On this page
What is the PPSR?
The PPSR is the official government register of security interests in personal property – these are debts or other obligations that are secured by personal property. It’s an online noticeboard accessible by the general public 24/7. The PPSR started on 30 January 2012 and replaced many state based registers, such as REVS and other vehicle registers and the ASIC Register of Company Charges, to form one national register.
When someone registers a security interest on the PPSR, they are letting the world at large know that they claim to have a security interest over certain personal property. Personal property includes things like cars, company assets, boats, used goods and intellectual property; it doesn't include land or fixtures.
People can search the PPSR to see if someone has registered a security interest over personal property (which they may want to do before buying property or lending money to someone).
Millions of searches and registrations take place on the PPSR every year.
For more information about using the PPSR, including the fees involved, see Searching the PPSR and Registering on the PPSR.
Who looks after the PPSR?
The operation of the PPSR is overseen and managed by the Registrar of Personal Property Securities. The Registrar is appointed by the Attorney General's Department. The Registrar's office sits in a Commonwealth government department called the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA). AFSA is an executive agency in the Attorney-General's portfolio.
The Registrar's job is to make sure that the PPSR is managed responsibly, made available to use and contains information that is reliable. They can do many things to make sure this happens including making decisions about what can be registered on the PPSR, when the PPSR needs to be made unavailable and investigating misuse of the PPSR. The Registrar can also delegate these powers to others as necessary.
As well as the Registrar's office, the day-to-day operations of the PPSR are supported by our AFSA Service Centre. If you are unable to do an online PPSR search, they can perform this over the phone for you (at a higher cost). They can also answer your general enquiries if you are unable to find the answer to the information you need on our website.
How does the PPSR work?
The PPSR was created as a result of law that came into operation on 30 January 2012. This law is called the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (PPS Act).
The PPS Act, (and any other rules, regulations or laws made under it), contains rules about how the PPSR works; essentially to allow registration and search of security interests. It includes things like how registrations are made on the PPSR, what powers the Registrar has to make decisions about the PPSR and how to search the PPSR.
The Attorney-General has responsibility for the PPS Act.
When is the PPSR available?
The PPSR is available online to register and search 24/7.
The only exceptions to this are:
- during routine maintenance which takes place between 9pm and 11:59pm (EST) every Wednesday
- where there is an unscheduled outage (such as a technical issue) and
- where there is a scheduled outage (such as enhancements).
We try to schedule any outage at a time when it will make the least amount of impact (such as late at night). If there is an outage, we will let you know about it by publishing an alert on our website.
For more information see PPSR availability.