Guitar owners find unlikely friend

21 December 2012

Today’s Smart Company reports that liquidator of Jackson’s Rare Guitars in Sydney will attempt to help the suppliers of the store’s guitars get their property back. This is a remarkable and honorable gesture from a practitioner of the insolvency profession, where seize and sell in haste is the usual mode.

“I just think the government hasn’t understood the difficulties for the consumer here,” insolvency expert Jamieson Louttit told SmartCompany this morning. Louttit is managing the liquidation of Sydney store Jackson’s Rare Guitars, and was quoted here by Smart Company.

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He is critical of the national PPSR legislation, which in this case has presented him with the gift of title to almost a million dollars worth of consigned guitars, owned by around 100 people, or a problem. To his enormous credit, Mr. Louttit has decided to try to help the hapless guitar owners.

According to Smart Company: “The problem is that suppliers are now required to register their property under the Personal Property Securities Register – introduced earlier this year as part of the Personal Properties Securities Act 2009 – in case a company like Jackson’s goes under. That way, their property is fully registered and they’ll be able to claim it. But most of the guitar owners involved in Jackson’s didn’t do this, meaning they can’t get their property back easily.”

Mr Louttit told Smart Company that he’s going to make an application to the court to have the suppliers heard.

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“I’ll be seeking a direction of the court, looking for an opportunity for them to be heard. I want to give them the opportunity to speak.”

Guitar owners affected should give him oxygen to do this, and hope he has the funds and the gumption to try to sort out the problem and return their rare and valued assets.

CX salutes Jamieson Louttit.