personal Properties Securities Register (PPSR) is an Australian register where details of security interests in personal property (machinery, motor vehicles, inventory, crops, livestock, etc) can be registered and searched.
If you are a business that sells goods on credit with your terms in writing, a PPSR registration protects your retention of title in those goods.
Similarly, if you lease goods, your written agreement and a PPSR registration protects you (the lessor) in case your customer (the lessee) experiences financial difficulty.
If you don’t register your personal property with the PPSR and the entity in possession of that property goes bankrupt, you could lose your property. For example; there is a New Zealand case (which is a precedent in Australia) where the owners of a $2 million racehorse leased it to a stud company. The stud company got into financial difficulty and the stud’s financier repossessed the stud and the $2m horse because they hadn’t registered their security interest in their horse under New Zealand’s equivalent of the Australian legislation.
The PPSR isn’t just useful for registering your goods, the ability to search the PPSR for security interests in property you are wanting to purchase can also provide you with financial protection. For example, if you were looking at purchasing a second-hand car, you could potentially be purchasing personal property that already has a security interest registered in it by the seller’s financier – from when they purchased the car. The seller could sell you the car, take your money then stop making repayments to their financier. In this event the financier could repossess your car, meaning you would lose your money and the car. A quick search on the PPSR can reveal if the seller’s financier already has a security interest registered in that car.
If you think the PPSR may be useful to your business you can find more details here: https://www.ppsr.gov.au/ or contact your Accountant at GeersSullivan.