PPSR Check QLD How to check a used car in Queensland

How to do a PPSR check in Queensland

Queensland uses the same national register as every other state. Find the car’s VIN, search it at ppsr.gov.au for $2, and the certificate tells you whether a lender has a security interest in the car and whether it is recorded as written off or stolen. Do it on the day you pay, or the day before. Queensland’s free rego check shows none of this: only the registration and the vehicle’s details.

$2

for the official search online, or $7 by phone

VIN only

the government search will not take a number plate

14 days

to transfer the rego into your name

2 months

or 2,000 km, whichever comes first: how long a private seller’s safety certificate lasts

Updated 27 October 2026. Fees and Queensland rules checked on ppsr.gov.au and qld.gov.au that day (sources).

The $2 PPSR search, step by step

1. 1

   Find the VIN on the car

   It’s 17 characters, usually at the base of the windscreen, in the driver’s door frame or under the bonnet. Check it against the registration certificate: the plate, VIN and engine number should match the car exactly.

2. 2

   Run Queensland’s free rego check

   TMR’s Check registration status (or our free QLD rego check) shows whether the car is registered and what it’s registered for. A car on commercial rather than private rego has worked for a living, so ask about it.

3. 3

   Search the VIN at ppsr.gov.au

   Pick the $2 vehicle search and pay by card. It won’t take a number plate, and a mistyped VIN still costs you the $2.

4. 4

   Read the certificate

   You’re looking for three things: a security interest (money may still be owed, and the lender could take the car), a written-off record and a stolen record. Our guide to the PPSR check walks through a real certificate.

5. 5

   Sort out anything it finds before you pay

   Finance owing: the seller gets a payout figure and clears the loan first. Written off: see how Queensland handles it. Recorded as stolen: walk away.

6. 6

   Search again on the day you pay

   Or the day before. A clear certificate from then can help protect you if a lender turns up later, so keep it with the sale papers.

What a PPSR check costs in Queensland

There is no free official PPSR search. The government charges $2 online and $7 by phone, and the fee is not refunded.

Budget for the transfer too: the buyer pays the transfer fee and vehicle registration duty, worked out on the price or the market value, whichever is higher. TMR’s duty calculator gives you the figure.

Free Queensland checks, and what each one misses

All worth doing. None of them shows finance, a write-off or a stolen record, which is why TMR’s own rego check page sends buyers to the $2 PPSR search.

Buying a used car in Queensland: the rules that differ

The seller has to give you a safety certificate

In Queensland the seller, not you, gets the safety certificate (most people still call it a roadworthy) and hands it over at the transfer. Selling a registered car without one can cost them a fine of over $700. From a private seller it has to be no more than 2 months or 2,000 km old; from a dealer, 3 months or 1,000 km. It covers one transfer only, and it's a minimum safety check, not a mechanical inspection.

You have 14 days to transfer the rego

You both sign form F3520 on the day of sale. The seller keeps Part B, and you lodge Part A at a customer service centre within 14 days with the safety certificate and your licence. Or the seller starts the transfer online and you finish it, unless the car has personalised plates or a gas system. You pay the fee and the duty; the seller pays nothing.

How Queensland handles written-off cars

A car an insurer, assessor, dealer or dismantler writes off is recorded for good, and the record follows it interstate and shows on the PPSR. A WOVR check shows that record from the rego or VIN: statutory or repairable, and the damage noted. A statutory write-off can never be registered again, anywhere in Australia. A repairable write-off can, once it passes a safety certificate inspection and a written-off vehicle inspection (WOVI), and it stays on the register after that.

Queensland only records a write-off when the car was 16 or younger at the time, so an older car an insurer paid out on may carry no record at all. And there are a lot of them: in Carify's own checks between October 2019 and July 2026, around one in five cars registered in Queensland, WA and SA had a written-off record, against about one in twenty in NSW (our written-off car data report has the detail).

Private seller or licensed dealer

A Queensland licensed dealer has to give you clear title, and a car under 10 years old with less than 160,000 km comes with a statutory warranty of 3 months or 5,000 km. Buy privately and you get none of that: no cooling-off period, no warranty, and no obligation on the seller to show you a PPSR certificate. That's where your own check matters most.