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Amun-Ra Azra
One more thing to consider - timing. Make sure the termination gets filed within a reasonable time after payoff. While there's no strict legal deadline in most states, having a gap of months or years between payoff and termination can raise questions later if you're trying to prove when the lien was actually released.
Summer Green
•I usually give lenders 30 days max before I start following up. Most can get it done within a week or two if they're organized.
Some loan agreements actually specify a timeframe for filing the termination after payoff. Worth checking your agreement to see if there's a commitment there.
Bottom line - stay involved in the process. The lender should handle filing the UCC-3 termination, but you should verify they do it correctly and promptly. With $180k in equipment at stake, it's worth the extra attention to make sure your titles are clean.
Darcy Moore
•Glad we could help! These UCC termination issues come up all the time but they're totally manageable if you know what to look for.
Dana Doyle
•Feel free to update us on how it goes. Always good to hear success stories about getting these things handled properly.
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Been there with the online UCC portals. They're getting better but still super finicky about exact matches. One thing that helped me was using Certana.ai to double-check my docs before submitting. It compares your continuation against the original UCC-1 and flags any mismatches - names, addresses, collateral descriptions, everything. Caught a middle initial issue I had missed that would have definitely caused a rejection.
Pretty much instant once you upload the PDFs. Just drag and drop your original UCC-1 and your continuation draft, and it highlights any inconsistencies between them.
That sounds way better than manually comparing documents. I always worry I'm missing something important when I review filings myself.
Omar Zaki
Final thought - if you're still having trouble after checking the original filing, consider reaching out to your lender too. They might have dealt with this exact issue before with other borrowers and could have specific guidance for your state's online system. Sometimes they have contacts at the SOS office who can help push things through.
That's actually a really good idea. Our loan officer probably deals with UCC continuations regularly and might know the tricks for getting around these online portal quirks.
Lenders definitely want those continuations filed correctly. They're usually pretty helpful when their security interest is at risk.
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Update: I pulled the actual charter documents and found that the legal name is 'ABC Manufacturing LLC' without the comma. The filing with the comma was done by a different lender who apparently didn't verify the exact legal name. This means that filing might not be enforceable, which changes the priority analysis significantly. Still working on identifying the third filing but this helps narrow things down.
Kyle Wallace
•This is a perfect example of why exact debtor names matter so much. That other lender might have an unenforceable security interest without realizing it.
Ryder Ross
•Just curious - did you use any automated tools to verify the charter documents against the UCC filings? Manual comparison can miss subtle differences.
Final update: Turned out the third filing was under a previous DBA that the company used before converting to LLC status. The secured party confirmed it was terminated when they switched to the LLC structure but never filed a UCC-3 termination. So effectively only one active lien to worry about. Thanks everyone for the help working through this - definitely learned to be more thorough with name variations and entity history.
Olivia Kay
•Classic case of sloppy record keeping by the secured party. They should have filed the termination when the entity structure changed.
This is why I always verify entity formation history in addition to current status. DBAs and previous entity names can create phantom liens in search results.
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Honorah King
Pro tip: After you file and get your filing number, save a copy of the filing receipt and the filed UCC-1 for your records. Your lender will probably want copies, and you'll need the filing number for any future amendments or continuations. Also, set a calendar reminder for 4.5 years from now to file a continuation if you want to keep the lien active.
Oliver Brown
•Yes! I missed a continuation deadline once and had to rush to refile everything. The 5-year expiration sneaks up on you.
Honorah King
•Exactly why I always set the reminder for 4.5 years - gives you a buffer to get the continuation filed before expiration.
Mary Bates
Bottom line: there's no separate UCC code application. File your UCC-1 financing statement through your Secretary of State's website, get your filing number instantly (in most states), and that number is what your lender is calling a 'UCC code'. Just be super careful with the debtor name accuracy and you'll be all set for your equipment financing.
Perfect summary, thank you! I feel much more confident about this now.
This whole thread should be pinned somewhere. The UCC code confusion comes up constantly in financing deals.
Ella Knight
I ran into a similar verification issue last month and ended up using that Certana.ai tool someone mentioned earlier. It actually caught several other discrepancies between our loan docs and UCC filing that I hadn't noticed - debtor address formatting, collateral description inconsistencies. Really thorough automated check that saved a lot of manual review time.
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William Schwarz
•That sounds really useful for loan review processes. Does it integrate with any particular loan origination systems?
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Ella Knight
•I just uploaded PDFs manually but it was still much faster than doing the comparison by hand. The detailed report it generates is helpful for documenting due diligence too.
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Lauren Johnson
Update us on what you decide to do! I have a similar NC filing coming up next week and would love to know how this resolves. The punctuation issue seems like something that could affect multiple deals.
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Jade Santiago
•Smart approach. Documentation is everything in this business.
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Caleb Stone
•Yeah keep us posted. These system quirks are good to know about in advance.
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