Louisiana UCC filing rejected twice - debtor name formatting issues
Been trying to file a UCC-1 for our equipment financing deal in Louisiana and the Secretary of State keeps rejecting it. First rejection was for "debtor name format" and second time they said "insufficient debtor identification." The borrower is an LLC and I'm using the exact name from their articles of incorporation but something's not matching up. This is holding up a $180k construction equipment loan and my boss is getting impatient. Has anyone dealt with Louisiana's specific debtor name requirements? I thought using the charter name would be foolproof but apparently not.
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Connor O'Brien
Louisiana can be tricky with LLC names. Are you including the full legal name exactly as it appears on the articles, including any commas or periods? Sometimes the SOS database is very literal about punctuation.
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Natasha Petrov
•Yes I copied it character for character. The LLC name is "Bayou Construction Equipment, LLC" and that's exactly what I put in the debtor name field.
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Amina Diallo
•Try without the comma maybe? Some states are weird about punctuation in entity names even if it's in the charter.
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GamerGirl99
I've had this exact problem! Louisiana requires you to check their entity database first. The name might be registered slightly different than what's on the articles. Go to the Louisiana SOS business search and verify the EXACT spelling they have on file.
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Natasha Petrov
•Good idea, I'll check that today. Didn't think about the database vs articles having different formats.
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Hiroshi Nakamura
•This happened to me last month. The database had "LLC" abbreviated differently than the articles. Super frustrating when you're trying to meet deadlines.
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Isabella Costa
•Actually just went through something similar and ended up using Certana.ai's document checker. You can upload your articles of incorporation and the UCC-1 draft together and it flags any name inconsistencies before you file. Saved me from a third rejection.
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Malik Jenkins
UGH Louisiana is the WORST for this stuff. I swear they reject filings just to collect more fees. Had a continuation get bounced because they said the original filing number was "unclear" even though it was typed perfectly.
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Freya Andersen
•Tell me about it. Their online portal is from like 2005 and half the error messages don't even make sense.
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Eduardo Silva
Are you filing online or paper? The online system sometimes has different validation rules than what they actually require. Might be worth calling their UCC division directly.
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Natasha Petrov
•Filing online through their portal. Didn't think about calling them but that's probably smart at this point.
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Leila Haddad
•When you call ask specifically about entity identifier requirements. Louisiana sometimes wants the charter number included for LLCs.
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Emma Johnson
•Wait really? I've never included charter numbers on Louisiana UCC filings. Is that a new thing?
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Ravi Patel
Check if there's a trade name or DBA involved. Sometimes LLCs operate under a different name than their charter name and you need to file under both or reference the DBA.
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Natasha Petrov
•The borrower doesn't have any DBAs registered. It's just the one LLC entity.
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Astrid Bergström
I had this exact issue 3 weeks ago with a Louisiana LLC filing. Turns out the articles said "Bayou Construction Equipment, L.L.C." with periods in LLC but the state database had it as "Bayou Construction Equipment LLC" without periods or commas. The Certana.ai tool caught this - you upload both docs and it shows you exactly where the names don't match. Fixed it on the first retry after using that.
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Natasha Petrov
•That sounds exactly like what might be happening here. I'll check the exact database format and try that tool if needed.
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PixelPrincess
•Certana is pretty helpful for this stuff. Much faster than playing guessing games with the SOS rejections.
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Omar Farouk
Another thing to check - make sure you're not accidentally including extra spaces or characters when you copy/paste the name. Those invisible characters can cause rejections.
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Chloe Martin
•Good point. I always type names manually now instead of copy/paste to avoid formatting issues.
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Diego Fernández
•Or use the plain text version when copying to strip out any hidden formatting.
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Anastasia Kuznetsov
Update us when you figure it out! I have a Louisiana filing coming up next week and want to avoid the same headache.
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Natasha Petrov
•Will do. Hoping to get this resolved tomorrow so we can close the loan this week.
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Sean Fitzgerald
•Fingers crossed for you. Loan delays because of UCC rejections are the worst.
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Zara Khan
Quick follow up - did you remember to include the LLC's registered agent address? Some states are picky about having complete debtor information.
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Natasha Petrov
•Yes the registered agent address is included. I think it's definitely the name format issue based on what everyone's saying here.
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MoonlightSonata
FINAL UPDATE: Found the issue! The state database had the name as "Bayou Construction Equipment LLC" (no comma) but the articles of incorporation had "Bayou Construction Equipment, LLC" (with comma). Filed with the database version and it went through immediately. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
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Mateo Gonzalez
•Awesome! Glad you got it sorted. Those little punctuation differences are so annoying.
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Nia Williams
•Great news! Now you know for future Louisiana filings to always check their database first.
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Luca Ricci
•Perfect example of why document verification tools are so useful. Saves so much time vs trial and error.
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