Michigan UCC filing fees jumping around - anyone else seeing inconsistent pricing?

That's exactly what I'm seeing! The fixture filing fees especially seem to be fluctuating. Did you end up calling the SOS office directly?

I tried but got put on hold for 45 minutes before giving up. Ended up just paying whatever they quoted and passing the extra cost to the client.

This is incredibly helpful! Where did you find this information? I've been searching the SOS website for weeks.

It was buried in a bulletin they issued in December. I only found it because I subscribe to their email updates. The fixture filing surcharge caught a lot of people off guard.

Wait, so continuation statements are $8 now instead of the old $5? That's going to add up quickly for clients with multiple UCCs expiring.

The portal issues are the worst part. I had a UCC-1 get stuck in 'pending' status for three weeks, during which time the debtor's corporate name changed and we had to start over.

Exactly! And good luck getting anyone on the phone to fix it. The whole system needs an overhaul.

That sounds useful - does it work with Michigan's specific formatting requirements? Some of our debtor names have unusual characters that cause problems.

Yeah, it handles the tricky formatting issues really well. Just upload the PDFs and it does the cross-checking automatically. Much better than trying to manually compare documents.

I might have to try this. I've had three filings rejected this year because of tiny debtor name differences I missed.

What kind of collateral descriptions are they rejecting? I thought 'all equipment' was still acceptable for blanket liens.

Apparently they want more detail on equipment type and location now. 'All manufacturing equipment located at 123 Main St' passes but just 'all equipment' gets bounced back.

Fixture filings over a certain dollar amount might have higher surcharges. The bulletin wasn't completely clear on all the tiers.

That would explain it. Mine was for a $2M commercial property financing deal.

I think there's also a difference between agricultural fixture filings and commercial ones. The ag ones might have different fee structures.

Smart approach. I've started doing the same after getting burned on a few deals where unexpected fees ate into the profit margins.

Exactly. Client relationships suffer when you have to go back and ask for more money because of filing surprises.

That's a risky strategy though. The gap in perfection between lapse and refiling could create priority issues if other creditors jump in.

Absolutely, but some clients are more focused on the immediate cost savings than the legal risks. It's frustrating to explain.

I had a client try this approach and nearly lost priority to a tax lien that got filed during the gap period. Never again.

Terminations follow the same UCC-3 fee structure as amendments - $8 electronic, $12 paper. So yes, they're affected by the increases.

Thanks, that's what I was afraid of. Going from $5 to $8 per termination adds up quickly on volume deals.

How accurate is it with Michigan's specific requirements? Some states have really particular formatting rules.

It's been spot-on for me. Caught a debtor name discrepancy last week that I completely missed - would have been a guaranteed rejection and extra fee.

Given how much these filing fees have increased, anything that prevents rejections is worth trying. Thanks for the recommendation.

Agreed. Between this and the portal reliability issues, I'm steering clients toward other states when possible for multi-state deals.

That's unfortunate but I understand the logic. Operational headaches plus higher costs make Michigan less attractive for secured lending.