PPSR
PPSR practicalities By Lynne Walton MICM*
Lynne Walton MICM
Considerable focus has been placed on the legal aspects of the PPSA but what about the practicalities of working with the government’s PPSR Register for non ‘business as usual’ transactions. Many AICM members place registrations day to day as suppliers of goods, hirers of equipment, providers of finance and sometimes just as protection from Liquidators Unfair Preference or Preferential Payment claims. In most cases, they have become familiar with the process and the more common resultant effects produced but what about the ‘out of the ordinary’ situations that impact PPSA security and require interaction with the register – how do secured parties deal with those? Lynne Walton from Accessii Group (pronounced Access Eye) has outlined a few not so commonly faced situations to help us navigate our way through some of the practicalities of managing our PPSR registration portfolios and maintaining our security in an enforceable condition. Suppliers or financiers with suitable Terms and Conditions of Trade that register correctly on the PPSR become ‘secured’ creditors. This means they have a much
better chance of being paid than a creditor that hasn’t register and is ‘unsecured’. Financiers, of course, see the merit and register routinely but many suppliers fail to see the value in paying the $6 government fee to become a secured creditor for 7 years. Perhaps they find the registration process too difficult, maybe they haven’t been able to effectively enforce their rights in the past or they may feel they don’t need protection having become accustomed to the very low level of insolvencies in recent years. Whatever the reason, now may be the time to rethink this strategy. For those that do register, below are some situations that secured parties find themselves in where the best way to interact with the register and still maintain the required security may not be obvious:
1. Your business (ABC Pty Ltd) has acquired the customers of another business (DEF Pty Ltd) that has never registered on PPSR This situation is fairly straightforward to deal with depending upon the amount of customers to be brought on board. To register effectively on PPSR there must be a security
“Suppliers or financiers with suitable Terms and Conditions of Trade that register correctly on the PPSR become ‘secured’ creditors. This means they have a much better chance of being paid than a creditor that hasn’t register and is ‘unsecured’.”
38 CREDIT MANAGEMENT IN AUSTRALIA • April 2022
