UCC Document Community

Had a similar experience when we were selling our business. The buyer's attorney ran comprehensive UCC searches on our company which triggered all kinds of notices. It's actually a good sign that the system is working - means your lender's security interest is properly recorded and discoverable. Just make sure all the details match your actual loan agreement.

Don't panic - this is completely normal! UCC liens notices are just part of the standard public filing system. When your lender filed that UCC-1 for your equipment financing, it became a matter of public record that anyone can search. The notice you received could be from various sources - maybe your insurance company doing their annual review, a potential supplier running credit checks, or even just routine state notifications. The key thing is that this doesn't affect your actual loan terms or create any new obligations. Your financing arrangement with the lender remains exactly the same. Just double-check that all the information in the UCC filing matches your loan documents (debtor name, collateral description, etc.) to make sure there are no errors that could cause issues down the road.

The $10 Florida termination fee is normal but negotiate with them about who pays it. Especially if you're a good customer who paid off early or something. Some lenders will waive it as a courtesy.

New to UCC filings here - just want to make sure I understand this correctly. So the $10 fee goes directly to the Florida Secretary of State's office, not to my credit union? And once they file the UCC-3 termination, that completely removes their security interest in my equipment? I'm asking because I want to make sure there's nothing else I need to do on my end to fully clear this lien before I consider any future financing or equipment sales.

I've been through something similar with a business credit card UCC filing. One thing that really helped me was getting a UCC search report from the state to see the complete filing history - sometimes there are amendments or corrections that aren't obvious from the basic database search. Also, if you're under time pressure for the refinancing, consider asking your new lender if they'd accept a title insurance policy that covers the UCC lien risk while you're disputing it. Some lenders will close with that protection in place rather than waiting for a full resolution.

The title insurance approach is really smart - I hadn't considered that option. From my experience dealing with UCC complications during refinancing, the insurance typically runs about 0.5-1% of the loan amount depending on the risk profile and lender requirements. It's usually much cheaper than the carrying costs of delaying your refinancing for months while fighting the UCC. Just make sure the title company is willing to insure against UCC defects specifically - not all policies cover filing irregularities or invalid security interests. You'll want to get quotes from a few different underwriters since their risk tolerance varies significantly on these issues.

Just wanted to add another data point - I've been dealing with Texas UCC filings for about 6 years and can confirm the portal issues are getting more frequent. What really helped me was keeping a backup strategy ready. I always have the paper forms filled out and ready to mail if the electronic system fails close to a deadline. Yes, paper filing takes 2-3 weeks to process, but at least you have that filing date if you're up against a deadline. Also, if you're doing high-value deals like that $2.8M equipment loan, consider filing your continuations 2-3 months early instead of waiting until the last minute. The 6-month window gives you plenty of buffer time to deal with portal outages.

I've been dealing with similar issues with the Texas SOS portal over the past few months. One thing that's helped me is using multiple browsers - sometimes Chrome times out but Firefox works, or vice versa. Also, I've noticed that if you get a timeout error, don't immediately refresh or try again. Wait about 10-15 minutes because sometimes the filing actually did go through despite the error message, and you don't want to accidentally submit duplicates. I always check my filing history before attempting to resubmit. For critical deadlines like yours, I'd also recommend having your local Secretary of State office contact info handy - some offices will accept faxed emergency filings if you can demonstrate it's due to system issues, though this varies by location.

Montana requires exact debtor name matching so any variation will cause search failures. Try reverse searching - start with the collateral description if you know what equipment was financed.

honestly montana ucc search is broken half the time, i just call the SOS office now when i need something urgently. they can usually find stuff that doesn't show up online