The Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) is an official government register of interests in personal property. Operating as an online noticeboard, you can register your security interest on the PPSR to show that you have rights over personal property which secure a debt or obligation that someone owes you. It is designed to assist those who conduct business transactions via credit terms, or businesses that lease, rent or hire out equipment, and permeates through a wide range of industries, including agriculture, automotive, construction and mining, financial services, retail, wholesale and manufacturing.

But you can also conduct a PPSR search to see whether the goods you want to buy are free from debt. Additionally, signing up to the PPSR is fundamental to a successful credit risk management operation and is a key component in helping businesses avoid insolvency and keeping tabs on existing and potential trading partners.

In this article, we explain why it is so important to conduct a PPSR check, no matter what sector you are working in, how to properly conduct a PPSR check, and the many different aspects of the PPSR you can search in order to bolster your credit risk management and avoid bad debt.

What does a PPSR search reveal?

The PPSR is an online public database that shows all secured creditors to a business and individuals. It’s important to understand that it is not a register of ownership, nor does it show any interests over land or real property.

However, it is a powerful tool for a business owner, credit manager or CFO to mitigate credit risk and bad debt. PPSR registrations offer protection for business owners from unfair preference payments or clawbacks. A registration also makes a business a secured creditor, who has a higher priority to receive money owed over unsecured creditors during an insolvency event. If a company owes you money and you’re an unsecured creditor, you join a long list of other unsecured creditors and see little or no money at the end of the lengthy process.

The PPSR not only reduces your risk exposure when buying personal property, but gives you a deeper understanding of an entity’s interests in personal property and paints a clearer picture of your potential and existing trading partners. If you are taking on a new customer or supplier, searching the PPSR is the only way you can determine who the secured creditors of the business are.

This is essential because only secured creditors get first rights to assets held on retention of title to a business and gain a financial return for debts owed. Unsecured creditors miss out in the event of insolvency. Additionally, PPSR details who these providers, suppliers and financiers to a business are, in case they have been rejected for finance and are resorting to other lenders.

How to conduct a PPSR search?

CreditorWatch’s award-winning PPSRLogic tool enables you to manage all your PPSR search and registration needs.

There are many different types of searches you can do on the PPSR to find out if there is a security interest registered over personal property. Searches can be conducted on organisations and individuals, and you can also check the security interests of assets such as watercrafts, aircrafts, and intellectual property. Types of searches include:

Types Of PPSR Searches Available:

• Organisational Grantor Search –

  Before doing business or lending money to an organisation, you can do a PPSR search using an organisation’s identifier to check if there are security interests registered against their personal property.

• Individual Grantor Search –

  Before you lend money to an individual or go into business with them, you can run a PPSR search using the individual’s name and date of birth to check if there are any security interests registered against their personal property.

• Serial Number Search –You can identify registrations for motor vehicles, water crafts and aircrafts by using the serial number to check the PPSR for any security interests registered against it.
• Intellectual Property – Before purchasing rights to intellectual property such as copyright, patents or designs, you can search the PPSR to check if there are security interests registered against it.
• Vehicle registration search – enter a specific registration number and retrieve the details.
• Ordinal search – allows users to determine the order of any two specified registration events. This is something that has a change number allocated to it, or is an expiry date.

PPSRLogic

CreditorWatch’s award-winning PPSR platform, PPSRLogic, provides you with all your PPSR check and registration needs.

Combining the PPSR search, along with CreditorWatch’s credit reports and scores insights, will provide your business with a comprehensive view of the credit worthiness of a current or potential customer and their ability to meet its repayments and commitments.

Contact us today to hear more about how our suite of digital credit tools can help you protect and grow your business.