When Hastie Group Limited went bust a few months ago, it
had $6.4 million in plant and equipment. Various creditors had
registered 995 interests over this equipment, which was spread over
36 different sites.
When the administrators stepped in, they had problems working
out which security interests related to which items, as the
interests noted on the Personal Property Securities Register were
too vague. They wrote to the creditors asking them to identify
which specific items were theirs, but most were unable to even
point out their own goods.
So the administrators applied to the Federal Court for orders
allowing them to sell the goods which hadn't been claimed. The
Court found that because the descriptions of the secured goods on
the Register were too generic, and the creditors themselves
weren't able to identify their secured goods, the
administrators were able to sell the items and the funds fell into
the general administration.
