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

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

AAT – Administrative Appeals 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 – the individual or entity who 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.

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.

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.

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 to comply 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.

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 first applying to the Registrar or their delegate.

The Registrar may also determine that registrations on the PPSR are being 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 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 any evidence to suggest that your registration should or should not be able to be accepted or amended.^[1] 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 Appeals Tribunal (AAT).^[2]

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

As this is a decision that can be reviewed by the AAT, you are also entitled to request written reasons for the decision.^[3]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/.

[1] Pursuant to s150 of the PPS Act

[2] PPS Act Section 191(a) and (b)

[3] Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth) subsection 28(1)

Release Date: 19 December 2018

Version: 1.1

Updated: August 2022