ACL 390611 | MFAA Member | Established 2005
Chattel Mortgage.You Own It. They Register It.
The asset is yours from settlement. What the lender takes is a security interest registered against it, and where that registration sits in the queue decides more about this deal than the rate does. We arrange chattel mortgages across 100+ lenders.
15 minutes. Bring the asset and who already holds security over your business. No paperwork, no obligation, and nothing goes to a lender without your say-so. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement and we disclose it in writing before any work begins.
Intellect Finance – Chattel Mortgage
Independent since 2005 | ACL 390611What Is a Chattel Mortgage and Who Owns the Asset?
A chattel mortgage is a loan used to buy a business asset where you acquire the asset and grant the lender a security interest over it. The chattel is the goods. The mortgage is the security. You hold the asset from settlement and the lender holds a registered claim against it, which is registered on the Personal Property Securities Register.
That registration is not administrative tidying after the deal. It is what fixes the lender’s position against every other party with a claim on your business, and the rules that govern it are the same rules that decide whether a financier can lend against one machine when a bank is already secured over everything you own.
Because the asset is acquired wholly or predominantly for business purposes, this is not regulated consumer credit and Best Interests Duty does not apply as a matter of law. That duty attaches to credit provided for personal, domestic or household purposes, or for residential investment property. We work to the same standard anyway and put in writing how we are paid, which lenders were considered and why, before you sign anything. An asset bought for personal use sits under our car loans page instead.
Common Situations
Why Businesses Use Our Chattel Mortgage Brokers
Six situations cover most of it. The first is the one that surprises people, and it is a question about security rather than about the asset.
Your bank is already secured over everything
A general security interest sitting over the business does not close the door on funding one asset elsewhere. There is a mechanism built into the law for exactly this, and it is the reason a specialist financier will still take a first-ranking position over the machine it paid for.
Buying a vehicle or machine in the business name
The ordinary case. The asset goes on your balance sheet from settlement, the lender registers its interest, and the structure of that registration is the part nobody explains at the dealership.
You have been asked to sign something you do not follow
Security agreement, grantor, collateral, perfection, priority. It is a small vocabulary and it decides what happens in the year everything goes wrong. Worth twenty minutes before signature rather than after.
A private sale rather than a dealer
Funding a machine bought privately is normal and it narrows which lenders will do it. The settlement sequence matters more here, because payment, possession and registration all have to line up.
Working out what is already registered against you
Businesses are often carrying registrations from facilities long since paid out. Knowing what sits there before you apply is worth doing, and it is free to find out.
The asset is a truck or a work ute or farm plant
The instrument is the same, the lender panel is not. Heavy vehicles sit on truck finance, work utes on commercial vehicle finance and farm plant on farm machinery finance.
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Joseph Sukkar
Principal Broker · ACL 390611
Who You’re Dealing With
Built on 25 Years in Australian Finance
Joseph Sukkar started in finance in 2000 and founded Intellect Finance in Penrith in 2005. Since then the team has arranged more than 6,500 loans for clients across Australia, from first homes to complex commercial and asset finance.
Chattel mortgages sit with Charbel, our Commercial and Complex Lending Specialist. The security position is the part of these deals that gets skimmed and the part that matters if anything goes wrong, so it gets explained before signature rather than after. Most people have never been walked through what they are actually granting.
Part of Our 100+ Lender Panel
The names most people recognise are residential lenders. Much of what we arrange runs through funders that do not advertise to the public. Accreditation with a lender is not an endorsement by it, and which lender suits you is decided by your file rather than by who is on this list.
Find Out Where You Would Actually Rank
Fifteen minutes. Tell us the asset and who already holds security over the business.What Actually Decides It
The Rate Is Negotiated. The Priority Is Registered.
A chattel mortgage is two things at once: a loan and a security interest. Everyone shops the loan. Almost nobody looks at the security interest, and it is the half that decides who gets paid if the business fails, whether a second financier will lend against the same balance sheet, and what a lender can actually do with your asset. Six rules govern it and all six are published.
You are the grantor and the asset is the collateral
The vocabulary is not decoration. You acquire the asset and grant a security interest over it, so you are the grantor and the machine is the collateral. The lender is the secured party. Everything that follows about who ranks where is written in those three terms, which is why the documents use them and why they are worth ten minutes.
Perfected beats unperfected and that is the whole game
The Personal Property Securities Register states that a perfected interest has priority over an unperfected one. A lender that has not perfected is a creditor holding a promise. A lender that has is a creditor holding a place in a queue. That difference is the reason registration happens at settlement rather than whenever someone gets to it.
