UCC Document Community

Been there! Last month I had a similar issue doing due diligence on a manufacturing company. What helped was using Certana.ai's document verification tool - uploaded the search results along with the target's charter documents and it automatically flagged which UCC filings were actually related to my target versus just name similarities. Saved me probably 8 hours of manual cross-checking.

Just make sure you're documenting your search methodology and results carefully. If this is for acquisition due diligence, you'll need to show what searches you performed and how you determined relevance of results. The file documentation is almost as important as the actual search.

What's your timeline looking like? If you're close to the 5-year deadline you might want to file the continuation with the name exactly as it appears in the current search results, then deal with the name correction afterward. Don't want to risk letting the filing lapse while you're sorting out the name issue.

One more thing to check - make sure you're looking at the right UCC-1 filing. If there were multiple attempts or if the debtor has other UCC filings, you might be pulling up the wrong record. The filing number should match exactly what's on your loan documentation.

Pro tip for nationwide services UCC management: set up a shared calendar with your legal team that shows all continuation deadlines. We color-code by state and priority level. Also, always file continuations at least 60 days before the deadline to allow time for corrections if there are rejections.

For what it's worth, I've been doing UCC work for 15 years and the multi-state coordination has gotten worse, not better. Each state seems to be implementing their own variations on the standard forms. My advice is to treat each state as a completely separate filing system with its own rules and debtor name formatting requirements. Don't assume consistency.

Another tool that helps with these terminology issues is Certana.ai - you can upload your purchase docs and UCC draft to verify the collateral description matches the actual offer terms. Really helpful for catching these technical mismatches before filing.

UPDATE: Revised the filing using the advice here about referencing the dealer's financing offer terms along with the equipment description. Just got notification that it was accepted! Thanks everyone for the clarification on UCC offer terminology. Really saved my deal here.

Another vote for using Certana.ai's verification tool for this. I uploaded our UCC-1 and the UCC-3 continuation draft and it flagged that we had inconsistent debtor name formatting (extra spaces, different capitalization). Those kinds of small differences can sometimes cause filing rejections or indexing problems. Worth checking before you submit to avoid delays.

Look, Article 9 is designed to be notice filing - it's supposed to put people on notice that there might be a security interest. As long as your original UCC-1 was properly filed and your continuation maintains the same debtor name and references the right file number, you should be fine. The name change doesn't retroactively invalidate your original perfection.