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Update: Pulled the corporate records and found Johnson Construction Services LLC was the legal name in 2021 when we filed. Our UCC-1 shows 'Johnson Construction Services, LLC' with a comma. Secretary of State confirmed this is considered a match under their interpretation guidelines. The other variations are from filings by creditors who didn't verify the exact legal name.
Emma Bianchi
•This is exactly why automated document verification is so valuable. Would have saved you days of research and anxiety.
Ava Harris
•So the other creditors might have invalid filings? That could actually improve your priority position.
Jibriel Kohn
Final update: Filed a precautionary UCC-3 amendment anyway to add the variation without the comma, just to cover all bases. Also discovered two of the other liens were filed under incorrect debtor names and are likely unperfected. Our counsel confirmed our original filing is valid and maintains priority. Thanks everyone for the guidance - this could have been a disaster if not caught early.
Glad it worked out! This thread is going in my bookmarks for future reference. Name matching issues are so common.
Emma Bianchi
•Perfect example of why document consistency checking should be standard practice. Certana.ai would have flagged this type of discrepancy immediately.
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Pedro Sawyer
Update: I found the issue! There was indeed a spacing problem in how the debtor name was entered. The filing shows "ACME Manufacturing LLC" but should have been "ACME Manufacturing, LLC" per our corporate documents. Now I need to figure out if this requires a UCC-3 amendment.
Good catch. That comma could definitely matter for search purposes and legal name accuracy.
This is why I always triple-check names against formation documents before filing. But mistakes happen.
Thanks everyone for the help! Going to file the UCC-3 amendment to correct the name and will definitely be more careful with exact name formatting on future filings. The PA search system quirks are noted for next time.
Smart move on the amendment. Always better to fix these things proactively.
Hope this thread helps others dealing with PA UCC search issues. Seems like a common problem.
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Amara Okafor
UPDATE: Finally got through at 5:30am this morning! Found one existing UCC-1 filing from 2019 that's still active. Looks like it's on different equipment though based on the collateral description. Going to double-check with Certana.ai to make sure there aren't any name variations or additional liens I missed before proceeding with our filing.
Glad the early morning approach worked! Certana will definitely catch any variations you might have missed in the manual search.
Ethan Clark
•At least you got through! Still can't believe we have to work around the system like this in 2025.
For future reference, the NH SOS usually posts system maintenance schedules on their website. Worth checking before important deadlines. Also, they're supposedly upgrading to a new portal system sometime this year, though they've been saying that for two years now...
Where on the website do they post maintenance schedules? I looked but couldn't find anything.
It's usually buried in the "announcements" section. Not always up to date though.
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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.
Oliver Fischer
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.
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Oliver Fischer
•Yes, I keep a search log showing all variations attempted. Helps if questions come up later about due diligence completeness.
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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.
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Natasha Petrova
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.
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Ava Thompson
•Finding those missed filings must have been both relieving and terrifying at the same time.
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Natasha Petrova
•Definitely terrifying. Makes me wonder how many other searches I've done over the years that might have missed something due to name variations.
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