After 5 years of the Personal Property Securities Register the implications of the Register are still being tested.
The importance of the Register lies in the principle that if you have a security interest over personal property and you do not register it (or do not register it properly), your interest may not have priority against other creditors or you could become an unsecured creditor on insolvency of the grantor or you could lose your security interest on sale of the collateral.
As a result the majority of cases focus on:
- Correcting the register (SFS Projects);
- Amending the register (Macquarie Leasing);
- Meaning of personal property (Is it a fixture? Forge);
- Extensions of time to register (Accolade Wines);
- Registering the ABN instead of the ACN (OneSteel).
The Register has become full of registrations that many grantors may not even recall giving.
In recent transactions my PPSR searches of other parties has revealed numerous registrations relating to interests which have expired but not have been discharged.
If you are a credit provider or lessor you should review your procedures for new registrations as well as monitoring expired transactions and extending registrations where necessary.
