The Personal Property Securities Register (‘the Register’) is an electronic record of any debt security interests held against any personal property (except land) owned by an individual or organisation. In order to register a security interest over property a creditor needs to have ownership rights in the property. Purpose of Register If someone owes you money (“the debtor”) for personal property that you have provided to them, then you are a secured party and have a security interest in that property. Your security interest attaches to that property for the purposes of the Personal Property Securities Act 1999, if you have given value to the debtor and the debtor has rights in that property. For example, an electrician installs lighting into a shop and the shop-owner fails to pay for it. The electrician has given ‘value’ to the shopowner (the lighting) and the shop-owner has ‘rights’ in the lighting because they own it. Therefore, the electrician has a security interest in the lighting. The purpose of the Register however, is to allow you to further protect your security interest by registering it. This enables you to enforce your security interest against a third party. For example, a debtor may sell property that you have a security interest in to a third party. If your security interest is registered then you are able to enforce your interest against that third party. Priority of secured parties The goods that you have a security interest in may also be subject to a security interest from another party. By registering a security interest on the Register, you are granted priority over other unregistered security interests. If all security interests are registered, then priority is given in order of the date of registration. Therefore, when it comes to registering a security interest against goods, time is of the essence. Registering your security interest In order for you to register an interest on the Register, you must register a financing statement. The cost for registering a financing statement is $3.00 and the process for doing so is as follows: You must set up a Secured Party Group ID (“group ID”) the first time you access the Register. All future registrations are made under this group ID. Once you have set up your group ID then you are able to register a financing statement against your debtor. The following details are necessary in order to register a financing statement: • In regards to a debtor that is an individual; full name, date of birth and address. • In regards to a debtor that is an organisation; type of organisation i.e. company, partnership or trust and organisation’s contact address. It is imperative to retrieve this information from a debtor when entering into a security agreement with them as the fields are mandatory and a financing statement cannot be registered without it. You must also enter information about the collateral (personal property) including the type (e.g. goods) and a description. Searching the register The Register can also be searched by anyone at a fee of $1.00. The following searches are all available on the Register: • Debtor Person Search • Debtor Organisation Search • Motor Vehicle Search • Aircraft Serial Number Search • Financing Statement Number Search It is advisable to search the Register before entering into an agreement to sell, supply or buy in order to avoid people that repeatedly do not pay their debts.