Searching liens under the Personal Property Security Act in British Columbia

In British Columbia, the Personal Property Registry records security interests and liens against personal property owned by individuals and businesses, under the Personal Property Security Act. For a buyer, that registry is where a lender’s claim over a seller’s equipment, vehicles or other assets would be recorded. A search shows what has been registered; it does not show whether the debt behind a registration is still owing, and it does not reach every kind of lien. This guide covers how a search is ordered in the province, what the Act allows you to search on, what a printed result is worth, and where the registry stops. A lawyer or a professional search provider can run the search and read the result; the aim here is to help you ask for the right one.

How a search is ordered

The provincial government page on liens and searches lists the ways to request a lien search. You can submit a request in person at a Service BC location, use a third-party service provider, who may charge additional fees, or write to BC Registry Services by mail. A mailed request must state the type of search needed and the search criteria, and the page says results are provided to clients only by return mail. Online searching is described as designated for professionals who run searches regularly and hold a premium account with BC Registries. If a closing date is fixed, ask early which route you are using, because a mailed request cannot be answered faster than the post.

What the Act lets you search on

Section 48 of the Act sets out the searches a person may request. They include a search by the name of a debtor, a search by the serial number of goods that the regulations define as serial numbered goods, and a search by registration number. The distinction matters for a business with vehicles or other equipment the regulations define as serial numbered goods. Section 35 also provides that, for the purposes of its residual priority rules in subsections (1), (7) and (8), a security interest in equipment of a kind defined in the regulations as serial numbered goods is not registered or perfected by registration unless a financing statement describing the goods by serial number is registered. For that kind of equipment, ask whoever runs your search whether a serial-number search was done as well as a name search.

Getting the debtor’s name right

A name search is only as good as the name you give it. In a share purchase the registrations that matter are those against the corporation; in an asset purchase, ask whether the assets belong to the seller company, its owner personally, or both. BC Registries accepts requests for business and organization records, which is one way to confirm a corporation’s exact legal name before ordering the lien search. Ask the seller for every legal name the business has used, and decide with your lawyer which of those names and which individuals should be searched. Ask your lawyer whether a search under a trade name alone would answer the question you are asking.

What a printed result is worth

Section 48 also says a printed search result that purports to be issued by the registry is receivable in evidence as proof, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, of its contents, including the date of registration of a financing statement. That gives the result real weight in a dispute, but it is a snapshot. Under section 44, a registration may be renewed by registering a financing change statement at any time before it expires, and the government page says a financing change statement is also used to amend or discharge a registration, so a result printed weeks before closing describes the day it was printed. Ask your lawyer to refresh the search close to the closing date.

Liens the registry does not hold

The government page notes that some liens must be filed with other government agencies, and it names builders’ liens, family maintenance liens, annual property tax deferment liens and liens for unpaid wages as examples. A clean personal property search therefore does not answer those. Land is a separate record: the Land Title and Survey Authority offers searches of land title records. For each asset the sale includes, ask which registry would show a claim against it, and search each one that applies.

• Who the debtors are: the corporation, any predecessor names, and the owner personally if assets are held outside the company.
• Which assets carry serial numbers, and whether each has been searched by serial number.
• Which route you are using to order the search, and how long it takes to come back.
• Whether any registration lists a secured party you do not recognize, and what the seller says it secures.
• How each registration found will be discharged or dealt with at closing, and who confirms it afterwards.

For the broader picture of how searches fit into a purchase, see what a PPSA search is and why you need one and how to check for liens on business assets.