The process of buying a car is never easy or simple, nor it is cheap. A person needs to invest a lot of time to find the right brand, a good price point, and the perfect model. But, even that can be too complicated and too expensive which is why a lot of people consider buying secondhand vehicles. Use vehicles are easier to find and much cheaper. However, finding a secondhand vehicle that has all the right documents, it is legitimate, it is not stolen, etc. also requires a bit of research, and a PPSR certificate too.
What exactly is this certificate and why is it useful? Why should people getting second-hand cars need to get this kind of certificate? Well, to answer all these questions for you and to help you understand why you need it, we decided to provide you with this article where we can explain everything.
Keep in mind, the PPSR certificate only applies to residents in Australia. We are currently not aware that this kind of document exists anywhere else.
What is PPSR?
Before we can continue on work, will first need to go through the basics. PPSR stands for Personal Property Securities Register. This is an online database or a register where people can list certain items as collateral on a loan, or simply put, as a security interest.
Why is this useful? Well, this helps people make safe investments when buying artwork, a piece of property, or specifically for this case, a vehicle. These are very expensive investments which are why people need to be safe. The Australian government implemented this as a safety precaution.
How does this help you?
By definition, the Personal Property Securities Register sounds pretty useful and it seemed like everyone should use it when buying a used vehicle. But, how exactly can this help you?
Well, let’s create an example. There is a certain secondhand vehicle that you want to purchase. A Mercedes listed on the market. You check it out, everything seems to be in order, the person selling it seems legitimate and all you have to do is pay the money to get it.
However, before you do that, you can do a PPSR search through an online database to check out whether there are any outstanding debts related to the car or even the chassis itself.
If there are no debts, it is safe to buy the car without having to worry about anyone trying to claim back your vehicle.
But, if there are outstanding debts, you will need to be careful. Talk with the owner and make sure you go through this information to ensure they are not trying to scam.
To help you execute a proper PPSR search, continue reading through the article.
How to do a PSSR search?
With the two tips written above, I assume that you now have a clear understanding of what this certificate can be used for and why it is useful for anyone willing to buy a vehicle.
With that in mind, we can now explain how you can do research and how you should perceive it.
Since this search should be done online, you can easily find such a database with the help of none other than Google. There are probably several websites out there, some of them offering free searches and some of them coming with a premium price tag.
I assume that most people will prefer using those free websites, but if you want a better solution, chech out https://www.quickppsr.com.au.
Yes, it would be nice to save some money, but who knows whether such an online database has all of the required information on the car you are researching?
Because of this, because you need to be certain, we recommend paying that premium. Either way, it is not expensive at all. You can do a search by the VIN for no more than $6 or $7 and a Rego search for less than $10.
Considering that this kind of search could prevent you from losing thousands of dollars, paying those $10 is definitely worth it in most cases, if not all cases.
How to read the results?
Once you make the VIN or Rego search of the vehicle you want to purchase, you will get results filled with tons of useful information.
However, to use that data to your benefit, you will need to understand how to process it.
Here are some of the things you will need to look out for:
One of the first things you should be on the lookout for is whether the car has a vehicle road registration. If it isn’t registered, the owner might be hiding some information from you. Use this knowledge to your advantage.
You should also be looking for data regarding the original owner of the car. If it has been stolen and reported, you will find that report in these results. This is a huge red flag and you should probably avoid buying such a second-hand car. If you don’t want to give up on that exact model, you could try confronting the seller.
Information regarding loans, debts, or whether the vehicle has been used as collateral in the past is also very important. Make sure there is no security interest attached to it. Otherwise, if there is a debt attached to it, someone could come and legally collect it even though you’ve bought it.
If the car is bound to certain debt or staked in as collateral property, the PSSR search results should provide you with the necessary data.
With these tips we provided above, we hope that you now have a full understanding of what pertains to this government document and how it could be useful to anyone looking to buy a second-hand car.
Always use the benefits of a PSSR certificate because it is easy and inexpensive to acquire. It is much better to be safe than to be sorry and lose thousands of dollars on a car tied to financial loans.