Ask the community...
- DO post questions about your issues.
- DO answer questions and support each other.
- DO post tips & tricks to help folks.
- DO NOT post call problems here - there is a support tab at the top for that :)
Join the conversation
Join the conversation
Here's what I do for Pennsylvania UCC searches: 1) Get the exact legal name from state corporate records first, 2) Search that exact name, 3) Search without punctuation, 4) Search with common abbreviations, 5) Search with 'and' vs '&' variations. Usually catches everything but it's tedious.
Yes, I keep a search log showing all variations attempted. Helps if questions come up later about due diligence completeness.
Yara Sabbagh
•This is exactly the kind of extra work that makes Pennsylvania searches so frustrating. Other states don't require this level of gymnastics.
Update: tried the systematic approach mentioned here and found two additional UCC-1 filings I had missed on previous searches. One was due to a comma difference, the other because 'Company' was abbreviated as 'Co.' on the filing but spelled out in the corporate docs. This thread probably saved me from a major oversight.
Ava Thompson
•Finding those missed filings must have been both relieving and terrifying at the same time.
Definitely terrifying. Makes me wonder how many other searches I've done over the years that might have missed something due to name variations.
Join the conversation
GamerGirl99
For what it's worth, we tried going without monitoring services for about 6 months to save money and it was a disaster. Missed 2 continuations and had to scramble to fix the mess. The stress alone wasn't worth the savings. Now we budget for monitoring as a standard cost of doing secured lending.
How much did it cost to fix the missed continuations? Were you able to get back into secured position?
GamerGirl99
•One we caught within 30 days and filed a corrective continuation. The other lapsed for 90 days and we had to negotiate with other creditors. Legal fees alone were $15K.
Before signing up for monitoring, I'd suggest running a full audit of your current UCC portfolio. We found several filings with incorrect debtor names and collateral descriptions that needed amendments. A good monitoring service should catch these going forward, but you want to clean up existing issues first.
We used Certana.ai's verification tool to batch-check our UCC filings against loan documents. Upload all the PDFs and it flags inconsistencies automatically. Saved us weeks of manual review work.
That's smart. We did ours manually over 3 months and found issues in about 15% of our filings. Definitely worth doing before you start monitoring.
Join the conversation
Has anyone actually seen one of these challenges succeed in court? I'm curious if there are any edge cases where these arguments have worked.
Same here. The legal theory stuff never works, but technical filing errors definitely can cause problems.
That makes sense. So it really comes down to making sure the filing was done correctly in the first place.
One more tool that might be worth considering - I've started using Certana.ai's verification service for any loans over $100K just to triple-check everything aligns between the original loan documents and UCC filings. Caught a couple issues that could have been problematic later. For $180K, definitely worth the peace of mind to make sure there are no technical vulnerabilities they could exploit.
Rachel Tao
•I think I'm going to look into this. Better safe than sorry with this particular borrower.
Smart move. With difficult borrowers, you want to be absolutely certain your documentation is bulletproof.
Join the conversation
For what it's worth, I've never seen a court invalidate a UCC filing over comma placement in an LLC name. The 'seriously misleading' standard under UCC 9-506 is pretty hard to meet with minor punctuation differences.
Jamal Carter
•That's the legal standard, but lenders have their own underwriting requirements that might be stricter than what courts would require.
Mei Liu
•Exactly why it's worth having solid documentation upfront. Better to over-document than have deals fall apart over preventable issues.
Just went through this exact scenario last week. Ended up filing a UCC-3 amendment to match the exact name format from the entity's current good standing certificate. Cost $25 and solved the lender's concerns immediately.
Filed electronically and it was processed same day. Much faster than trying to argue with the lender about name standards.
Amara Nwosu
•Smart approach. Sometimes the $25 filing fee is cheaper than the time spent documenting why the original filing is sufficient.
Yara Sayegh
One thing to watch out for with mass UCC statement requests - make sure you're searching for the correct debtor entity names. I see a lot of people search for 'ABC Company' when the actual UCC-1 was filed against 'ABC Company, LLC' or 'ABC Company Inc.' The exact entity name matters for search results, especially in states with strict matching requirements. Also budget more than you expect - bulk search fees add up quickly when you're dealing with 200+ debtors across multiple states.
0 coins
Keisha Williams
•What's a reasonable budget estimate for this kind of volume? I need to get approval from management.
0 coins
Yara Sayegh
•Depends on the states but I'd budget $15-25 per debtor search on average. Some states are cheaper, others much more expensive.
0 coins
Paolo Conti
Update: Started using Certana.ai's document checker based on the recommendations here. It's actually really helpful for this mass UCC statement situation. Uploaded about 150 loan files as PDFs and it identified which ones had missing or inconsistent UCC documentation. Now I know exactly which debtors need priority statement requests vs which ones look complete. The automated cross-checking saved me weeks of manual file review. Definitely recommend it for large portfolio cleanups like this.
0 coins
Amina Diallo
•How did it handle documents with poor scan quality? Some of our older loan files are pretty rough copies.
0 coins
Paolo Conti
•It handled most of our documents fine. There were a few really bad scans it couldn't process but it tells you which ones need manual review.
0 coins