What register of charges and pledgess record across jurisdictions
A register of charges and pledges records security interests granted over a company's or an individual's assets: the secured party, the asset or asset class, the date the charge attached, and, once filed, its release. The authority holding it, its name and its split between company, land and movable-asset registers vary by jurisdiction.
What a register of charges and pledges establishes
A register of charges and pledges records that a named creditor holds a security interest over a named debtor's asset, and it fixes the date from which that interest ranks against other creditors. The entry does not explain why the debt was incurred or confirm that it has since been repaid. It states that a charge exists, over what, and from when. The register's function is to fix priority, not to certify solvency or explain the commercial background to the debt.
The debtor's identity is the first key field, usually the registered name and number rather than a trading name, and several registers will not run a search at all without that number in hand. The secured party's identity follows, though a syndicate of lenders is frequently represented on the register by a single security trustee rather than each participant named separately.
The charged asset comes next, described either specifically – a vessel, an aircraft, a parcel of land – or generically, covering all present and future assets of a stated type. Where the charge is floating rather than fixed, the register records that it floats over a class of assets until a crystallising event fixes it to specific property. It does not track which assets fall inside that class at any given moment.
Search behaviour follows the register's own key. Where the key is the debtor's name, a search by the asset's serial number or registration mark returns nothing, because the two fields are not cross-indexed. Where the key is a cadastral reference, vessel number or aircraft registration mark, the reverse holds: a search by the debtor's name alone can miss an entry filed only against the asset.
An amount secured is recorded in some registers and omitted in others. Where it appears, the figure is usually a stated maximum rather than the balance currently outstanding, and the two are rarely identical. A charge showing a maximum of a given sum confirms only that the charge cannot secure more than that sum.
Two dates carry the operative weight: creation, when the parties agreed the charge, and registration, when it took effect against third parties. Where a jurisdiction allows a gap between the two, a search made inside that window can miss a charge that is valid but not yet entered. This is the most common source of surprise for a foreign applicant expecting the entry on the day of signing. The date matters more than the amount.
Ranking between two charges over the same asset is usually derived from the registration date rather than stated as a separate field. Some registers publish an explicit ranking table; most leave the applicant to infer ranking from the sequence of registration dates alone. Where two charges register on the same day, the register's own rule for same-day priority, not the calendar date, decides the order.
Satisfaction is the closing field. A charge shown as outstanding has not been confirmed unpaid; it has been confirmed only as not yet released. Where the parties settle privately and never file a release, the charge stays visible indefinitely, and the register carries no duty to chase either side for an update. A discharged charge can also persist on record because the release itself requires a separate, deliberate filing that neither party is compelled to make. This is the record scope of a charges register: existence, ranking and satisfaction, not adequacy or enforceability.
How this family varies between jurisdictions
The name changes. The function mostly does not. Some jurisdictions call it a register of charges, sitting inside the company register and covering charges granted by a corporate entity. Others call it a register of pledges, tied historically to the pledge of movable property rather than to a company's undertaking. A third group runs a personal property security register, modelled on secured-transactions rules, covering companies and individuals alike under a single filing system.
Where the underlying tradition separates movable and immovable security, the register usually splits along the same line. A charge over land or a building is entered at the land registry, under the mortgage or charge heading used there. A charge over equipment, inventory, receivables or shares is entered at a separate movable-assets or company-charges register, run by a different authority under a different filing rule. A single financing arrangement secured over a factory and its machinery can appear across two registers, each recording only its own slice of the security package.
Where the debtor is a company, the charge is commonly filed against the company's own file at the company register, searchable by the company's registered number. Where the debtor is an individual, the equivalent filing – where one exists at all – sits at a separate movables register keyed to a personal identifier, and the two systems rarely cross-reference each other. A search of the company register will not surface a charge granted personally by that company's controller, because the records are not linked.
