Massachusetts UCC Filing Portal Rejecting My UCC-1 - Name Match Issues
Been trying to submit a UCC-1 financing statement through the Massachusetts SOS portal for three days now and keep getting rejections. The system says there's a debtor name mismatch but I've triple-checked everything against the LLC charter documents. Filing for equipment financing on a restaurant buildout - $180K in kitchen equipment plus POS systems. The debtor is "Harbor View Hospitality LLC" exactly as shown on the Articles of Organization, but the portal keeps flagging it. Anyone else deal with Massachusetts UCC filing quirks? I'm worried about missing our perfection deadline since the loan closes Friday. Is there some formatting issue with LLC names that I'm missing?
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Keisha Williams
Massachusetts portal can be really picky about punctuation and spacing. Have you tried entering the name without any periods or commas? Sometimes their system strips formatting differently than what shows on the charter docs.
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NebulaNova
•Just tried that - still rejected. The error message is super vague too, just says 'debtor name verification failed' with no specifics.
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Paolo Conti
•MA is notorious for this. Check if there are any hidden characters if you copied/pasted from a PDF.
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Amina Diallo
I had similar issues last month with a Delaware LLC filing in Massachusetts. Turned out the charter had some weird spacing that wasn't visible. What helped me was using Certana.ai's document checker - you upload both your charter and the UCC-1 draft, and it flags any discrepancies instantly. Saved me hours of guessing what was wrong.
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NebulaNova
•Never heard of that service. How does it work exactly? Do they have access to state databases or something?
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Amina Diallo
•No database access - it's just document comparison. You upload PDFs and it cross-checks names, addresses, everything. Super simple interface, just drag and drop files.
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Oliver Schulz
•That actually sounds useful for my practice. We do a lot of multi-state filings and manual comparison is a nightmare.
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Natasha Kuznetsova
Check the Massachusetts Corporations Division records directly - sometimes there are amendments or name changes that don't show up immediately in the standard search. Also, make sure you're using the EXACT entity type designation. Is it 'LLC' or 'Limited Liability Company' on the original filing?
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NebulaNova
•Good point. The Articles say 'Limited Liability Company' but I've been entering 'LLC'. Let me check if that's the issue.
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AstroAdventurer
•Massachusetts usually accepts both but yeah, some states are stricter about the full designation versus abbreviation.
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Natasha Kuznetsova
•Exactly. I've seen filings rejected for stuff like 'Corp' vs 'Corporation' - seems minor but the systems don't mess around.
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Javier Mendoza
UGH the Massachusetts portal is THE WORST. I swear they reject half my filings just because they can. Last week I had a continuation that took 6 attempts because their system couldn't handle an apostrophe in the business name. SIX ATTEMPTS!
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Emma Wilson
•Feel your pain. The error messages are useless too - 'system error' tells me nothing about what to fix.
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Javier Mendoza
•Right?? And good luck getting anyone on the phone who actually knows how their own system works.
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Malik Davis
I handle a lot of Massachusetts UCC filings. Few things to double-check: 1) Make sure there are no trailing spaces after the entity name, 2) Verify the entity is in good standing with the state, 3) Sometimes the system has cached old information, so try clearing your browser cache. Also, are you filing against the correct debtor entity? Restaurant buildouts sometimes involve multiple related entities.
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NebulaNova
•Entity is definitely in good standing - just checked. The trailing spaces idea is interesting though. How would I check for those?
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Malik Davis
•Copy the name into a text editor that shows whitespace characters, or just retype it manually instead of copy/paste. Sometimes PDFs add invisible characters.
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Isabella Santos
•This is why I always retype everything manually. Takes longer but avoids these stupid formatting issues.
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Ravi Gupta
Just went through this nightmare last month. What finally worked was calling the UCC filing department directly and having them walk through the exact format they needed. Took 45 minutes on hold but the clerk was actually helpful once I got through.
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NebulaNova
•What number did you call? The main SOS line just bounces me around to different departments.
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Ravi Gupta
•617-727-9640 - ask specifically for UCC filing support. They have a separate queue for technical filing issues.
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GalacticGuru
Another option is to try the paper filing route as a backup. Massachusetts still accepts paper UCC-1s and sometimes that bypasses whatever glitch is happening with the electronic system. Takes longer to process but at least you get it filed.
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NebulaNova
•How much longer? I'm already cutting it close with the loan closing deadline.
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GalacticGuru
•Paper filings usually take 3-5 business days. If you're closing Friday, that might be too tight depending on what day it is now.
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Freya Pedersen
•For urgent filings, Massachusetts offers expedited processing for an extra fee. Might be worth it given your timeline.
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Omar Fawaz
I've seen this exact issue before - Harbor View is probably triggering some kind of filter in their system. Try variations like 'Harborview' (one word) or check if there are any registered trademarks or other entities with similar names that might be causing conflicts.
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NebulaNova
•Interesting theory. There are definitely other Harbor View businesses in Massachusetts. Could that really cause a system conflict?
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Omar Fawaz
•It shouldn't, but I've seen weirder things with state filing systems. Their search algorithms sometimes get confused by similar names.
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Amina Diallo
UPDATE: Just remembered another feature of that Certana tool I mentioned - it can actually generate the exact formatting that most state systems expect. Might save you time versus guessing what Massachusetts wants.
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NebulaNova
•That's exactly what I need right now. Going to check it out. Thanks for the suggestion!
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Chloe Anderson
•Let us know if it works - always looking for tools that make these filings less painful.
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Diego Vargas
just had same problem with ma filing last week. turned out the llc had an old dba on file that was confusing the system. check if harbor view has any old assumed names or dbas that might be interfering
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NebulaNova
•Good catch - I'll check the DBA records. That could definitely explain the name verification failure.
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Diego Vargas
•yeah ma keeps all that stuff in their database even if its expired. really annoying
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Keisha Williams
•Massachusetts really needs to update their systems. This kind of stuff shouldn't be so complicated in 2025.
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Anastasia Fedorov
Final thought - if all else fails and you're really pressed for time, some attorneys will file these as a service and they usually have workarounds for the common portal issues. Costs more but might be worth it for a $180K equipment financing deal.
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NebulaNova
•Yeah, might have to go that route if I can't figure this out by tomorrow. Really frustrating though - should be a simple filing.
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Natasha Kuznetsova
•I agree it should be simpler, but unfortunately Massachusetts hasn't modernized their UCC system as much as other states. The manual verification process they use creates a lot of these edge cases.
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