What is PPSA and Why Does It Matter for Aircraft Buyers in Canada?

PPSA stands for Personal Property Security Act. Understanding it could be the difference between a safe aircraft purchase and a financial catastrophe.

What is the PPSA?

The Personal Property Security Act is provincial legislation that governs security interests in personal property — including aircraft. Each Canadian province has its own PPSA, and each province maintains its own registry of security interests that have been registered against assets within that province.

When a lender provides financing secured against an aircraft, they can register their security interest either at the federal level (Transport Canada's mortgage registry) OR at the provincial level (PPSA registry in their province), or both. The choice of where to register has legal implications but the key point for buyers is: both registries must be checked.

Why PPSA Registrations Are Missed

Most aircraft buyers (and even some lawyers) know to check the TC Aircraft Mortgage Registry. Far fewer know to check all 10 provincial PPSA registries. There is no single national PPSA database — each province is completely separate and must be searched independently.

This is exactly the gap AeroVerifyCA fills. Our Standard and Complete reports search every provincial PPSA registry in addition to the TC federal registry, ensuring nothing is missed regardless of where the security interest was registered.

The Legal Risk of Missing a PPSA Registration

Under PPSA legislation, a properly registered security interest has priority over subsequent buyers who did not conduct a proper search. In plain English: if you buy an aircraft without searching PPSA and there's a registered security interest, the lender can repossess the aircraft from you even though you purchased it honestly.

The law treats this as your responsibility as a buyer to conduct due diligence. Ignorance of a registered lien is not a valid legal defense.

Ready to Protect Your Purchase?

Order a complete Canadian aircraft lien check or helicopter history report today.