The Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA)
has been in force now for just over one year. Has case law helped
us in understanding the practical effects of PPSA? While Australian
case law is sparse, we are able to extract some pointers.
The 'Hastie' Lesson
i
When the Hastie Group of companies went into voluntary
administration it presented the Administrators with a difficult
task. There were a significant number of the companies' assets
located at various project sites which company records did not
adequately record.
The Hastie Group also had 995 security interests registered
against it in the Personal Property Security Register ('PPSR).
Inadequate detail in the registrations regarding the property
secured, presented the Administrators with the herculean task of
trying to identify and deal with these security interests. Attempts
(which included written correspondence, emails and advertising)
were made by the Administrators to contact creditors but a
