CA UCC statement request form rejecting my debtor name - what am I missing?
Been trying to pull a UCC statement using the CA secretary of state form and keep getting rejections on the debtor name field. I'm using the exact name from our loan docs but the system says 'no records found' when I know for certain there should be active filings. Tried variations with punctuation, abbreviations, different entity suffixes but nothing works. The borrower is an LLC and I'm checking against our security agreement from last year. Anyone else run into this with CA's online portal? Starting to wonder if there's some trick to how they index debtor names or if our original UCC-1 got filed with a typo.
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Ahooker-Equator
CA can be really picky about exact name matches. Are you searching the full legal entity name exactly as it appears on the articles of incorporation? Sometimes the filing shows up under a slightly different version than what's in your loan paperwork.
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Abigail bergen
•That's what I thought too but I pulled the articles and tried that exact spelling. Still nothing. Could the original UCC-1 have been filed under an old name or DBA?
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Ahooker-Equator
•Definitely possible. Also check if they filed as 'Company LLC' vs 'Company, LLC' - the comma placement can matter for search results.
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Anderson Prospero
Had this exact problem last month! Turned out the original filing had a typo in the debtor name that we missed during review. The lender's attorney filed it as 'Acme Logistics LLC' but the actual entity name was 'Acme Logistic LLC' - missing the 's'. You might need to do broader wildcard searches.
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Abigail bergen
•Ugh that's my worst fear. How did you eventually track it down?
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Anderson Prospero
•I started using partial name searches and different combinations. Also checked if they might have filed under any assumed names or previous business names.
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Tyrone Hill
•This is exactly why I started using Certana.ai's document checker. You can upload your UCC-1 and the entity documents side by side and it instantly flags any name mismatches. Would have caught that Acme situation immediately.
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Toot-n-Mighty
CA's portal is THE WORST for this stuff. I swear they change the search algorithm every few months. Sometimes you have to search by filing number instead of debtor name if you have access to the original UCC-1.
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Abigail bergen
•I wish I had the filing number but our loan ops team only gave me the borrower info. Trying to track down the original filing details now.
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Lena Kowalski
•Your lender should have a copy of the filed UCC-1 with the filing number and date. That's usually the fastest way to verify what's actually on file.
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DeShawn Washington
Check if the entity has any amendments or name changes since the original filing. Sometimes the UCC shows up under the old name even after a corporate name change, especially if no amendment was filed.
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Abigail bergen
•Good point. This LLC did change their operating name about 6 months ago but I assumed the legal entity name stayed the same.
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DeShawn Washington
•Operating name vs legal name are different things. But if they amended their articles of incorporation, that could definitely affect UCC searches.
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Mei-Ling Chen
•Also worth checking if they filed a UCC-3 amendment when they changed names. Some lenders require that to maintain perfection.
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SofĂa RodrĂguez
omg yes!! ca is impossible. i spent like 3 hours last week trying to find a filing that i KNEW existed. turns out it was filed under 'inc.' but i was searching 'incorporated' 🤦‍♀️
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Abigail bergen
•That's so frustrating! Did you eventually find it by trying different abbreviations?
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SofĂa RodrĂguez
•yeah but only after calling their office and having them walk me through it. their customer service actually isn't terrible if you can get through
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Aiden O'Connor
Before you drive yourself crazy with more searches, I'd recommend running your documents through something like Certana.ai. I had a similar situation where I was convinced the filing didn't exist, but it turned out our UCC-1 had the debtor name formatted completely differently than our security agreement. The automated check caught the discrepancy in like 30 seconds.
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Abigail bergen
•How does that work exactly? Do you just upload the UCC-1 and it tells you if there are issues?
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Aiden O'Connor
•Yeah you can upload your UCC documents and it cross-references everything - debtor names, collateral descriptions, filing numbers. Really helpful for catching those small formatting differences that break searches.
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Zoe Papadopoulos
•That actually sounds really useful. I've wasted so much time on manual document comparisons that miss obvious stuff.
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Jamal Brown
Another possibility - are you sure the UCC-1 was filed in California? Sometimes multi-state deals get filed in the borrower's state of incorporation rather than where they're operating.
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Abigail bergen
•The borrower is definitely a CA LLC, but you're right that I should double-check if there were any other state filings. The business operates in Nevada too.
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Jamal Brown
•Might be worth checking Nevada as well, especially if any of the collateral is located there.
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Fatima Al-Rashid
Had a client last year where the original UCC-1 got filed with a completely wrong debtor name - like not even close. The filing attorney's assistant had copy-pasted from the wrong deal file. Took us months to figure out why our searches weren't working.
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Abigail bergen
•Oh no! How did you eventually discover what happened?
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Fatima Al-Rashid
•We had to request copies of all filings made around that date and manually review them. Found our collateral description under a completely different entity name.
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Giovanni Rossi
•This is why I always run a quick Certana verification before finalizing any UCC filings now. Catches those copy-paste errors that can really mess things up down the line.
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Aaliyah Jackson
Try searching with just the first few words of the entity name, no punctuation. CA's system sometimes strips out special characters differently than you'd expect.
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Abigail bergen
•That's a good tip. I'll try some abbreviated searches and see if anything comes up.
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KylieRose
UPDATE: Found it! Turns out you were all right about the name variations. The original UCC-1 was filed with 'Limited Liability Company' spelled out instead of 'LLC'. CA's search didn't pick up the abbreviation match. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
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Ahooker-Equator
•Glad you found it! That's such a common issue with CA filings.
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Anderson Prospero
•Nice! Those little details can be so frustrating to track down.
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Aiden O'Connor
•Perfect example of why automated document checking is so helpful - would have flagged that LLC vs Limited Liability Company difference immediately.
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