PPSR Registration Services
The Personal Properties Securities Register is a powerful tool to help secure your position with clients.
The Personal Properties Securities Register (PPSR) is a powerful tool to help secure your position with clients. PPSR registration legally protects your business, giving you a much better chance of recovering the money you are owed if a client is unable to pay you back.
At NZBT, we believe that utilising the Personal Properties Securities Act (PPSA) and getting registration on the PPSR to make yourself a secured creditor is a key tool in your Credit Management toolbox.
How Does PPSR Registration Protect Your Business?
When you make use of the PPSA and its registration benefits, you’re protecting the financial interests of your NZ business. This is done by recording your legal claim over any goods or assets that have been sold on terms, leased/hired out, or accepted as collateral for a loan.
Providing a loan or entering into a hire purchase, lease, or trade agreement without registering collateral could leave you out-of-pocket if a customer can no longer make their repayments. This is because any unregistered assets you have claimed as a security interest could be sold to first pay off creditors who have registered these assets on the PPSR.
Even with a written agreement or signed terms and conditions stating your claim over any collateral, such claims are still not guaranteed without first registering them on the PPSR. By registering these assets on the PPSR, you are granted priority to claim them as collateral over unsecured creditors who have failed to register their interest.
Learn More About How PPSR Registration Can Help NZ Businesses
At NZBT, our PPSR registration services allow New Zealand lenders or suppliers to protect themselves and establish their rights as secured creditors. Using our extensive industry knowledge and experience, we can:
- Establish a Secured Party Group (SPG) on your behalf
- Verify and complete PPSR registrations on your behalf to confirm your security interest
- Help you ensure that your Terms & Conditions of Business match and support your PPSR registrations consistently to provide seamless protection
- Offer a range of PPS services which can easily be combined with other services to create your own custom package specifically for your business
Many scenarios exist that make being a secured creditor crucial. As part of the liquidation process in Aotearoa, secured creditors will get priority over unsecured creditors for monetary recovery.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Number of creditors who are unsecured:
The average value unsecured creditors receive upon liquidation:
The Fine Print
We have put together all the technical details about PPSR registration to help New Zealand business owners learn more about our services, their obligations, and more. Check out the fine print below, or head over to our contact page to set up a free consultation or discuss any further enquiries with our team today.
Ensuring You Have a Security Agreement in Place
The PPSA defines an individual, a company, or any other entity that owes money on goods and/or services supplied as a “Debtor”. Simply put, each customer of NZBT’s client is defined in the Act as a Debtor.
The Act requires the Debtor needs to agree that NZBT’s client has a security interest in the goods. This agreement is usually part of the client’s Terms & Conditions, as it becomes a term of the sale of goods to the Debtor.
For the registration of this security interest to provide the client with protection against other creditors and third-party buyers, there needs to be an agreement in writing (signed and dated), or the client needs to be in possession of the goods, whichever occurs first.
As it is often not practical to maintain possession of the goods, a correctly worded PPS clause in the client’s Terms & Conditions of Trade is essential. The client acknowledges that it is their responsibility to ensure that they have a signed agreement between themselves and the Debtor (their customer) that clearly outlines the appropriate legislation for the enforcement of this PPS Registration.
Being a Secured Party
Where the client is or intends to become a PPS ‘Secured Party’, it is in their best interest to understand how the PPS affects their business and securities. It shall be the client’s responsibility to understand how the Act applies to their business.
When becoming a Secured Party and registering a security interest, the client must adhere to all requirements under the PPSA. Failure to comply with the PPSA may find that the security interest is open to be challenged as an invalid registration, thereby deemed worthless.
It is recommended that the client familiarises themselves with the specific rules about attachment and protection of interests and that these are fully complied with. NZBT are not lawyers and will not offer legal advice but can offer recommendations based on knowledge and experience. If additional information is required, we recommend the client seeks independent legal advice.
Registration
As a Secured Party, it is the responsibility of the client to understand what must happen for a security interest to be registered and upheld. As a Secured Party, it is the client’s responsibility to ensure that they:
- Understand the categories defined in the PPSA that form the different types of security interests and the associated requirements
- Collect all required information from the debtor pertaining to the security interest
- Specify all the necessary information about the personal property in which the client has an interest in (i.e. security numbers, inventory etc.), or intends to have a security interest in
A security interest can be registered on the PPSR for up to 5 years and can be renewed on an ongoing basis.
Maintaining the Registration
Once the client has received payments that are secured by the registration, or any other obligations that are secured by the registration, they must act so that a discharge can be effected, and the PPSR updated. Similarly, changes in the Secured Party or the Debtor’s address need to be updated.
Registration will expire 5 years from the date of registration. The client must note this date when they receive a Verification Statement, and either allow the registration to lapse or ensure they renew it prior to the expiry date.
Providing All Relevant Information
The client will need to collect all the information they need to register a security interest. They should ensure that their business documentation captures the information. Of importance are the Debtor’s full name and date of birth or the company’s legal name and registration number. The more detailed description of the property provided, the better.