Between perfected interests the register decides the order
Where there is more than one perfected interest, the PPSR states the priority order runs from earliest registration date to latest, and among unperfected interests from earliest attachment date to latest. Not the order the deals were agreed. Not who has known you longest. The order things were put on the register.
A purchase money interest jumps the queue
A purchase money security interest is one granted to secure debt incurred in acquiring that particular collateral, either from the seller or with funds lent for the purpose. The PPSR states that a perfected PMSI takes priority over a perfected interest that is not one. That single rule is why a financier will fund your machine while your bank sits secured over everything else you own.
That priority runs on a clock
The timing rules give a purchase money interest in goods that will not be inventory 15 working days from when the grantor takes possession. If the goods will be inventory, registration has to happen before possession. A general registration runs 20 working days from signing the security agreement. Miss the window and the super priority is what gets lost.
What the lender can actually do if you default
Seize the collateral by a lawful method, then sell it or keep it. The PPSR states a sale must be at market value or a reasonably obtainable amount, that notice goes to the grantor and to higher priority secured parties before a sale, and that proceeds are paid out in priority order with anything left over returning to the grantor.
Checked 4 September 2026. Every rule above is published by the Personal Property Securities Register: which security interest has priority, purchase money security interest, timing rules and enforcing your security interests. The PPSR notes exceptions to the general priority rules and recommends legal advice before enforcement. Everything else on this page is described in the important information at the foot of the page.
We are finance brokers rather than solicitors, and none of the above is legal advice on your security position. It sits alongside the loan because the two are the same document, and only one of them tends to get read. Bring the paperwork and we will walk through it.
The Honest Comparison
A Chattel Mortgage or Your Existing Bank Facility?
The real question once a business already has a banker. Both sides argued properly, including the one where we are not needed.
Draw on the security your bank already holds
- No new registration against the business and nothing new to discharge later
- One relationship, one set of documents, and no new party to satisfy
- Where there is headroom and the pricing is fair it is hard to beat
- It consumes headroom you may want for something the bank will not fund
- The asset sits inside a wider security rather than standing on its own
Fund the asset on its own security
- A purchase money interest can rank ahead of an earlier general security
- Bank headroom is preserved for working capital and for what comes next
- The term can be matched to the life of the asset rather than to a facility review
- A wider panel will look at it than will look at an overdraft increase
- Another registration goes on the register against your business
If your bank has headroom and the pricing is fair, use it. There is no argument that a second financier and a second registration beat drawing on a facility you already have and already pay for. The case for a chattel mortgage starts when the headroom is worth keeping, when the bank will not fund the asset, or when the pricing on that headroom is worse than it looks. Ask us to check which of those is true before assuming any of them are.
Read your existing facility documents before you sign anything new. A general security agreement can contain a negative pledge or a similar restriction on granting further security, and the purchase money mechanism in the legislation does not override what you agreed with your bank. That is a question for your solicitor and your banker, not for a broker, and it is the one most likely to be discovered late.
A registration is a cost even when it is the right call. It sits against your business, it shows up when anyone searches you, and it has to be discharged when the debt is paid. On one asset that is trivial. On the fifth facility in three years it is a picture of a balance sheet, and lenders read it that way.
And if the asset will be replaced before the term ends, the term is wrong. Matching the finance to the working life of the machine is the point of doing this properly. If the numbers only work over a term longer than you will keep it, that is a signal about the asset rather than about the structure, and a cheaper machine usually beats a longer loan.
Ask Us to Check Your Bank First
If the headroom is there and the pricing is fair we will tell you to use it. That answer earns us nothing. Fifteen minutes. No obligation.The Difference
Half of This Document Is Not About the Money
A chattel mortgage is a loan agreement and a security agreement in one. The loan half gets compared across lenders. The security half gets signed. We go through both.
Always in Writing
Best Interests Duty is a legal obligation on consumer credit and it does not extend to business purpose lending. We work to the same standard here anyway, and the way you can hold us to it is in writing: how we are paid, which lenders were considered, and why we recommended the one we did, before you sign anything.
We Explain the Security Position
What you are granting, what gets registered, where it ranks against anything already sitting over the business, and what the lender can do if the facility is not met. In plain terms, before signature. It is the half of the document most people sign without reading and the half that matters in a bad year.
No Fee. Not Even Clawback.
We do not charge you for the comparison, the structuring or the application, on any asset and any size of facility. If a facility is paid out early we wear the clawback ourselves rather than invoicing you for it. Lenders pay a commission on settlement, disclosed to you in writing before any work begins.
We Check the Bank You Already Have
Before arranging anything we ask what your existing facility can do and what it costs. If drawing on it beats what we can arrange, that is the recommendation and we are not paid for it. A broker who never checks the facility you already hold has not asked the first question.