Aircraft, ships and certain categories of intellectual property are frequently carved out into specialist registers, sitting outside both the company and the land system. An aircraft mortgage is typically registered with the civil aviation authority rather than the company registrar, and a ship mortgage with the maritime registry. A search confined to the company register confirms nothing about a charge that exists only in the specialist record.
Register access also varies independently of the register's name. Some jurisdictions publish the full charge instrument to any searcher; others publish only a notice that a charge exists, withholding the underlying agreement from anyone but the parties, and in some cases a court. Where the register discloses only the notice, a search confirms that security has been granted and over what class of asset, not the covenants or the interest rate sitting inside the unseen instrument.
Where this record does not exist, or is closed
A charges register does not confirm solvency. A company with no registered charges may still carry unsecured debt well in excess of its assets, and the register holds no field for unsecured liability of any kind.
Where a jurisdiction has no centralised register at all, security interests may be created by private agreement and take effect between the parties without any public filing. A foreign applicant searching for a charge there finds nothing, and the absence of a result confirms only that this jurisdiction does not require one to be filed.
Where the register is closed to the public, access is usually limited to the debtor, the secured party, a court or an insolvency officeholder acting under statutory authority. A foreign applicant with no standing in any of those categories receives no result, regardless of the fee offered.
Assignment of the underlying debt to a new creditor is not recorded unless the assignment is itself filed, and in several jurisdictions it is not. A charge can sit registered in the name of a lender that has since sold the loan on, with no obligation on the register to update the chargee's name.
Crystallisation of a floating charge – the event that fixes it to specific assets – is rarely filed. The register shows that a floating charge exists; it does not show whether crystallisation has already occurred, because crystallisation is typically known to the parties well before it is recorded anywhere public. Where a charge has been discharged informally and no release has been filed, the register continues to show it as live – a property of the filing system, not an error in the record.
Which documents this family produces
The most requested document is a certified extract of the charges register, showing the charges currently registered against a named debtor: the secured party of each, the asset class and the registration date. Where the register also holds historical entries, an extract can be requested to include discharged and satisfied charges alongside the live ones, though this is usually a separate request rather than a default setting.
A second document is a certificate confirming no charges are registered, issued where the search returns no entries, and used to demonstrate a clean position at a fixed date rather than to prove that no charge could ever have existed off-register. A third is a copy of the charge instrument itself, available only where the register holds the instrument rather than a bare notice of it.
Where a charge has been released, some registers issue a certificate of satisfaction confirming the release filing and its date, separate from the original registration certificate. This is the document most often requested to close a due-diligence file, and it is only available once the release has actually been filed. Release is not automatic.
What does a register of charges and pledges contain?
It contains the debtor's identity, the secured party, a description of the charged asset or asset class, the date the charge was created and the date it was registered, and, where the register requires it, the amount secured. Satisfaction is recorded separately, once filed, and is not automatic on repayment.
Is the register of charges and pledges public everywhere?
No. Some jurisdictions publish the full charge instrument to any searcher; others publish only a notice that a charge exists and restrict the instrument to the debtor, the secured party or a court. A small number of jurisdictions run no centralised public register at all, so a charge can exist unfiled.
What does a register of charges and pledges never show?
It never shows the debtor's overall solvency, whether an unfiled private assignment has changed the secured party, or whether a floating charge has already crystallised. It shows that a charge was registered and, where filed, that it was released – nothing about the commercial standing of either party.
Why does the same charge appear in two different registers?
Where a single arrangement is secured over both land and movable assets, each asset class is typically filed at a different authority under a different rule. A factory mortgage sits at the land registry; the charge over the machinery inside it sits at the company or movable-assets register.
How is a charge search different from a company search?
A company search confirms the entity's registered details, directors and status. A charge search is a separate request against the same or a different register, returning only security interests filed against that debtor. Ordering a company extract does not automatically surface the charges filed elsewhere.
Can a charge be removed from the register after the debt is repaid?
Only where a release or satisfaction is actively filed. Repayment alone does not update the register in most jurisdictions, and where the parties settle privately without filing a release, the charge remains visible as outstanding indefinitely.
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