The Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA) commenced on 30 January 2012, establishing a national system governing the use of personal property as security. The PPSA changed the way security interests in personal property assets are governed, requiring you to register your security interests on the Personal Properties Securities Register (PPSR) in order to secure payment or the performance of an obligation. The PPSR is a national register that acts as a notice board by showing all registered security interests in personal property. Secured parties such as financiers and other lenders can register their security interest on the PPSR.
If your security interest is not registered, you will be classed as an unsecured creditor. In our article titled ‘A $60M mistake – the consequence of a lessor failing to make a PPS registration’, we outlined a case where a lessor suffered a $60 million loss for failing to register its PPS lease security interest. The consequence of failing to register a security interest in this case illustrates that it is extremely important to register your security interest on the PPSR to avoid losing priority relative to other secured parties, and thus running the risk of losing the right to payment or performance of an obligation.
From the date of commencement of PPSA, a default registration period of 7 years was set. From 30 January 2019, these 7-year registrations begun to expire. If you are a secured party and any of your registrations are due to expire on the PPSR but you continue to have a security interest over the collateral to which the registration relates, we strongly recommended amending your registration to extend the period of registration. The registration must be extended before it expires to maintain priority. If your registration has expired, it cannot be amended or extended.
If you need assistance in extending your registrations that are due to expire, contact us today.
At Bryks Lawyers we have extensive experience across the broad spectrum of PPSA. This includes reviewing documents for compliance with PPSA and ensuring that our clients’ interests are protected and enforceable. We also assist our clients in registration of security interests on the PPS Register and provide training to in-house teams on how to register properly. Start the conversation today!
