UCC Document Community

Bottom line - don't overcomplicate your UCC-1 filing by bringing in concepts from the underlying purchase transaction. The security interest exists independently of how you acquired the collateral. Focus on clear collateral identification and proper debtor naming. That's what matters for perfection.

This thread perfectly illustrates why so many people get tripped up on international equipment deals! I've been doing UCC filings for 15 years and still see experienced attorneys mixing these up. The key insight that helped me early on was realizing that incoterms are about the SALE relationship (buyer-seller), while UCC is about the CREDIT relationship (borrower-lender). They're completely separate legal frameworks that just happen to involve the same physical assets. For your $180K equipment, stick to standard UCC collateral description practices - be specific about the machinery type, include serial numbers if available, and don't reference how you acquired it. The FOB Hamburg terms served their purpose during the international sale but have zero relevance to your security interest perfection.

OK so just to summarize for the original poster: No signature needed on UCC-1 form, electronic filing handles that. BUT make sure you have proper authorization in your security agreement. AND verify debtor name matches state records exactly. Your lender's paralegal was probably thinking of the security agreement signatures, not the UCC filing itself.

As someone who's been handling UCC filings for about 5 years now, I can confirm what everyone's saying - no signatures required on the UCC-1 itself for electronic filing. The confusion usually comes from mixing up the security agreement (which definitely needs signatures) with the UCC filing (which doesn't). For your $180K equipment deal, just make sure your loan docs have clear language authorizing the UCC filing and you're good to go. Electronic filing systems have made this so much simpler than the old paper days. One less thing to chase down signatures for!

Look, Florida UCC filing fees suck but at least the state's filing system works reliably. I'll take higher fees over the nightmare systems some other states are running where filings disappear into the void.

This fee increase is really frustrating, especially with no advance notice. I've been doing UCC filings for about 3 years now and was just getting comfortable with the cost structure. Now I have to go back to all my templates and update the fee estimates I give clients. Has anyone found a good way to track these changes across different states? I'm starting to think I need a spreadsheet just to keep up with filing fees since they seem to change without warning.

For what it's worth, I've been tracking UCC 9-609 comment citations in reported decisions and there's definitely an uptick in the last 3 years. Courts in commercial-friendly jurisdictions like Delaware and New York are giving them more weight, especially in cases involving sophisticated parties. The comments aren't binding, but they're becoming more influential in determining what constitutes commercially reasonable notice.

As a newcomer to secured lending, this thread has been incredibly eye-opening about the evolving challenges with UCC 9-609 enforcement. I'm working at a small regional lender and we've been using a standard 10-day notice across the board, but it sounds like that approach might be outdated given how aggressively debtor attorneys are citing the official comments now. The tiered system that Natasha mentioned seems like a practical solution - would love to hear more about how others are documenting their reasoning for notice periods to defend against these challenges. Also curious about the Certana.ai tool that's been mentioned - sounds like it could help smaller lenders like us avoid costly mistakes in the perfection-to-enforcement chain.

Make sure you keep copies of everything and note your filing date for continuation purposes. Illinois UCC-1 filings are good for 5 years, so you'll need to file a continuation before the lapse date if the loan term extends beyond that.

As a newcomer to UCC filings, I'm learning a lot from this thread! One question - for equipment like this that might move between job sites in different states, do you need to consider filing in multiple jurisdictions? I know the debtor's location usually determines where to file, but wasn't sure if mobile construction equipment creates any complications across state lines.