Checking if the business has promised its assets to a lender

Businesses often take out loans with banks or other kinds of financial institutions or lenders. In return, the business has to pledge some form of collateral as security, which would be forfeited if they default on the loan.  The collateral may be real property (land and buildings), or moveable property (such as equipment, vehicles, accounts receivable etc.).

If you are planning to lend money to a business, or planning to do business with a company, or looking to purchase a company, you should first check if the business has pledged any of its assets as collateral to somebody else, because if they have, the first lender will have priority over those assets if there is a default.  This can be done at www.ppsr.vu.

If the company has pledged its land or buildings, you need to check with the lands registry.

You will need to ensure you have priority over assets you wish to take as security, or if you do not have priority, you are still comfortable making a loan or doing business with the company.

You can search for any notice of a security interest by clicking on this link. The notice is called a “Notice of Prior Security Interest”.

• Click on Public Search
• Enter the business name or person’s name in the search box and press submit

If there is a match, details will appear in the results page.

For example, you may find a ‘Notice of Prior Security Interest’ that indicates that eg:

• a bank called Oceania Bank Limited has made a loan to ABC Company Limited.
• to secure the loan, the bank has taken current and future accounts receivable, as well as a vehicle as collateral.
• the Bank will have filed this notice for a fee.  By filing the notice, the bank has priority over other lenders in relation to the collateral it has listed.
• by checking this, you are now aware that the collateral listed has first been pledged to Oceania Bank.  If the company defaults on their loans, the bank will be able to claim these assets before you.

If the company has mortgaged its land or buildings, you would need to check with the lands registry.

Checking if the Directors or Shareholders also have security interests

You are also able to check if the director or shareholder of the company you are dealing with has pledged any collateral.  Go to this link and click on ‘individual’ for Debtor type, instead of company. Enter part or all of their name, and any notices of security interest will then appear.