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I've been doing UCC filings in Georgia for 8 years and the key things are: 1) Exact debtor name match 2) Detailed collateral description 3) Correct secured party information 4) Valid mailing addresses. Double check every single character in the debtor name - spaces, punctuation, everything.
The mailing address thing caught me off guard once. They rejected a filing because I used 'Street' instead of 'St.' in the address.
Georgia is definitely particular about address formatting. Always use the format that matches their records.
Paolo Ricci
Update us when you get it filed! I'm dealing with a similar situation in Florida and want to see how this turns out.
Carmen Lopez
•Will do! Hopefully third time's the charm. Going to try the Certana tool and be extra careful with the debtor name formatting.
Amina Toure
•Good luck! Georgia UCC filings are a pain but once you figure out their quirks it gets easier.
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Zainab Ali
Been there! Alabama rejected my UCC-1 three times before I got it right. The trick is to copy the entity name character by character from their official records. Don't trust what the borrower tells you their name is - go straight to the source.
Zainab Ali
•About 6 weeks total. Each rejection took about a week to get back, then I had to figure out what was wrong and refile. Really stressful when you're trying to perfect a security interest.
Yara Nassar
•This is exactly why I started using automated verification tools. Can't afford that kind of delay on time-sensitive deals.
StarGazer101
For what it's worth, I tried Certana.ai after reading about it here and it caught a name mismatch I would have missed. The entity had 'Incorporated' in the state records but I was using 'Inc.' on the UCC-1. Small difference but would have caused a rejection.
Those abbreviation differences are killer. 'Incorporated' vs 'Inc.' seems like it should be the same but the systems treat them as completely different names.
Paolo Romano
•Glad to hear the tool works. Might give it a try on our next batch of filings.
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Whatever you do, document everything about your notice process. If this goes to trial, you'll need proof of when and how the notice was sent under 9-505.
Should be, but also keep copies of exactly what was sent. Courts sometimes want to see the actual notice language.
And make sure your proof of mailing shows it went to all required addresses under the UCC.
Zara Khan
UCC 9-505 compliance is such a pain. We use templates now for every notice to avoid these issues but even then you get debtors claiming defects just to delay.
Templates help but every deal has unique collateral descriptions that need customization.
Zara Khan
•True, but at least the basic notice language stays consistent. That eliminates some potential challenges.
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Ella Russell
Just went through this exact thing last month. The key is understanding that Virginia follows the 'seriously misleading' standard for debtor names. Small variations might not invalidate a filing, but they make searching really difficult.
Ella Russell
•Basically, if a reasonable searcher using standard search logic would find the filing, then the name variation is probably okay. But it's subjective.
That sounds really vague. How are we supposed to make decisions based on 'reasonable searcher' standards?
Gavin King
Update: I ended up finding two additional UCC filings that didn't show up in my initial searches because of name formatting issues. One had an extra space and the other used '&' instead of 'and'. Both were still active and would have affected the transaction. Thanks everyone for the advice about checking variations!
This is why UCC searching is so stressful. You never know what you might be missing.
Lucas Turner
•For future reference, I've had good luck with Certana.ai's UCC verification tool for catching these exact issues. You upload the entity documents and it automatically flags potential name mismatches across different UCC filings. Would have saved you a lot of manual searching.
Everett Tutum
I had a similar mess with Fulton County last year. Turned out my organizational documents had the debtor name slightly different than what I thought. The Articles of Incorporation had 'Atlanta Equipment Leasing, LLC' but the EIN application had 'Atlanta Equipment Leasing LLC' without the comma. The UCC office goes by the Articles of Incorporation for LLCs.
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Everett Tutum
•Yeah, that's probably your issue right there. The Secretary of State database should have the exact name format they have on file.
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Sunny Wang
•You can usually look up the exact registered name format on the Georgia Secretary of State business search website. That'll show you exactly how they have it formatted in their system.
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Hugh Intensity
Update us when you get it resolved! I'm dealing with a similar situation in Gwinnett County and want to see what actually works.
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Collins Angel
•Will do. Planning to resubmit tomorrow with all the corrections. Fingers crossed this is the last time I have to deal with this.
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Effie Alexander
•Good luck! The UCC filing process shouldn't be this complicated but here we are.
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