How to Use the Personal Property Securities Act to Your Advantage

The Personal Property Securities Act of 2009 also known as the PPSA is a federal Australian law that is focused on taking, registering, and enforcing security over personal property besides buildings and land.  The Personal Property Securities Act of 2009 also covers movable tangible assets such as cars, crops, plant machinery and other types of intangible assets including intellectual property, contractual rights and shares.The PPSR (Personal Property Securities Register) and Personal Property Securities Act were activated on January 30, 2012 with a continued focus on providing new ways to help businesses protect themselves if a liquidation of their clients.  PPSR allows the businesses to put the full effort into making changes into their business by taking advantage of registering their customers and pushing forward into protecting their personal property.  There are several suggestions available for businesses and their customers.Check the client detailsChecking the client’s details by checking their records and ensuring they are correct.  The records should be prepared by completing a correct listing of all of the clients.  Not just making sure the business has the client’s name correctly but to remember if the client is a company.  If they are identified as a company then they need to be labeled as an ACN. For clients who are companies and they are a partnership or trust then they should be identified as an ABN.  A client labeled as an ARBN are foreign companies.Make sure trading terms are updatedThe trading terms need to be updated by putting a security agreement together for your clients.  Trading terms should be created into an agreement with a new title.  The personal property securities act provides businesses with the ability to register your interests including securities, properties and goods that are being supplied, consigned, and leased to your clients.  Taking the time out to find out if the terms of the trade and provisions are properly put together, correct and complied with too.  The new Australian Consumer Law has the probability of affecting most of the legal terms for your clients.   Review the provisions of the other terms of the trade.Put the processes in place for handling PPS Act related activitiesThe company will need to put the processes in place such as the procedures and policies in order to handle all of the activities related to the PPS Act.  The customers will need to receive a copy of the statement verification that the company will receive from the PPS Registrar after each financial statement that is logged.  If this is not done then it becomes a breach of the PPS Act and could result in a penalty against the company.It's important for the company to track each registration number for the finance statement of the trading terms that were agreed upon in writing.  The company must be able to match up each of the verification statement to the token codes received from the PPSR.  This will help the company to withdraw or amend any of the financing statements for all of their customers.   The company needs to keep track of all of the renewal dates for each statement that was logged into the finance statements.  The keeping track of all of the statements will make sure that the company doesn't let any of the registrations expire or lapse.Update customer details regularlyContinuous update your customer details to ensure you have the correct information.  This information will be in the PPSR.  Not keeping correct customer details  could result in a loss of priority with another secured party who had already registered their interest before your company.  The PPS Act allows for five days for the changes to be logged into the statement.