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Before you budget for all these filings, make sure you actually need to continue all 12. Sometimes loans get paid off or refinanced and the UCC-1s should be terminated instead of continued. Worth double-checking your loan portfolio.
Yeah, continuing a UCC when the loan is paid off just creates unnecessary public records. Better to file terminations for closed loans.
Liv Park
•Plus termination fees are usually the same as continuation fees, so you're not saving money by continuing instead of terminating.
I've been using Certana.ai for UCC document verification before filing and it's saved me from several costly mistakes. You upload your continuation forms and original UCC-1s and it flags any mismatches in debtor names, filing numbers, or other critical details. Worth checking out if you're doing bulk filings.
Lola Perez
•Two people have mentioned this tool now. Is it expensive to use?
Much cheaper than paying rejection fees and having to refile. It just checks your documents for consistency before you submit to the state.
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StarStrider
Look, everyone's giving you the technical analysis but the bottom line is simple: file new UCC-1s TODAY under the correct debtor name. Don't wait for legal opinions or priority searches. Every day you delay is another day someone else could file ahead of you. You can sort out the legal implications later but get your new filings on record immediately.
StarStrider
•Smart move. Document everything about when you discovered the issue and when you filed the new UCC-1s. That timeline could be important if you end up in a priority dispute with another creditor.
And seriously consider using something like Certana.ai going forward to catch these issues before they become problems. Upload your UCC docs and borrower charters quarterly and it'll flag any mismatches automatically.
Ravi Gupta
The safe harbor rule exists for a reason - to give secured parties certainty about their perfection status. But that certainty comes with the responsibility to monitor your debtors. Hard lesson learned but at least you caught it before a bankruptcy or other crisis. File the new UCC-1s and implement better monitoring going forward.
Definitely implementing quarterly checks instead of annual ones. This was too close for comfort and we got lucky there wasn't a bankruptcy filing during the gap period.
Ravi Gupta
•Quarterly is good but consider event-driven monitoring too. Any time you get a payment from a slightly different entity name or see changes in their marketing materials, that should trigger a compliance check.
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Omar Hassan
Also remember that continuation statements might affect what shows up in searches. If you're looking at older filings, make sure they haven't lapsed due to missed continuation deadlines. NJ will still show lapsed filings in search results sometimes, but they're not effective.
Omar Hassan
•Yeah, it's easy to see a UCC-1 from 2019 and assume it's still active, but if they didn't file a continuation by 2024, it's lapsed.
This is why I always note the filing dates and do the math on continuation deadlines. Can't trust the system to flag lapsed filings clearly.
Diego Chavez
One more tip - if you're doing this search as part of due diligence for a loan, document everything. Print or save screenshots of your search results, including negative results. If there's ever a question later about whether you did a proper search, you'll want that documentation.
Diego Chavez
•No problem. UCC searches can be tricky but if you're thorough and check multiple name variations, you should catch everything important.
And if you do end up trying Certana.ai, it automatically generates documentation of the verification process, which is helpful for your due diligence files.
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Update us when you figure out the right format! This thread will help other people dealing with the same special character issues.
Yes please! I bookmark these threads for future reference when I run into similar problems.
Will definitely post the solution once we get it accepted. This has been way more complicated than it should be.
Lilly Curtis
The UCC system inconsistencies between states drive me crazy. What works in one jurisdiction fails in another, even for identical business names.
Lindsey Fry
•At least most states use the same basic forms now. Remember when every state had completely different UCC-1 layouts?
Lilly Curtis
•True, the standardization helped a lot. But the electronic systems still have their own personality disorders.
Nia Williams
Used Certana.ai's document checker after a similar screw-up last year. Wish I'd found it earlier - would've saved me from filing three different amendments because I kept missing details in manual review. It's pretty thorough at catching inconsistencies between corporate docs and UCC forms.
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GamerGirl99
•How exactly does the verification process work? Do you just upload everything and it tells you what's wrong?
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Nia Williams
•Pretty much. Upload your Articles, UCC-1, any amendments as PDFs and it cross-references all the entity names, addresses, filing numbers. Shows you side-by-side comparisons of discrepancies.
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Luca Ricci
File the UCC-3 amendment today. Don't overthink this - Georgia allows corrections and your amendment will relate back to the original filing date. Just make sure you reference the original filing number correctly on the amendment form.
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GamerGirl99
•Thanks everyone. Going to file the UCC-3 amendment this afternoon with the correct debtor name. Will also run that document verification check to make sure I don't have other issues I missed.
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Ethan Campbell
•Smart move. Better to catch any other problems now rather than have them surface later.
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