Two things arrive: a summary we write in plain English, and the official certificate the register issues, attached as a PDF. The summary is for reading. The certificate is for keeping.
Money owing
This is the line to read first. It tells you whether a financier has registered a security interest against the vehicle — in plain terms, whether someone other than the seller has a legal claim over it.
If it says no record, nothing was registered against that VIN at the moment of the search.
If a registration was found, the certificate sets out who registered it, when, and how to contact them. It does not tell you how much is owed — only the financier and the seller know that.
This matters because a security interest survives the sale. If the seller does not pay out the loan, the financier can repossess the car from you, even though you paid for it in full and did nothing wrong.
Written off
Write-offs come from NEVDIS, the national exchange that state road authorities report into. There are two kinds, and the difference is important:
- Statutory write-off — the vehicle cannot be registered again, anywhere in Australia. It can be used for parts. It cannot legally go back on the road.
- Repairable write-off — the vehicle can be repaired and re-registered, subject to an inspection. The rules vary by state.
A car with no write-off record has not been reported as written off. That is not the same as never having been damaged — damage below an insurer's write-off threshold is not reported.
Stolen
Police theft records, covering the vehicle, its plates and its engine number separately. A stolen vehicle cannot be lawfully sold and you would not get title to it. If this line is anything other than no record, stop and contact the police.
Registration and vehicle details
The state of registration, the plate on record, the expiry date, and the vehicle's own description: make, model, body type, colour, year of manufacture, compliance date and engine number.
Check these against the car in front of you. A mismatch between the engine number on the report and the one stamped on the engine is worth asking about.
If the answer isn't the one you wanted
A security interest is not automatically a reason to walk away. It is a reason not to hand over money until it is resolved. The usual approaches:
- Ask the seller for a letter of release or payout letter from the financier, confirming the interest will be discharged on sale.
- Pay the financier directly for the payout amount and the balance to the seller, so the loan is cleared at settlement.
- Make the sale conditional on the interest being discharged, and run a new search on the register before you pay.
That last point matters. Where a security interest was found, we include free finance-change alerts for 14 days: we ask the PPSR every hour whether the finance on the vehicle has changed, and email you if it has. The PPSR tells us only that something changed, not what. To see whether the interest was discharged, or a new one registered during your negotiation, run a new search (at the normal price) before you pay.
What the report does not cover
A PPSR check is a records search. It will not tell you whether the car has been serviced, whether the odometer is honest, or whether anything is about to fail. Those need a mechanical inspection and the vehicle's service history. Use both.
* Delivery time. Reports are issued within minutes while the Personal Property Securities Register is available. The register has scheduled maintenance windows, set out in our Terms & Conditions. A search requested during a maintenance window is issued as soon as the register reopens.
† Free finance-change alerts. Where finance (a security interest) is recorded against the vehicle at your search, for 14 days we check with the PPSR every hour whether those details have changed, and tell you if they have. Where no finance is recorded, there are no alerts. The PPSR doesn't say what changed; a new search, at the normal price, shows the current details. Stolen and written-off records are not included.