NS Judgment Client Account

The NS Judgment Client Account is for individuals and businesses who do not normally use the personal property registry (PPR), but who need limited access such as to register a judgment, notice, or order. The NS Judgment Client Account will allow you to perform searches and some types of registrations.

Another alternative is to hire a service provider to complete the search or registration for you.

If you are new to the Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) and the Personal Property Registry System (PPRS), we recommend you read about PPRS before you apply for and use a NS Judgment Client Account.

Contents

Jurisdiction-specific pages

Access features and limitations

Applying for a NS Judgment Client Account

Payment methods

First time login

Search

Register (new, original)

Registration changes (maintain your registration)

Notice to Secured Party report

Jurisdiction-specific features and limitations

The Province of Nova Scotia is currently the only ACOL PPRS jurisdiction where you are able to perform PPR registrations using a NS Judgment Client Account. For more information see Register a Notice of Judgment, Claim or Order in Nova Scotia.

General access features and limitations

Applying for a NS Judgment Client Account

To apply for a NS Judgment Client Account, you must agree to the account agreement’s terms and conditions by completing the NS Judgment Client Account application form. The application form requires:

• Your full, legal name.
• An email address.  If your email address changes throughout the life of your registration(s), you should update your account and you should update any registration(s) that use the email to use the new email address.
• One or more telephone numbers.
• A mailing address where we will send your new account information.
• Your signature

We recommend you scan and send your application form by email to ACOLBusinessOffice@Unisys.com.

After applying, you should receive a NS Judgment Client Account “Welcome Package” within a few days to a week. We will send the Welcome Package by surface mail (Canada Post). We use mail in order to verify your address, including to help verify your identity. The Welcome Package will include your account number, a user ID, and password.

Important: Your Welcome Package will include a PPR Client Information record created on your behalf. You should verify that this PPR Client Information is correct. See First time login for more information.

Payment methods

A valid American Express, Mastercard, or Visa credit card is required. You will not provide credit card information with your account application, but you must have a valid credit card in order to pay for each registration and search that you perform.

Registration and search fee amounts vary by jurisdiction.  For more information, go to Jurisdictions and select the province or territory of interest.

First time login

The first time you login to PPRS you should:

• Change your password. The password sent to you by mail is a temporary password. You will be prompted to change the password.
• Verify your PPR Client Information. PPR Client Information identifies you as the registrant in all registrations that you perform. Check your Welcome Package or use the View PPR Client Information function to verify that this information is accurate. If required, use the Update PPR Client Information function to make changes before you perform any registrations.

Search

A PPRS search will identify interests registered against an individual, an enterprise (e.g. a business or other organization), or serial-numbered goods. This can help you learn if existing interests have priority over your registration. For example, if your judgment gives you an interest in the debtor’s car, but the car is already the subject of a car loan, then the car loan may have “priority” over your judgment. This means that if a sheriff seized and sold the car to pay your judgment, the proceeds of the sale may first pay the outstanding balance of the car loan before your judgment.

Important: PPRS searches are not like using Google, Bing or Yahoo! PPRS uses strict rules for debtor names and serial numbers specified in PPSA [General] Regulations. Individual debtor name requirements are particularly demanding. You must use the person’s full name, including their middle name or initial if they have one.

For more information, see Search Tips.

Register (new, original)

Use “Enter a Registration” to create a new (original) registration in the PPR. You should have a copy of your judgment, notice, or order documentation at hand in order to enter information accurately. See PPSA [General] Regulations for detailed instructions. In summary, to enter a new registration you must provide the following:

