How to Conduct a Search of the PPSR

There are a few reasons why trade credit suppliers may need to search the PPSR not least of which is to find out who has been lodging registrations against them! 

But while trade suppliers may not have such an immediate need to search the register as, say, financiers, it is still helpful to have a good idea as to how a search is conducted if for no other reason than that knowledge will help ensure the accuracy of their own registrations. 

It is a good rule of thumb that if a registration won’t show up on a properly conducted search, it is almost certainly not going to be effective.

The first step is to visit https://www.ppsr.gov.au whereupon you’ll be presented with a great deal of help and guidance and, at the top right hand corner, a button to click in order to take you to the PPSR itself:

If you think you might need to consult the Register on a regular basis you might find it convenient to bookmark the landing page at https://transact.ppsr.gov.au/ppsr/Home?li=False&si=0.

Once on the PPSR there will be a couple of ways to start your search, but, for ease and consistency, I’m going to focus on options presented from the main menu tabs at the top of the page:

We’re obviously going to be concentrating on the PPSR’s search facilities and, hovering over the PPSR Search tab will provide the following options:

As you can probably tell from where I have my mouse cursor in the above screencap, we’re going to start off by conducting a search of a grantor which is classified by the PPSA as an organisation.  As is suggested by the only other grantor search option, the PPSA regards any entity that is not an individual as being an organisation.

Because it is relatively topical (see here) we’re going to conduct a search on ONESTEEL MANUFACTURING PTY LTD.

Firstly, we need to identify the grantor in accordance with the PPSR’s requirements.  To this end we are immediately asked if the organisation in question has an “ARSN”.

An ARSN is an Australian Registered Scheme Number and is primarily used by managed investment schemes – not a customary Grantor for trade credit suppliers.

After selecting ‘No’, you are then presented with:

OneSteel Manufacturing is a PTY LTD company and will therefore have an ACN (Australian Company Number).

However, once ‘Yes’ is selected and the opportunity to enter the ACN number is provided the following warning is also presented:

Here is the most clear-cut guidance provided by the PPSR that, where the company you are trading with is acting as the trustee of a trust, the registration needs to be lodged against the ABN of the trust. 

If OneSteel was acting as a trustee, we’d change our mind and, counter-intuitively, select ‘No’ to the question asking if they have an ACN, thus opening up the opportunity to select ‘Trust’ as an organisation type and enter the relevant trust ABN.  However, OneSteel does not act as a trustee of any trust, therefore, we will leave our response as ‘Yes’ and continue.

After entering OneSteel’s ACN in the box provided we are prompted to use the ‘Verify’ button to check to see that the number we’ve entered produces a name match with ASIC’s records that reflects our expectations.

In this instance, there’s been no error and all is good.

The PPSR now gives us the opportunity to tweak our search a little, offering the opportunity to search for registrations lodged during a specific date range:

Or for registrations lodged against specific classes of collateral:

Note, that if you choose to search by date range (say for example, you’re repeating a search conducted a couple of months ago and are only interested in registrations lodged since that time) you won’t be allowed any other options to filter your search.

Also note that if you choose to restrict your search to a specific collateral class (or classes) you will always have ‘All present and after acquired property’ registrations included in your results whether you wanted them included or not.

You also have some further options for your search under the heading Advanced search criteria:

The options are largely self-explanatory and, as you can see from the above screencap, are defaulted so as not to limit the search results.

I find it a little amusing that if you attempt to un-check all three Transitional registration criteria boxes you get the following error message:

Anyway, silly personal amusements aside, you then have the opportunity to sort your search results by registration number, either showing oldest to most recent or youngest to least recent.

And that is pretty much it. 

You get the opportunity to enter a reference to help remind you why you did the search or to identify later what the search related to, but the next step is to select ‘Search’ and get your credit card out ready to pay the $3.40 search fee.

UPDATE: Note that the fee for such searches has been reduced to $2.00.

New PPSA Amendment passes its first reading

The first day of the new season saw the Government introduce the Personal Property Securities Amendment (PPS Leases) Bill 2017.

As the element in parentheses indicates, the Bill concerns an amendment to the manner in which the PPSA deals with leasing arrangements.

At present the PPSA only applies to leases that run for longer than one year, are for a shorter period but allow for extensions that would take them beyond one year, or are for an indefinite period.

The new Bill basically takes that one year qualifying period and extends it to two years.

But before anyone suggests holding off on lodging that backlog of registrations you’ve got piling up, the Bill (if enacted) isn’t intended to apply retrospectively and it’s anybody’s guess as to when it will actually come into effect given that the last amendment of this nature took 15 months to pass and another 3 months to get Royal Assent!

Clearly a lot of lobbying has been taking place behind the scenes because, at least from my point of view, this Bill is something of a surprise – there was certainly no recommendation in the official review of the PPSR to extend the PPS Lease period.

However, the Bill does incorporate an element of one of the Review’s recommendations where indefinite leases are concerned.  If passed, indefinite leases will only require registration once the goods being leased have actually been in the possession of the Grantor for the two year period. 

While this will obviously be a substantial relaxation of the rules for businesses that essentially deal in short term hires but don’t explicitly identify a maximum end date, it will be interesting to see how this ties in to the Corporations Act - s588FL of which pretty much requires registration within 20 business days of the leasing agreement being signed to avoid risking losing hired goods to any liquidator appointed within 6 months of the actual registration date.

UPDATE: This Bill was formally passed on Thursday 11th May and will come into effect as soon as it has Royal Assent.