Consumers

The Personal Property Securities (PPS) Register is a national online register that can help to protect consumers when they are buying personal property (not land, buildings or fixtures), particularly valuable second hand goods.

By searching the PPS Register, consumers will be able to find out whether personal property they may be planning to buy has a security interest registered against it.

Goods purchased by a consumer for personal use

If you are planning to buy a new used boat or car or other valuable goods for your own personal, domestic or household use, you can check the PPS Register to for any encumbrances (or security interests) over it.

If you are buying goods from a business, such as a retail shop, you generally do not need to be concerned with PPS reform. If however, the business does not ordinarily sell the goods you are buying and they are valued at more than $5000, you may want to check the PPS Register. For example if you are a consumer who is considering the purchase of a valuable piece of artwork that has been hanging in your local cafe, you may want to check the PPS Register before you buy the artwork.

If you are buying goods privately and they are valued at $5000 or more, you should consider checking the PPS Register to ensure there is no security interest over them.

As a consumer you need to protect yourself against purchasing goods that could be repossessed by searching the PPS Register.

Before you search the PPS Register you must have the following information:

For cars and boats

Cars and boats need to be searched by serial number, such as the vehicle identification number (VIN) or chassis number for cars and the hull identification number (HIN) or official number for boats.

For all other purchases from a private individual with a value of $5000 or more

For these purchases, you need to search by the name of the seller (referred to as the grantor in the PPS Register) and you will need to know their name and date of birth as it appears on an official identification document, such as a driver’s licence.

To obtain a search certificate for evidence of the search you have conducted, you need to make sure that you request the certificate at the completion of your search as this is not an automatic part of the search process. If you request a search certificate, there is no extra cost involved, and it will be available as a PDF document, which you can print or download.

For more information on how to search the PPS Register and the fees payable when searching the PPS Register, you can visit the for consumers page.