1. Registration type: Pick from the list of available registration types.
2. Term: The period the registration will be effective. For example, if you specify a term of two years, then the expiry date will be two years from the registration date. For most registration types a longer term will result in a higher registration fee. You can later extend the term (change the expiry date) by performing a Renewal registration, but you must perform the Renewal prior to the expiry date.  It is very important that your registration remains effective throughout the enforcement period. Your registration must be effective in order for you to receive proceeds from a sheriff and to maintain your priority relative to other creditors.
3. Debtor: Carefully and accurately identify the debtor(s) according to the instructions specified in the PPSA [General] Regulations. Instructions include how to determine if the debtor is an enterprise or an individual, the documentation that should be consulted to determine the legal name, and how to enter the name. Individual debtor name requirements are particularly demanding. You must use the person’s full name, including their middle name or initial if they have one. Note that the debtor name as listed in your judgment, notice or order may not be the same as the debtor’s legal name as required by the PPSA. If you know that a debtor goes by different names, then in addition to entering the required name and address, you may enter other names as separate debtor records.
4. Secured Party: By default, you will be identified as the secured party. The system will use the same PPR Client Information that is used to identify you as the registrant. If the secured party is a different person, then delete the default secured party record and add a new one. If there is more than one secured party, enter separate records for each secured party. We recommend that you specify an email address for delivery of Notice to Secured Party reports.
5. Collateral: Add serial numbered goods and/or a general description of the collateral.
   If your judgment, notice or order specifies it, you may enter the General Collateral Description as “all present and after-acquired personal property” or a similar statement. Serial numbered goods are motor vehicles, trailers, mobile homes, boats, outboard motors, and aircraft. If you do not know the serial numbers for such goods at the time of the registration, you can add them later via an amendment.

While completing your registration you may optionally provide the following information:

• ACOL Reference Number and Your File Number: Identifiers to help you cross-reference your registration to your records.
• Additional Information: Other information pertinent to the registration.

Save a draft and review draft registration details — You will have the option to save a draft of your registration in order to complete and submit the registration later. You can also review your draft registration details in the form of a PDF report.  When you are ready to proceed, you will submit your registration details and pay the prescribed registration fee.

Verification Statement — After you successfully submit your registration, you will receive a Verification Statement. You should save and print this report for your records. Use the Verification Statement to do the following:

• Verify successful completion. Your report should read “Verification Statement” in the header at the top of the first page. A registration is complete only when a registration number and expiry date have been assigned. If you are looking at a report that is not labelled “Verification Statement” and does not include registration number and expiry date values, then you have a draft registration report or print-out, not a Verification Statement.
• Verify the registration information. Review your Verification Statement to confirm that the information you entered is correct and complete. If not, you should amend the registration.
• Inform debtors of the registration. The PPSA requires that the secured party send a copy of the Verification Statement to every debtor identified in the registration within 30 days of the registration. [NS PPSA 44(11).]

Registrant identification — When you use your NS Judgment Client Account to perform a registration, ACOL PPRS uses your PPR Client Information to identify you as the registrant. This registrant identification information is stored as part of the registration in the PPR database and is reported in the Verification Statement.

For more information, see Registration Tips.

Registration changes (maintain your registration)

Having successfully created a registration, you may later need to make one of the following changes to the registration:

• Renewal: extend the term of an existing registration (changes the Expiry Date).  It is very important that your registration remains effective throughout the enforcement period. Your registration must be effective in order for you to receive proceeds from a sheriff and to maintain your priority relative to other creditors.
• Amendment: change an existing registration's details (all editable values other than the Expiry Date).
• Discharge: mark a registration as no longer active (total discharge).
• Re-registration: re-activate a registration that has been discharged or lapsed for less than 30 days.

When you successfully submit your registration change, you will receive a Verification Statement. Like with a new registration, we recommend you use your Verification Statement. Use the Verification Statement to do the following:

• Verify successful completion.
• Verify the registration information.
• If you have added new debtors via amendment, inform the new debtor of the registration.

Notice to Secured Party reports

Within PPRS, a Notice to Secured Party is a system-generated report sent to every secured party listed in a registration when the registration is amended, discharged or re-registered.

The Notice to Secured Party includes the registration family history and all registration details at the time of the amendment, discharge or re-registration, including identification of the registrant. This provides you with the opportunity to correct an accidental, incorrect or fraudulent registration change.

When your NS Judgment Client Account is created, we configure your PPR Client Information to receive Notice to Secured Party reports via email. Therefore, if you use the default “Same as Registrant” secured party when you create a new registration, you will receive Notice to Secured Party reports via email.

If you need to add a different secured party to a registration, we recommend that you specify an email address for delivery of Notice to Secured Party reports. If you enter only a name and mail address, then the Notice to Secured Party will be delivered via surface mail.