How to remove a PPSR registration lodged by a deregistered company
PPSR resolution
- $2
- official PPSR search
- Vests in ASIC
- on deregistration
- 5 business days
- to respond
- AFSA
- decides on removal
If a PPSR registration is showing against your car and the company that lodged it has been deregistered, you can still have the registration removed — the company being gone doesn't make the registration permanent.
It changes who you deal with. A deregistered company has ceased to exist, so it can't lodge a discharge. Its property vests in ASIC, and the amendment process runs through ASIC's Property Law Team and, if needed, the PPSR Registrar (AFSA) — which is the Australian Financial Security Authority.
A deregistered company can't remove its own registration — but the PPSR still gives you a route to clear it.
Why a deregistered company's registration gets stuck
The registration doesn't end when the company does. Someone still has to remove it, and the party that would normally do that no longer exists.
You typically run into this when:
- A previous owner's finance was with a lender that has since been deregistered.
- The registration was lodged by a business that has wound up or been struck off.
- The finance was genuinely paid out, but the discharge was never lodged before the company disappeared.
Where the interest goes when a company is deregistered
When a company is deregistered it ceases to exist, and its property — which can include a security interest on the PPSR — vests in ASIC.
That does not mean ASIC will simply take the registration off for you. ASIC is clear that it does not administer the PPSR or the Personal Property Securities Act, and that it “will not lodge a financing change statement on behalf of a deregistered secured party to end or remove a security interest.” The registration comes off through the PPSA's amendment process — the same statutory route as any other stuck registration — with one difference in where you send the demand.
How to get it removed
The steps mirror a normal amendment demand, with an ASIC search up front and the demand directed to ASIC rather than a live secured party.
Confirm the company is actually deregistered
Search the company on ASIC's register to confirm its status is deregistered, and note the date. You'll need this — it's what puts the file into ASIC's Property Law Team process rather than an ordinary discharge request.
Run a $2 PPSR search on the car
Search the vehicle's VIN so you have the certificate showing the registration number, the secured party, and the address for service (ppsr.gov.au). You'll quote these in the demand.
Serve the amendment demand on ASIC's Property Law Team
Because the secured party is a deregistered company, you serve the amendment demand on ASIC's Property Law Team — by email to property.law@asic.gov.au — following the PPSR Registrar's (Practice Statement No. 4). The demand needs the registration number and a copy of your search certificate, the same as any amendment demand, and it must clearly identify the deregistered secured party by name and ACN so ASIC can match the interest and reply (asic.gov.au — security interest).
If it isn't removed, apply to the PPSR Registrar (AFSA)
After the minimum five-business-day wait, if the registration is still there you can apply to the PPSR Registrar (AFSA) for assistance.
Confirm the car is clear
Once the registration is removed, run another $2 PPSR search on the VIN. A certificate showing no security interest is your evidence of clean title — worth keeping before you sell or transfer the car. If the registration is proving hard to shift at all, there's a broader escalation path when a registration won't come off, and the underlying amendment-demand process is the same one used for any incorrect registration.
Register for launch updates
How Verexia is designed to assist
Registrations left behind by companies that no longer exist are exactly what Verexia is being built to clear: confirming the company's status, directing the amendment demand to ASIC's Property Law Team, and seeing the removal through the PPSR Registrar — so your car ends with clean title.
- Confirming the company's deregistration and establishing exactly what's registered.
- Directing the demand to ASIC's Property Law Team and quoting it correctly the first time.
- Seeing it through the AFSA process, assembling the evidence a removal decision needs.
The first step will always be working out where you stand. Final outcomes depend on the secured party and the facts of the registration, and no service can promise otherwise. What Verexia will commit to is doing the work and being straight about what's achievable.
Verexia is preparing a service designed to assist with vehicle ownership, finance and PPSR matters. Services are not currently available. Register your interest and we will contact you when the relevant service launches.
Sources: ASIC — security interests and the property of a deregistered company; Personal Property Securities Register (ppsr.gov.au) — how to dispute a registration and Registrar's Practice Statement No. 4. The PPSR is operated by the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA); ASIC does not administer the PPSR.