The Process
How a Chattel Mortgage Comes Together
Four steps. The second decides whether the whole thing is worth doing and it happens before any application.
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15 minutes
The asset and what already sits over the business
What you are buying, roughly what it costs, whether it is new, used or a private sale, and who currently holds security over the entity. That last one shapes everything. No documents and no applications at this stage.
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We work it out
Whether a separate facility is the right answer
Your existing headroom and its real cost against a purpose-built facility, the effect on the security position either way, and the term the asset actually justifies. If drawing on the bank wins, you get that answer here rather than after an application.
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You gather
Documents
What a lender asks for varies with the entity, the asset and the trading history. We confirm exactly what your chosen lender wants before you go looking for any of it.
- ABN and GST registration details
- Director or trustee identification
- Business financials or recent tax returns
- Recent business bank statements
- An invoice or sale details for the asset
- Details of any existing facility secured over the entity
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We manage
From approval through to settlement
We coordinate the lender, the seller and the settlement sequence, because payment, possession and registration have to line up. On a private sale that sequencing is the part that goes wrong, and it is our job rather than yours.
Track Record
Independent Since 2005
Secured business lending sits with Charbel, who does this work every day, rather than with whoever happens to be free that afternoon.
Related Options
Where the Same Instrument Shows Up
A chattel mortgage is the structure. These pages cover the assets it is usually used for, and the facilities that sit around it.
The four financing structures
Where a chattel mortgage sits against a lease, a commercial hire purchase and a consumer loan, set out side by side.
Equipment finance
Plant and machinery, where what a lender will fund is decided by the asset rather than by your balance sheet.
Business vehicles under 4.5 tonnes
Where the tax classification of the vehicle sets caps that have nothing to do with the security position.
Several facilities at once
Where a business holds a stack of these and every outgoing financier has a registration that has to come off.
Cash flow facilities
For the gap between doing the work and being paid, which is a different problem to funding the asset.
Borrowing against the whole asset base
Where the question stops being one machine and becomes a borrowing base across debtors, stock and plant.
Know What You Are Granting Before You Sign It.
Fifteen minutes and you will understand both halves of the document.Questions Answered
Chattel Mortgage FAQs
The questions business owners ask us most often before getting in touch.
What is a chattel mortgage?
A chattel mortgage is a loan to buy a business asset where you acquire the asset and give the lender a security interest over it. The chattel is the goods, the mortgage is the security. It is business purpose lending, the security interest is registered on the Personal Property Securities Register, and the registration is what makes the lender’s position hold up against everyone else.
Do I own the asset under a chattel mortgage?
Yes. You acquire the asset and the lender takes a registered interest in it rather than title to it. The PPSR describes this arrangement as a grantor acquiring collateral and a secured party holding a security interest in it. That is the whole distinction: the lender’s claim is over the asset, not ownership of it.
What does registering the security interest actually do?
It sets the lender’s place in the queue. The PPSR states that a perfected interest has priority over an unperfected one, and that where there is more than one perfected interest the order runs from earliest registration date to latest. Registration is not paperwork after the fact. It is the thing that decides who gets paid first.
What is a purchase money security interest?
A security interest granted to secure debt incurred in acquiring that specific collateral, either from the seller or using funds lent for the purpose. The PPSR states that a perfected security interest that is a PMSI takes priority over a perfected security interest that is not. It is the reason a financier can fund one machine ahead of a lender already secured over everything.
My bank already holds security over my business. Can I still finance a new asset?
Often yes, and the purchase money security interest is why. Because a perfected PMSI outranks an earlier perfected interest that is not a PMSI, a financier can take a first-ranking position over the specific asset it funded without disturbing your bank’s wider security. Whether your existing facility documents permit it is a separate question and a real one.
What happens if I default?
The lender can seize the asset by a lawful method and then either sell it or keep it. The PPSR states that a sale price must be market value or a reasonably obtainable amount, that notice must go to you and to any higher priority secured parties before a sale, and that proceeds are paid to secured parties in priority order with anything left over going to you.
What happens to the registration when I pay it out?
It comes off. Once the debt is paid the lender no longer holds a security interest, and the registration is meant to be ended promptly rather than left sitting against your business. On a single asset this is routine. Where several facilities are being paid out at once it is the step that quietly delays settlement, which our fleet finance page covers.
Does Best Interests Duty apply to a chattel mortgage?
Not as a matter of law. Best Interests Duty attaches to credit provided for personal, domestic or household purposes, or for residential investment property. An asset financed wholly or predominantly for business purposes sits outside that framework, along with the responsible lending obligations. We work to the same standard anyway and put in writing how we are paid, which lenders were considered and why, before you sign.
Visit Us
Penrith Based.Clients Australia-Wide.
