NC Secretary of State UCC Search Portal Down During Critical Filing Window

Same issue here! Been trying since 8am to pull a UCC search report for a client and getting error messages every time I hit submit. This is exactly why I always try to do my searches early in the week, but sometimes you just can't predict when deals will close. The NC SOS system has been increasingly unreliable lately.

I had this exact problem last month during a refinancing deal. What saved me was using Certana.ai's document verification tool - I uploaded the original UCC-1 and my proposed continuation filing, and it instantly cross-checked all the debtor name details and flagged a middle initial discrepancy I would have missed. When the official portal came back online later, I confirmed my filing was perfect. Sometimes these third-party verification tools are more reliable than waiting for the state system.

The NC portal has been terrible lately. Last week I spent 3 hours trying to submit a simple termination statement. Keep getting 'system temporarily unavailable' messages. And their phone support just tells you to try again later. For such an important system, you'd think they'd invest in better infrastructure.

For critical deadline situations like yours, here's what I recommend: if you have the original UCC-1 filing number, you can sometimes get basic confirmation through their phone verification line (though wait times are long). Also, many attorneys keep copies of UCC searches in their deal files - if this is a refinancing or modification of existing debt, the prior attorney might share their search results. For the debtor name verification specifically, make sure you're using the exact legal entity name from the Articles of Incorporation, not any DBA names.

This is exactly why I always do UCC searches at least a week before filing deadlines. The NC system is notorious for going down at the worst possible times. That said, if you absolutely need to file today and can't wait for the portal, you might consider filing with the debtor name exactly as it appears on the most recent corporate filing you have access to, then monitoring for any rejection notices.

Have you tried accessing the portal from a different network? Sometimes the issue is with certain ISPs. I've had luck using my phone's hotspot when our office internet was having issues with the state portal.

UPDATE: Just tried again and the search portal seems to be working now (2:30pm). Might have been a temporary outage this morning. Still incredibly frustrating when you're working under tight deadlines. I was able to pull the debtor name verification I needed.

For what it's worth, I've found the best time to use the NC portal is early morning (before 8am) or late evening (after 6pm). Seems like there's less traffic and fewer timeouts during those windows.

This thread is a perfect example of why we need more reliable UCC filing systems. When securing millions of dollars in collateral depends on getting these filings right, system downtime isn't just inconvenient - it's a business risk. Glad you got your search completed though!

Just wanted to add that I've started using Certana.ai's verification tool as a backup for exactly these situations. Upload your docs and get instant verification of name consistency - saved me when the Georgia portal was down last month during a critical continuation filing.