Registrar's Practice Statement No 10 – Suspending automatic acceptance of applications to register on the PPSR

This Registrar’s Practice Statement is intended to help users of the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) understand when the Registrar of Personal Property Securities (Registrar) may put in place measures to prevent certain persons or organisations from using the PPSR for the purpose of creating and amending PPSR registrations; or may restrict registrations being made against specific serial numbered items of collateral.

This Practice Statement outlines:

• Why the Registrar may put in place measures to restrict the making or amending of registrations on the PPSR against specific collateral or by certain persons
• The process for persons to apply to make or amend registrations where they have been restricted from doing so
• The review options available if an application is refused

ART – Administrative Review Tribunal

Collateral – Personal property that has a security interest attached to it as a result of an agreement between a grantor and a secured party.

Financing statement – the approved form in which a registration must be made in order to be registered on the PPSR.

Financing change statement – the approved form in which an existing registration must be amended in order to be registered on the PPSR.

Grantor: an individual or entity, who owns or has an interest in the personal property to which a security interest is attached and, agrees to grant a security interest over specified collateral to a secured party under a security agreement.

Identifier ­– the identifier of an organisation or an individual used to identify a grantor or secured party in a registration on the PPSR (such as ACN, DOB etc). The PPS Act and Regulations contain rules about which grantor identifier must be used.

Personal Property – This is property to which the PPS Act applies. It is property, other than land, buildings and fixtures to land. It includes goods, motor vehicles, planes, boats, intellectual property (such as copyright, patents and designs), bank accounts and debts, shares and other financial property, and private commercial licences. It does not apply to direct water rights, nor to most government issued licences or rights.

Personal Properties Securities Register (PPSR) – The PPSR is the official government register of security interests in personal property.

PPS Act – The Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) which, amongst other things, sets out the rules for how the Registrar administers the PPSR and manages data on the PPSR.

PPS Regulations – The Personal Property Securities Regulations 2010 made under the PPS Act.

Registration – a registered financing statement with respect to a security interest or personal property as described.

Registrar – The Registrar of Personal Property Securities makes (or delegates power to make) decisions under the PPS Act.

Secured party – the individual or entity which has been granted a security interest over particular collateral by a grantor, under a security agreement.

Security Interest – A security interest is most commonly created when a secured party (such as a lender) takes an interest in personal property of a grantor (such as a borrower), as security for a loan or other obligation. The security interest means the secured party can take personal property (known as collateral) if the secured obligation is not met.

Serial Number – In relation to collateral, means a serial number by which the PPS Regulations require, or permit, the collateral to be described in a registration.

Statement of reasons – a written statement that explains the reasons for making a decision.

Section 147 of the PPS Act requires the Registrar to establish and maintain a highly available and accessible PPSR. In order to do this, the PPSR was established at the outset as a fully digitalised service governed by a range of business rules to support users and ensure compliance with the requirements of the PPS Act.

In order to support the PPSR’s responsiveness and high number of transactions, these business rules operate based on the assumption that a user, having accepted the terms and conditions of use, is making a registration that is not frivolous, vexatious or offensive, or contrary to the public interest.

Additionally, it needs to be made with the legitimate belief (based on reasonable grounds) that they have or will have a security interest in the collateral. This supports a streamlined and timely registration process for the majority of PPSR users.

Without a valid security agreement, registering a security interest on the PPSR is prohibited under section 151 of the PPS Act, and can result in a fine. It may also constitute an offence under section 137.1 or 137.2 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).

Where it becomes evident to the Registrar that a person or organisation registering on the PPSR has acted in a manner contrary to this, the Registrar may exercise the right to suspend standard PPSR business rules from operating for appropriate individual or organisation identifiers. The Registrar will do this by restricting the relevant secured party identifiers from being able to make or amend registrations on the PPSR without an application first being made to the Registrar, or their delegate.

The Registrar may also determine that registrations on the PPSR are being improperly used to restrict the ability of a person to legitimately deal with a specific serial numbered item of collateral, and in those circumstances may exercise the right to suspend standard PPSR business rules from operating in relation to that collateral. Users seeking to register against collateral with a suspended serial number would be required to first apply to the Registrar or their delegate.

If the Registrar has taken steps to restrict you from making or amending registrations on the PPSR, or suspended registration against an item of collateral, you will receive an error message if you attempt to make a new PPSR Registration (or amend or transfer an existing one).

This error message will contain a reference number along the lines of ‘ENQ-0123456-1A2B3C’ and a phone number and email address to contact to find out more information about whether automatic acceptance of registrations has been suspended. 

You must contact the Registrar, or their delegate, to apply to make your registration. Information about how to do this will be provided upon contact from you.

Following a valid application, the Registrar, or their delegate, will then consider whether there is evidence to suggest that your registration should or should not be able to be accepted or amended pursuant to section 150 of the PPS Act. You will be notified of the outcome of this decision in writing.

A decision made to refuse to accept a registration or amendment to a registration can be reviewed by the Administrative Review Tribunal (AAT) pursuant to section 191(a) and (b) of the PPS Act.

The ART is an independent tribunal that reviews certain decisions made by Australian Government departments. Fees apply for making an application to the ART to review a decision. For more information, see the ART website at www.art.gov.au.

As the Registrar’s decision can be reviewed by the ART, you are entitled to request written reasons for the decision (section 269 of the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 (Cth). This is known as a statement of reasons. To get a statement of reasons, you must send us a written request within 28 days of the decision. We will then supply you with a statement of reasons within 28 days of your request. There is no fee for requesting a statement of reasons.

You can also make a written complaint to the Commonwealth Ombudsman at any time if you believe we have treated you unfairly or unreasonably. For more information, see their website at http://www.ombudsman.gov.au/.

Release Date: 19 December 2018

Version: 1.2

Updated: 29 April 2025