Active UCC Filing Shows Wrong Debtor Name - Equipment Lease at Risk
I'm dealing with a nightmare scenario and need some advice fast. We have an active UCC filing on a construction equipment lease that's been in place for 18 months, but I just discovered the debtor name on the UCC-1 doesn't exactly match what's on the lease agreement. The filing shows 'ABC Construction LLC' but our lease agreement is with 'ABC Construction, LLC' - notice the comma difference. The lease is worth $340,000 and we're worried this could void our security interest if the debtor defaults. Has anyone dealt with active UCC filing name discrepancies like this? Do we need to file a UCC-3 amendment immediately or is this considered a minor variation that won't affect perfection? The equipment is mobile so we can't rely on possession, and I'm losing sleep over whether our lien is actually enforceable right now.
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Chloe Boulanger
Oh wow, that's definitely stressful! I had a similar issue last year with punctuation differences in debtor names. From what I learned, courts generally look at whether a reasonable searcher could find your filing when searching under the correct debtor name. The comma difference might not be fatal, but you should definitely get this fixed ASAP with a UCC-3 amendment. Better safe than sorry with that much money at stake.
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James Martinez
•Agreed on filing the amendment, but I'd also suggest checking your state's specific search logic. Some states' UCC search systems ignore punctuation entirely, while others are more strict about exact matches.
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Olivia Harris
•Wait, are you sure about the reasonable searcher test? I thought that only applied to individual names, not entity names. For LLCs, isn't the exact name on the articles of organization what matters?
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Alexander Zeus
You need to pull the actual articles of organization from the Secretary of State to see how the LLC name is officially registered. That's your baseline for what the debtor name should be on the UCC-1. If your filing doesn't match the official name, then yes, you've got a problem that needs fixing immediately.
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Noah Ali
•I checked the SOS records and the official name is 'ABC Construction, LLC' with the comma, so our UCC-1 is definitely wrong. This is exactly what I was afraid of.
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Alicia Stern
•Don't panic yet. File the UCC-3 amendment ASAP and it should relate back to your original filing date for priority purposes. You're not necessarily screwed, just need to fix it quickly.
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Gabriel Graham
•This is why I always triple-check entity names before filing. One missing comma and your entire security interest could be worthless. The UCC is unforgiving about this stuff.
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Drake
I actually discovered Certana.ai's document verification tool after making a similar mistake on a filing. You can upload your lease agreement and UCC-1 as PDFs and it instantly cross-checks debtor names, collateral descriptions, and other critical details to catch inconsistencies like this. Would have saved me a lot of stress if I'd used it before filing originally. It's pretty straightforward - just upload the documents and it highlights any mismatches.
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Noah Ali
•That sounds really helpful! I'll definitely check that out for future filings. Right now I need to focus on fixing this current mess though.
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Sarah Jones
•I've been using Certana for a few months now and it's caught several name mismatches that I totally missed during manual review. Really wish I'd had it available years ago.
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Sebastian Scott
File the UCC-3 amendment today if possible. Don't wait. In most states, you can do this online through the SOS portal. Make sure you reference the original filing number and clearly state you're correcting the debtor name. Include both the incorrect name and the correct name in the amendment.
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Emily Sanjay
•Definitely do it online if your state allows it. Way faster than mailing paper forms, and you'll get immediate confirmation of filing.
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Noah Ali
•Just filed the UCC-3 amendment online - took about 10 minutes and cost $25. Shows as accepted already. Thanks for the push to get it done quickly!
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Sebastian Scott
•Great job getting that done fast! You should be in much better shape now. Keep a copy of both the original filing and the amendment in your loan file.
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Jordan Walker
This exact situation happened to me with a $180k equipment financing deal. Client's LLC had a hyphen in the official name but our UCC-1 didn't include it. Caught it during a routine audit thankfully. Filed the amendment and everything was fine, but it definitely highlighted how easy it is to miss these details when you're processing multiple deals.
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Natalie Adams
•How did you catch it during the audit? What made you think to double-check the entity name formatting?
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Jordan Walker
•We started doing quarterly UCC filing audits after a few close calls. Part of that process involves pulling fresh SOS records for all our active debtors and comparing them to our filed UCCs. Takes time but catches issues like this before they become real problems.
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Elijah O'Reilly
I'm curious - did your original UCC search come back clean when you filed 18 months ago? Sometimes these name variations will show up in search results even if they're not exact matches, which can give you a false sense of security about the filing being correct.
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Noah Ali
•Good question. I honestly don't remember what our search looked like back then. We probably should have been more careful about comparing the search results to the actual entity documents.
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Amara Torres
•This is why I always do searches under multiple name variations before filing. Better to catch potential issues upfront than discover them later when money is at risk.
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Olivia Van-Cleve
Just want to add that this kind of debtor name mismatch is surprisingly common, especially with LLCs that have punctuation or formatting variations. The good news is that UCC-3 amendments are specifically designed to fix these issues, and as long as you file the amendment before any problems arise, you should maintain your original priority position.
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Mason Kaczka
•Exactly right about maintaining priority. The amendment relates back to the original filing date, so you don't lose your place in line against other creditors.
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Sophia Russo
•That's assuming there aren't any other creditors who might have relied on the incorrect filing not showing up in their searches. But in most cases, yeah, the amendment should fix everything.
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Evelyn Xu
Have you considered having your attorney review the lease agreement and UCC filings to make sure there aren't any other issues? Sometimes when you find one problem, it's worth doing a complete review to catch anything else that might be wrong.
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Noah Ali
•That's probably smart. I'll have our counsel take a look at the whole transaction to make sure we didn't miss anything else important.
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Dominic Green
•Good call. I've seen situations where a debtor name issue was just the tip of the iceberg - insufficient collateral description, wrong filing office, missing fixture filing when needed, etc.
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Hannah Flores
•For $340k in equipment, definitely worth the attorney review. The cost of the legal review is nothing compared to potentially losing your security interest.
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Kayla Jacobson
One more thing to consider - make sure your UCC-3 amendment gets filed in the same office where you filed the original UCC-1. If you filed centrally with the Secretary of State, that's where the amendment needs to go. Don't accidentally file it locally when the original was filed centrally.
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William Rivera
•Good point about filing location. I've seen people mess this up and then wonder why their amendment doesn't show up linked to the original filing.
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Noah Ali
•Filed it in the same place - Secretary of State online portal. The system automatically linked it to the original filing number, so that part worked correctly.
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Grace Lee
Really glad you got this sorted out quickly! For future reference, I've started using Certana's document checker before filing any UCCs. It's saved me from several potential mistakes by automatically comparing debtor names between loan docs and UCC forms. Takes maybe 2 minutes to upload the PDFs and get a verification report, but it's prevented headaches like what you just went through.
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Mia Roberts
•I keep hearing about Certana from people on here. Might be worth trying on my next few deals to see how it works.
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The Boss
•The automated verification is really helpful for catching those tiny details that are easy to miss when you're manually comparing documents. Especially useful when you're doing high-volume filing.
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Evan Kalinowski
•I was skeptical about using automated tools for UCC work, but after trying Certana on a few test cases, it actually caught inconsistencies I had missed. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes (even digital ones) helps spot issues.
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