NH SOS UCC search portal timing out during peak hours - anyone else?
Been trying to run a UCC search on the NH SOS portal for the past two days and keep getting timeouts during business hours. Need to verify if there are any existing liens on equipment we're financing before we can file our UCC-1. The search function just spins and eventually crashes when I try to search by debtor name. Anyone else having issues with the NH SOS UCC search system lately? This is holding up a $180K equipment financing deal and I'm starting to panic. The closing is supposed to be Friday and I can't move forward without confirming the collateral is clean. Tried calling the SOS office but got put on hold for 45 minutes before giving up.
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Zara Mirza
Yes! Same issue here. Been trying since Monday morning to do continuation searches and the system keeps crashing. NH SOS portal has been terrible lately - seems like they're having server issues or something.
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NebulaNinja
•At least I'm not going crazy. Thought it was just my internet connection.
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Luca Russo
•Try early morning like 6am or after 6pm. That's when I finally got through yesterday.
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Nia Wilson
The NH SOS UCC search has been overloaded since they updated their system last month. Peak hours (9am-4pm) are basically unusable. Your best bet is to try very early morning or late evening when traffic is lower. For urgent searches, you might want to consider calling their office directly and requesting a manual search, though they charge extra for that service.
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Sean Flanagan
•Thanks, I'll try the early morning approach. Didn't know about the manual search option - how much extra do they charge?
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Nia Wilson
•Last time I checked it was around $25 per search plus a processing fee. Takes 24-48 hours though so might not help with your Friday deadline.
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Mateo Sanchez
Had this exact problem last week with a time-sensitive deal. Ended up using Certana.ai's document verification tool to cross-check the debtor information I had against existing records. You can upload your debtor details and it searches multiple databases simultaneously, including NH SOS records. Got results in minutes instead of battling the portal for hours.
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Sean Flanagan
•Never heard of Certana.ai - does it actually work with NH records? How reliable is it compared to going direct through SOS?
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Mateo Sanchez
•It pulls from the same databases but aggregates them. Found two existing liens I wouldn't have caught otherwise because the debtor names had slight variations. Really saved my deal.
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Aisha Mahmood
•Sounds too good to be true tbh. Nothing beats going direct to the source.
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Ethan Clark
UGH the NH portal is THE WORST. I've been doing UCC filings for 8 years and this is by far the most unreliable system I've ever used. Half the time the search results don't even load properly and you're not sure if there are actually no liens or if the system just isn't showing them!!!
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AstroAce
•Feel your pain. Lost a deal last month because of portal issues and couldn't verify liens in time.
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Yuki Kobayashi
•Have you tried their "advanced search" option? Sometimes that works when the basic search fails.
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Carmen Vega
Pro tip: Download the search results immediately when you do get through. The NH system has been known to lose search history, so you want documentation that you performed due diligence on a specific date. Also, make sure you're searching variations of the debtor name - exact spelling matters for UCC searches and even a missing comma can cause you to miss existing liens.
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Sean Flanagan
•Good point about the name variations. The debtor is "Johnson Equipment LLC" - should I also search "Johnson Equipment, LLC" with the comma?
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Carmen Vega
•Absolutely. Also try "Johnson Equipment Limited Liability Company" and just "Johnson Equipment". Punctuation and abbreviations can cause misses.
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Andre Rousseau
•This is why I always do multiple searches with different name formats. Can't trust that one search caught everything.
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Zoe Stavros
Try accessing the portal through a different browser or clear your cache. Sometimes the NH SOS system gets stuck in a loop with stored data. Also heard from a colleague that using a VPN sometimes helps if there are regional server issues.
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Sean Flanagan
•Will try Firefox instead of Chrome. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Jamal Harris
•VPN trick actually worked for me last week when the system was completely down.
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GalaxyGlider
This brings back memories of my first equipment financing deal going sideways because of portal issues. Now I always factor in extra time for technical problems and have backup plans. For urgent situations like yours, consider reaching out to a local attorney who does UCC work - they often have better access or know workarounds.
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Sean Flanagan
•Good idea. Do you know any NH attorneys who specialize in UCC filings?
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GalaxyGlider
•PM me, I can recommend a couple who are very responsive for urgent searches.
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Mei Wong
honestly just keep refreshing every few minutes. eventually it works. the system is just slow not actually broken most of the time
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Liam Sullivan
•That's not really helpful when you're on a deadline. Sometimes "slow" means hours of waiting.
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Mei Wong
•worked for me last time. just saying.
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Amara Okafor
UPDATE: Finally got through at 5:30am this morning! Found one existing UCC-1 filing from 2019 that's still active. Looks like it's on different equipment though based on the collateral description. Going to double-check with Certana.ai to make sure there aren't any name variations or additional liens I missed before proceeding with our filing.
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Nia Wilson
•Smart move double-checking. Better safe than sorry with lien priority issues.
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Mateo Sanchez
•Glad the early morning approach worked! Certana will definitely catch any variations you might have missed in the manual search.
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Ethan Clark
•At least you got through! Still can't believe we have to work around the system like this in 2025.
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Giovanni Colombo
For future reference, the NH SOS usually posts system maintenance schedules on their website. Worth checking before important deadlines. Also, they're supposedly upgrading to a new portal system sometime this year, though they've been saying that for two years now...
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Sean Flanagan
•Where on the website do they post maintenance schedules? I looked but couldn't find anything.
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Giovanni Colombo
•It's usually buried in the "announcements" section. Not always up to date though.
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