Searching liens under the Personal Property Security Act in the Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories Personal Property Registry is an online registry where individuals and businesses register notices of security interests in personal property under the territory’s Personal Property Security Act, and where a searcher can find and print records. It is run on a system shared with other jurisdictions, which affects how a buyer gets access. It also records more than loans against equipment. This guide covers how access works, what the account-free Lien Check does, which other registrations appear in the registry, and the separate notice that can be registered against land title. It is meant to help you scope a search with your lawyer.

Access through ACOL

The territorial Department of Justice says the registry system is implemented in partnership with Atlantic Canada On-line, known as ACOL, and that full access comes from signing up for an ACOL client account. The same account works in the other ACOL jurisdictions: Nunavut, Yukon, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. A person who does not want an account can use a value-added service provider to search and register for them. The Justice page states that an account is necessary to search in the system, with the exception of the Lien Check service.

What Lien Check covers

The government explains why a buyer would use it: if you buy an item subject to a security interest registered in the registry, you could be responsible for the amount owed, or the item could be seized and sold to pay it. Lien Check searches the registry by serial number to identify money owed or other registered interests, and the page lists types of property that can be checked, including motor vehicles such as cars, trucks, motorcycles, tractors and snowmobiles, as well as trailers, mobile homes and boats. Because it searches by serial number, it checks items one at a time, not a business as a whole.

What else is recorded in the registry

The Justice page lists the types of registration the registry accepts. Beyond financing statements under the Personal Property Security Act, they include financing statements under the Children’s Law Act or Family Law Act, interests under the Factors Act or Sale of Goods Act, Garage Keepers Lien Act registrations, maintenance orders registered by the Maintenance Enforcement Office, and federal and territorial writs of execution. A name search can therefore turn up claims that are not lender security at all. If one appears against the seller or a seller entity, ask your lawyer what it means for the assets being sold. Do not assume a registration is harmless because it is not a loan. Keep a list of every name and serial number searched.

The statute and what a search can use

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 of a kind prescribed as serial numbered goods, and a search by registration number. It also provides that a person may search the records of the registry and obtain a result at an office of the registry or under an agreement with the Registrar, and that a printed result that purports to be issued by the Registrar or the registry is admissible in evidence and, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, is proof of its contents. Treat a printed result as a dated record and ask for a fresh one close to closing. Where a seller operates in more than one territory or province, ask your lawyer whether the same names should be searched in each, since the Northwest Territories registry covers personal property within the Northwest Territories.

A separate notice against land title

The Justice page says the Act also allows a notice to be registered against the certificate of title to land in the Land Titles Office. It can be used for security interests taken in rents, fixtures or growing crops, and the page explains that it preserves the priority of the interest, because otherwise a person acquiring an interest in land can rely on those items being part of the land. A change notice can be registered only if the original notice has not expired. If your purchase includes land, fixtures or a farm, ask whether the title search should be reviewed for such notices.

• Whether you will use your own ACOL account, your lawyer’s account or a service provider.
• Which items are serial numbered and can be run through Lien Check.
• Which seller entities and individuals should be searched by name.
• Whether any registration found is a lender’s security or another kind, such as a writ of execution.
• Whether land title should be checked for a notice of security interest.

For the general method, see what a PPSA search is and why you need one.