The Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) had its 7 year birthday on 30 January 2019. With over 160,000 transitional registrations and over 220,000 non-transitional registrations created on the PPSR in February 2012 alone*, this birthday is significant for a number of reasons, but particularly:
- large numbers of these registrations would have 7 year periods; and
- 7 years is the most common length of time selected by users for the registration of a security interest on the PPSR.
With the passing of the 7 year period, a large number of registrations would have expired or will soon expire if not renewed before their end date. An expired registration is invalid and cannot be renewed. If your registration has expired, a new registration on the PPSR will need to be made. However, that new registration will be subject to the risk of:
- losing priority to another security interest in the same collateral, even if that security interest arose later in time; and
- being subject to a 6 month hardening period from the date of re-registration – during this period the security interest may vest in its grantor if the grantor enters administration or is wound up.
We cannot stress enough the importance of keeping track of your PPSR security interests. If you are a secured party and believe that this may impact you, we recommend that you do not delay and obtain a ‘registrations due to expire report’ from the PPSR. This report provides you with a list of registrations that are due to expire in a specified time period. If you need assistance with renewing, re-registering or keeping track of your PPSR registrations, please get in touch.
*Australian Government, Australian Financial Security Authority, ‘PPSR Quarterly Statistics – PPSR registrations activity’, https://www.afsa.gov.au/statistics/ppsr-quarterly-statistics
