A PPSR check is the search most Australian buyers are told to run before handing over money for a used car. It is worth understanding what it actually proves. This is a government register — you search it yourself at ppsr.gov.au for a few dollars — and it answers a narrow but important set of questions about a vehicle's paperwork rather than its condition.
Below: what the search shows, what a written-off code means, how to find a VIN, and the things a PPSR certificate cannot tell you.
If a car still has finance owing on it and you buy without your own clear PPSR search, the lender can repossess the car — even though you paid the seller in full and had nothing to do with the loan. You would be left chasing the seller for your money. Search by VIN, and search close to the time you hand over the cash, because the protection depends on what the register said around the moment of sale.
FAQs
What is a PPSR check?
The Personal Property Securities Register is a national government register of security interests — in plain terms, a record of who holds a financial claim over goods, including cars. Searching it against a vehicle tells you whether a lender has registered an interest in that car, which usually means there is a loan attached to it. The register sits at ppsr.gov.au and is run by the Australian Government, so you are searching the source rather than a reseller's copy of it. Some people still call it a REVS check, after the older state-based system it replaced.
How much does a PPSR check cost and where do I do it?
You run it yourself at ppsr.gov.au, and a vehicle search costs a few dollars — small enough that it is hard to justify skipping on a car worth thousands. You need the vehicle's VIN, a card to pay with, and about five minutes. The result is emailed to you as a search certificate worth keeping, because it is dated evidence of what the register said at the moment you searched — which is why you want to search close to the time you pay rather than weeks in advance. Plenty of commercial sites resell the same underlying data with extra reports bundled around it, at higher prices.
What does a PPSR check actually tell you?
Three things, mainly. Whether a security interest is registered against the vehicle — money owing. Whether the car has been recorded as written off, and what type of write-off it was, drawing on national vehicle data supplied by state road agencies and police. And whether it has been reported stolen. The certificate also lists the vehicle description held against that VIN, which is a quiet but useful cross-check: if the register says the VIN belongs to a 2015 hatchback and you are standing in front of a 2019 ute, stop.
What is a VIN and where do I find it on a car?
The vehicle identification number is usually a 17-character serial number stamped on the car itself, and unlike a registration number it does not change when the car is sold or moved interstate. That is exactly why you search on the VIN rather than the plate. Look at the base of the windscreen on the driver's side, in the driver's door jamb, on the compliance or build plate under the bonnet, and on the registration papers. Check that the number in the paperwork matches the number on the car — if they differ, or a plate looks tampered with or replaced, walk away and read up on the tricks that show up in used car sales.
What happens if I buy a car with money still owing on it?
The lender's interest attaches to the car rather than to the person who took out the loan, so in principle it can be repossessed from you after you have paid the seller in full. The search is what protects you: under personal property securities law a buyer who searches by VIN, gets a clear result and buys on the strength of it will generally take the car free of an interest that search did not disclose, and buying from a licensed motor dealer generally carries similar protection. Timing matters, because the protection turns on a search run close to the sale — a certificate you pulled weeks ago may not help you. If a search does show money owing, that is not automatically a reason to walk, but do not simply proceed and hope, since buying with knowledge of a registered interest takes you outside that protection. Ask the seller to pay the loan out and show you a fresh clear search before you hand over anything.
What does it mean if a car is written off?
Someone authorised to report write-offs has recorded the vehicle as a total loss — usually the insurer, though depending on the state it can also be a self-insurer, dealer, auctioneer or wrecker, and in some cases the owner must report it themselves. It generally means the repair bill outstripped the car's market value, or the damage made it unsafe to put back on the road. That entry sits on the written-off vehicles register and appears on a PPSR search as a code describing the damage type: collision, hail, flood, fire and so on. A write-off is not automatically a deal-breaker, but it changes the maths, because the car is worth less than an equivalent one with clean history, some insurers will not offer full cover, and a manufacturer's warranty may be void. Flood damage deserves particular caution, since corrosion and electrical faults tend to surface months later — here is what to look for.
Can a written-off car be registered again?
That depends on the type of write-off and on where you are. Road authorities treat a statutory write-off as the end of the road: it cannot be re-registered and the vehicle is effectively a source of parts and scrap, though the criteria for putting a car in that category are set by each state and territory. A repairable write-off can sometimes be repaired, inspected and re-registered, but in some jurisdictions the right to do that is tied to who owned the car when it was damaged — so a buyer who was not the registered owner at the time may not be able to register it at all, however well it is repaired. Check the rules with the road authority in the state or territory where you intend to register it, not the one where the car is being sold, and do that before you pay rather than after. If you are on the other side of this, selling a car that has been written off comes with disclosure obligations.
Does a PPSR check show if a car is stolen?
Usually yes — stolen vehicle reports from police feed into the national vehicle data the certificate draws on. There are two gaps worth knowing about. Tasmanian stolen vehicle information is not available through the PPSR, so for a car registered in Tasmania you need to check with the Tasmanian transport authority separately. And a clean result means no theft has been reported against that VIN, which is not quite the same as proof of a clean past — a very recent theft may not have reached the system yet.
How do I tell if a car's odometer has been wound back?
Winding back an odometer is illegal in Australia and it still happens, so treat the number on the dash as a claim rather than a fact. Cross-check it against the logbook, stamped service history, past registration or inspection paperwork, and any electronic service records a dealer workshop can pull up — an old invoice showing more kilometres than the dash reads today settles the question. Then look at the car itself, because a steering wheel, seat bolster, pedal rubbers and gear knob worn far past what the reading suggests are a real signal. Some state road authorities now publish recorded odometer readings through their free registration check tools, which is worth trying for the state the car is registered in, and a pre-purchase inspection is the other backstop.
What does a PPSR check not tell you?
Anything about condition. It does not know whether the engine is healthy, whether the timing belt has been done, whether the car has been serviced, or whether it would pass a roadworthy inspection. It will not show accident damage that was repaired privately or paid for out of pocket, because no one wrote the car off and nothing was recorded — a car can have been rebuilt after a serious hit and still come back clear. It also does not cover unpaid fines or tolls, and the national vehicle data behind the stolen and written-off flags is not guaranteed to be complete or up to date. Treat the certificate as one of two checks: the paperwork check, alongside a physical inspection by someone who knows cars.
Where to next
- Used car inspection checklist — what to check on the car itself once the paperwork comes back clear.
- Avoiding used car scams — the tricks that show up around VINs, deposits and rushed sales.
- How to spot a flood-damaged car — flood damage that was not claimed on insurance leaves no trace on the register.
- Selling a written-off car — what you need to disclose if you are on the other side of this.