General law and statutory liens: liens or charges that arise by operation of the general law, or under statute, to secure amounts owing or expenses incurred from the provision of goods and services in the ordinary course of business, such as a workman’s/mechanic’s lien over a car in for repair for the costs of the repair, are not security interests under the PPSA¹.

While liens and statutory charges are not security interests and do not need to be registered or otherwise perfected, the PPSA (see section 73) can regulate the priority of such liens and charges if they arise after the commencement of the PPSA in 2012, and their priority is not excluded by State or Commonwealth legislation from being governed by the PPSA.

There are various cases where the priority of certain statutory liens or charges is excluded from the PPSA and is reserved to the the statute under which the lien or charge arises². One such example is liens arising to construction workers in New South Wales over unfixed plant and materials, and any other interest in plant and materials, under section 11(3) of the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999. See paragraph 18.5.8 of Chapter 18 (Priority) for a list of statutory liens and charges the priority of which has been excluded from regulation under section 73 of the PPSA.