Ask the community...
- DO post questions about your issues.
- DO answer questions and support each other.
- DO post tips & tricks to help folks.
- DO NOT post call problems here - there is a support tab at the top for that :)
Join the conversation
Join the conversation
One final thought - make sure your title insurance company is aware of the EDA grant situation. They may want additional documentation or have specific requirements for their policy.
They usually are, but better to discuss it upfront than have surprises at closing.
Speaking of documentation, this is where Certana.ai's document verification really shines. You can upload all your grant agreements, loan docs, and UCC forms to verify everything aligns properly before closing. Much better than discovering inconsistencies after the fact.
NeonNebula
This is a great learning thread! I'm new to equipment financing but work with a lot of government-funded projects. One thing I'd add - make sure to review the EDA grant agreement carefully for any "change in control" or "transfer" provisions. Sometimes these grants have restrictions on transferring ownership of equipment that could complicate your security interest if you ever need to exercise remedies. The compliance obligations everyone mentioned are definitely key, but the transfer restrictions can be just as important for lenders to understand upfront.
Lola Perez
•That's an excellent point about transfer restrictions! I hadn't even thought to look for those provisions in the grant agreement. Do you know if these restrictions typically survive a foreclosure action, or would they be subordinate to a properly perfected security interest? This could really complicate the collateral's value if we can't freely transfer it in a default scenario.
Join the conversation
Final thought: remember that tax lien searches might need to be done at multiple levels - federal (IRS), state income tax, state sales tax, payroll tax, property tax, etc. Each might be filed in different places.
Chloe Zhang
•Talk to your title company or lien search service - they usually have standard search packages that cover all the bases.
And document everything! Your loan committee will want to see evidence of all searches performed, not just the results.
Ravi Gupta
This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm putting together a comprehensive due diligence checklist based on all your advice. Just to make sure I understand the workflow correctly: 1) Run UCC search at Secretary of State level, 2) Run separate federal tax lien search, 3) Run state/local tax lien searches, 4) Check for judgment liens, 5) Verify all entity name variations across all searches, and 6) Document everything for the loan file. Is there a typical timeframe these searches should cover? I'm assuming we want to go back further than just the UCC 5-year window since tax liens could have been filed years ago and still be active.
Join the conversation
I was in a similar situation last year with a bunch of 2019 filings. Filed all the continuations in November 2023, well before the deadlines. The peace of mind was worth it. State filing fees aren't that expensive compared to losing your secured position.
Varies by state but usually $10-25 per continuation. Some states have bulk filing discounts if you're doing multiple filings at once.
That's nothing compared to losing priority on a secured loan. I'd pay 10x that to maintain perfection on a multi-million dollar portfolio.
Ezra Bates
Great thread everyone! As someone who's been doing UCC work for 15+ years, I'd strongly recommend creating a master tracking spreadsheet with filing dates, expiration dates, and continuation windows calculated out. Also consider staggering your renewal dates - if all your filings expire in the same month, you risk missing multiple deadlines if something goes wrong. When I took over our portfolio, I found filings clustered around year-end, so now I spread new filings throughout the year to balance the workload. One last tip: some states allow you to file continuations online, but others still require paper forms - know your state's requirements before you're in the deadline crunch.
This is incredibly helpful advice, especially the point about staggering renewal dates. I'm new to UCC filings and hadn't considered the operational risk of having everything expire at once. Your suggestion about creating a master tracking spreadsheet makes perfect sense - I'm going to set that up right away. Quick question: when you say "stagger throughout the year," do you mean deliberately timing new UCC-1 filings to spread out future continuation deadlines, or is there a way to adjust existing filing schedules?
Join the conversation
Amina Sy
Update: Spoke with our corporate attorney and she confirmed that our equipment clearly falls under UCC definition of personal property. The bank's compliance team was being overly cautious. Thanks everyone for the input - really helped me organize my thoughts before that conversation.
Miguel Ramos
•This gives me hope for my situation. Maybe I'm worrying about nothing too.
Perfect example of why understanding the UCC definition of personal property is so important in our field. Saves a lot of unnecessary stress.
Kaiya Rivera
Great to hear you got that resolved! I'm curious though - what specific language did your attorney use to explain why the equipment clearly qualified as personal property under UCC? I'm dealing with a similar pushback from a lender's compliance team on some CNC machinery, and having that legal framework explanation would be really helpful for my own situation.
I'd love to know this too! Having specific legal language around CNC machinery classification would be super valuable. My understanding is that the key factors are whether the equipment retains its essential character as personal property and whether it can be removed without substantial injury to the realty. But getting the exact attorney phrasing would help when explaining this to nervous lenders.
Javier Cruz
The collateral description for transmission equipment needs to be carefully crafted. You want to capture all the transmission lines, substations, switching equipment, and related infrastructure without being so broad that it's meaningless or so narrow that you miss important assets. Given the multi-state nature and the significant loan amount, precision is critical.
0 coins
Javier Cruz
•Generally include voltage levels, geographic descriptions or route identifiers, and specific substation names/locations. Also consider including language about 'all equipment and fixtures' related to the transmission system.
0 coins
Emma Thompson
•Don't forget about future additions or modifications to the transmission system. Your collateral description should account for equipment upgrades or expansions.
0 coins
Rebecca Johnston
For multi-state transmission utility filings like this, I'd strongly recommend getting everything verified before you start filing. With a $4.8M loan and a tight closing timeline, you can't afford rejections due to name mismatches or other document inconsistencies. The debtor name discrepancy you mentioned ('Midwest' vs 'MidWest' plus comma differences) will definitely cause problems. Pull the most recent state registration documents for the exact legal name, then make sure that exact name appears consistently across all your UCC-1 forms in Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa. Each state will need separate filings for the transmission equipment located there. Consider using a document verification tool to catch any inconsistencies - with your timeline, the small cost is worth avoiding filing delays.
0 coins