News

This new Australian only Legislation will change the way Storer’s goods are sold in our industry. As an operator, you must undertake a search of the PPS Register (‘the register’) before selling the Storer’s goods to ensure that none of the goods in the Space have a security interest registered against them. Failure to do so may see you forfeit funds raised from the sale – or the value of the item sold – to the person with the superior priority.

Do I have to undertake a search?

You will need to undertake a search before selling a storer’s goods. If you do not undertake a search and an interest is recorded on the PPS Register against those goods, you may be liable to the person with the registered interest.

For vehicles, watercraft and other similar items, the VIN, chassis or serial number is the information searched. For all other items it is the storer’s name. If the storer has a car and other items in storage, you will have to perform two separate searches. At this time, it would appear that this will be treated as two transactions and hence will attract two search fees.

ALL search fees may be applied to the Storer’s ultimate bill, which may be taken out of funds received for sale of goods.

What will this cost?

An online search will cost $3.70. Included in this cost is the ability to print a certificate detailing the search you undertook and the information found.

IMPORTANT:  you will need to nominate that you want the certificate to be issued when you undertake the search – it will not automatically be generated.

Requesting a certificate will not incur any additional cost, but the request for the certificate must be made at the time to search is initiated. The certificate will be in PDF form, and you can print or download it.

If you wish, you can apply for an account with the register after 30 January. You may instead choose to ‘pay as they go’ for any searches you undertake.

How do I undertake a search?

You can undertake a search of the PPS register online. A helpful tutorial can see viewed here http://www.ppsr.gov.au/Information_resource/PersonalPropertySecuritiesRegistertutorials/Pages/default.aspx#SR

A special word about Vehicles

Vehicle searches will no longer be made with REVS or VSR, but instead a search of the PPSA will be necessary. To undertake a search you will need the VIN number, or if the vehicle does not have one, the chassis number. Interestingly, a search of the PPSA register will also trigger a request for information from NEVDIS, which should include information about the car’s make, colour and model. This data base may also contain specific information in the event that the car has been registered as stolen or written off.

NOTE: only the VIN or chassis number may be relied upon. The car’s plates or registration number are not relevant to the search.

When should I do the search?

You need to search the register before you start the process of actually selling the goods.  Search the register immediately before opening up the unit to inventory the goods for sale.  This way you will know when you inventory the goods if you need to look for anything that is listed on the register.  If the person has no goods listed against their name on the register then you can proceed to sell or dispose of their goods as per the normal procedure outlined in the SSAA MAP.  If you find a vehicle in a unit after you have opened it up then you will need to search the register again for that vehicle once you have the VIN or chassis number.  Note that if a storer has both goods and vehicles then you need to search the register twice, once in the Storer’s name and again using the Vin or Chassis details from the vehicle.  If a storer is only storing a vehicle then you do not need to search the register for their name only the vehicle details.

What if the Storer does have goods listed on the register?

If the storer does have goods listed on the register then those goods will need to be treated differently and you should contact the SSAA office for more information.  Note that only the goods listed on the register need to be held from sale, all other goods that are not listed on the register can be sold or disposed of in accordance with the SSAA Manual of Advice and Procedures

Warning!

The register must be searched for ‘proper purposes’ only, and there are steep penalties for misuse.

What do I do in SiteLink Web Edition?

A PPSA “Charge” of $3.70 per search needs to be added to the Storer’s Account for the actual search. Some sites may want to add a “Fee” for the time it takes to administrate this new Legislation. In each case  a new Fee needs to be added. support@centreforceit.com.au and they can send you Technical bulletin on how to add these charges.

Want to know more?

There is a vast amount of information available for those interested in knowing more here: http://www.ppsr.gov.au/About_PPS/Pages/AboutPPS.aspx including fact sheets and links to the legislation itself.