UCC Document Community

This is exactly why I keep telling people to do their UCC searches well in advance of deadlines. The system is unreliable and you never know when it's going to be down. That said, the phone option mentioned earlier is probably your best bet right now. I've used it several times and they're usually pretty helpful.

I'm dealing with the exact same issue! Been trying to run UCC searches on the California portal for a client refinancing and getting nothing but timeouts. This is so frustrating when you're working against deadlines. I'm definitely going to try that phone number Maya mentioned - (916) 653-3984. Has anyone had luck with the early morning search tip? I might set my alarm for 6 AM tomorrow and see if the system is more responsive then. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

Last thought - whatever you decide, make sure you get written confirmation from your lender about their perfection requirements. If they're saying control is sufficient, get that in writing so you're covered if questions come up later. Banks change their minds sometimes and you want to be able to point to their original guidance.

Adding to the great advice here - one thing I'd suggest is checking your state's UCC filing requirements too. While the federal UCC rules are pretty consistent, some states have specific quirks about deposit account perfection. Also, if you're working with a smaller regional bank, they might be less familiar with control agreements than the big national banks. I've seen cases where the bank THOUGHT they had proper control documentation but it wasn't legally sufficient. Since you're dealing with $275k in equipment plus $180k in the deposit account, this isn't small potatoes - might be worth having an attorney review the control agreement language just to be safe.

going through something similar with a restaurant chain that has accounts at 6 different banks... nightmare to track but we ended up with 'all deposit accounts maintained by debtor at any financial institution' - broad but effective

As someone relatively new to UCC filings, this discussion has been eye-opening! I've been handling mostly equipment financing where filing alone does the trick, so the deposit account control requirement is news to me. @Henry Delgado - for your $2.8M facility, I'd definitely recommend getting those control agreements in place with First National ASAP if you haven't already. The UCC description can be broad like others suggested ("all deposit accounts maintained with First National Bank"), but without control, you won't have perfected security regardless of how perfect your filing language is. This thread is going in my reference folder for sure!

Just wanted to confirm the current PA fee schedule since this thread has been helpful: UCC-1 initial filing $62, UCC-3 continuation $52, UCC-3 amendment $42, UCC-3 termination $42, debtor name search $8, certified copy $8, expedited processing +$50. All electronic filing required.

Really appreciate this detailed discussion - saved me a lot of headaches! Just wanted to add that PA also has a helpful feature where you can preview your UCC-3 continuation before final submission. It shows exactly how your filing will appear and flags any obvious formatting issues. The preview doesn't catch everything (like exact debtor name matching) but it's a good first check before paying the $52 fee. Also, for anyone doing multiple filings like Victoria mentioned, PA's portal lets you save incomplete filings as drafts, so you can prepare several continuations and submit them in batches rather than doing them one at a time.

Thanks for this thread! I've been putting off filing a UCC-3 amendment because the instructions were so confusing, but now I feel confident about selecting the amendment option and describing the change properly.

As someone new to UCC filings, this thread has been incredibly educational! I'm dealing with a potential similar issue where our original UCC-1 has the debtor address listed with an old suite number. The business moved within the same building but to a different suite about 6 months ago. Should I be filing a UCC-3 amendment to update this address change, or is a suite number difference not significant enough to worry about? I want to make sure our security interest remains properly perfected.