Penrith is our head office and the one you can walk into without an appointment. We also meet clients at Parramatta and in the Sydney CBD by arrangement. Secured asset facilities run almost entirely by phone and email, and we arrange and settle them for businesses in every state.
Parramatta
Suite 23, Level 1, 181 Church St, Parramatta NSW 2150
Commercial finance broker Parramatta →Sydney CBD
Level 18, 25 Bligh St, Sydney NSW 2000
Commercial finance broker Sydney CBD →Ready When You Are
Bring Us the Asset and the Paperwork.
Fifteen minutes with Charbel. Tell us what you are buying and who already holds security over the business, and we will tell you whether a separate facility is worth taking, where it would rank, and which lenders will write it.
No paperwork, no obligation. Penrith based, clients Australia-wide. Intellect Finance Pty Ltd, ACL 390611.
Finance for assets acquired wholly or predominantly for business purposes is not regulated consumer credit, and the Best Interests Duty and responsible lending obligations under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 do not apply to it. We disclose how we are paid in writing before any work begins. The security rules described on this page are published by the Personal Property Securities Register, carry exceptions this page does not reproduce, and are general information rather than advice on your position. We are not solicitors. Nothing on this page is credit assistance, legal advice or an offer of credit, and no outcome is guaranteed.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member
Important information General information only. Not credit assistance or tax advice. We charge you no fee. Every caveat and source on this page is collected here. Tap to read.
General information only. The content on this page is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not credit assistance, financial advice, legal advice or tax advice, and it is not an offer of credit. You should consider whether it is appropriate for you and seek your own advice before acting on it.
The security rules on this page are summaries and they are not legal advice. Priority, perfection, purchase money security interests, registration timing and enforcement are governed by the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 and described by the Personal Property Securities Register. The PPSR states that exceptions to the general priority rules exist and recommends obtaining legal advice before taking enforcement action. Whether any rule applies to your arrangement depends on the documents you sign and on what is already registered. We are finance brokers, not solicitors. Obtain your own legal advice before relying on any of it.
Your existing facility documents may restrict granting further security. A general security agreement can contain a negative pledge or a similar covenant, and nothing in the purchase money mechanism overrides what you have agreed with an existing financier. Whether you are permitted to grant a new security interest is a matter for those documents, your solicitor and the financier holding them, and it should be settled before an application rather than after one.
Priority is not a promise of recovery. Ranking ahead of another secured party decides the order in which proceeds are applied. It does not guarantee that a sale realises enough to cover what is owed, to any party. Where this page describes proceeds being paid in priority order, that is the published rule and not a prediction about any particular asset.
Registration searches show what is registered, not what is true. A registration is a claim placed on the register by a secured party. What it means for your business depends on the underlying agreement. If something is registered against your entity that you do not recognise, that is a matter to raise with the party that registered it and, if needed, with a solicitor.
Tax treatment is not covered on this page. Depreciation, GST and the treatment of any structure depend on how the asset is used and on your circumstances. Those are matters for a registered tax agent and the Australian Taxation Office. We are not registered tax agents and we do not provide tax advice.
Business purpose lending. Where machinery, plant or infrastructure is financed wholly or predominantly for business purposes, that is not regulated consumer credit, and the Best Interests Duty and responsible lending obligations under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 do not apply to it. Different protections apply to business borrowers than to consumers. If you are unsure which framework your facility sits in, ask the lender and obtain the answer in writing before you sign.
The asset is the security, and guarantees are common. A chattel mortgage is secured against the asset, a security interest is registered, and lenders commonly require guarantees from directors or trustees and sometimes additional security. If a facility is not met the lender can seize and dispose of the collateral as described on this page, and what happens to any shortfall is governed by the contract you signed. Read what you are being asked to guarantee before you sign it.
Nothing here is a guarantee. Approval, borrowing capacity, pricing, terms, deposit requirements, which assets a lender will finance, age and hours limits and how long anything takes are determined by individual lenders, not by us. They differ between lenders and change over time. Any range or timeframe on this page is indicative and is not a quote, an offer, or a prediction of your outcome.
How we are paid. Intellect Finance does not charge borrowers a fee for arranging finance, and does not charge a clawback fee where a facility is paid out early. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement. The basis of that commission is disclosed to you in writing before any work begins, together with the lenders considered and the reason for the recommendation.
Third-party information. Where this page refers to legislation, regulatory guidance or authority publications, that information is sourced from the relevant authority and was correct to the best of our knowledge at the date shown on this page. Those rules change, sometimes without notice. Always confirm the current position with the issuing authority or with us before relying on it.
Found something wrong? If you believe anything on this page is inaccurate or out of date, tell us at joe@intellectfinance.com.au and we will review and correct it.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member