SC UCC search showing wrong debtor name - filing still valid?
Hey everyone, I'm dealing with a frustrating situation and hoping someone here has experience with South Carolina's UCC search system. We filed a UCC-1 about 8 months ago for a commercial equipment loan, and everything seemed fine until yesterday when I ran a routine search to verify our filing. The search results are showing a slightly different version of our debtor's business name than what we actually filed. Our debtor is 'Mountain Ridge Construction LLC' but the SC UCC search is displaying it as 'Mountain Ridge Construction, LLC' (with the comma). I'm 99% sure we filed it correctly without the comma because that's how it appears on their articles of incorporation. But now I'm second-guessing everything. Has anyone else encountered this kind of display issue with the South Carolina Secretary of State's search portal? I'm worried this means our filing might be defective or that we have a debtor name mismatch that could invalidate our security interest. The loan amount is substantial ($485,000 in construction equipment) so I really need to make sure we're properly perfected. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
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Heather Tyson
I've seen this exact issue with SC's system before. The search display sometimes adds punctuation that wasn't in the original filing. Have you pulled the actual UCC-1 filing image from their system? That will show you exactly what was submitted, not just how the search algorithm is displaying it.
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Paloma Clark
•Good point - I hadn't thought to pull the actual filing image. I'll do that right now. Thanks for the suggestion!
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Raul Neal
•This is why I always double-check the filing image immediately after submission. Search displays can be misleading but the actual document is what matters legally.
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Jenna Sloan
Don't panic yet! SC's search function has some quirky formatting issues. What matters is whether your debtor name on the UCC-1 exactly matches their legal name as it appears on their organizational documents. The search display formatting is irrelevant for perfection purposes.
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Christian Burns
•Exactly this. I've had clients freak out over similar display issues. The search portal sometimes normalizes punctuation for indexing but it doesn't change the actual filing.
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Paloma Clark
•That's reassuring to hear. I was starting to worry we'd need to file an amendment or something. Still going to verify against the original documents though.
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Sasha Reese
I actually ran into something similar last month and found this tool called Certana.ai that really helped calm my nerves. You can upload your UCC-1 filing along with the debtor's articles of incorporation and it instantly cross-checks whether the names match properly. Saved me hours of manual comparison and gave me confidence our filing was solid.
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Muhammad Hobbs
•Never heard of that service but sounds useful. How accurate is it with catching name discrepancies?
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Sasha Reese
•Very accurate in my experience. It caught a middle initial mismatch I had completely missed when comparing documents manually.
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Noland Curtis
•Interesting - I'll have to check that out. Been doing these comparisons by hand and it's tedious.
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Diez Ellis
OMG this is exactly what happened to me 3 months ago! I was SO stressed thinking our $300k filing was defective because of a comma difference. Turns out it was just the search display being weird. But seriously, SC's system needs work.
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Paloma Clark
•How did you ultimately resolve it? Did you file any amendments or just leave it as-is?
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Diez Ellis
•Left it as-is after confirming the actual filing matched the articles perfectly. No issues since then.
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Vanessa Figueroa
The key thing to remember is that debtor name accuracy is measured against the organizational documents, not against how the search portal chooses to display results. As long as your UCC-1 debtor name exactly matches the articles of incorporation (or other formation docs), you're fine. Punctuation variations in search results are typically just indexing artifacts.
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Abby Marshall
•This is correct. I've seen attorneys panic over these display inconsistencies when the actual filings were perfect.
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Sadie Benitez
•Wish more people understood this distinction. Would save a lot of unnecessary amendment filings.
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Paloma Clark
•Really appreciate this clarification. Makes me feel much better about the situation.
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Drew Hathaway
South Carolina's UCC system has always been a little glitchy with search displays but they've gotten better over the years. I remember when they first went electronic the search results were completely unreliable.
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Laila Prince
•Yeah those early days were rough. At least now you can access the actual filing images easily.
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Isabel Vega
•Still not as user-friendly as some other states but definitely improved.
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Dominique Adams
Just to add another perspective - I always recommend doing a debtor name verification within 24 hours of any UCC filing. Catches these issues early when they're easier to address if needed.
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Marilyn Dixon
•Smart practice. I do the same thing and it's saved me from a few potential headaches.
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Louisa Ramirez
•I've started using Certana.ai for this exact verification process. Upload the UCC-1 and organizational docs and get instant confirmation everything matches correctly.
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TommyKapitz
Has anyone else noticed that SC seems to add commas in LLC names during search indexing even when they weren't in the original filing? I swear I've seen this pattern multiple times.
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Angel Campbell
•Yes! It's like their search algorithm tries to 'normalize' entity names. Super confusing for users.
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Payton Black
•Probably some automated formatting they do for consistency. Annoying but harmless if the actual filing is correct.
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Harold Oh
UPDATE: I pulled the actual UCC-1 filing image and it shows 'Mountain Ridge Construction LLC' exactly as it appears on their articles - no comma. So the search display was just adding punctuation that wasn't actually filed. Thanks everyone for the reassurance!
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Amun-Ra Azra
•Glad you got it sorted out! These kinds of scares are never fun when significant loan amounts are involved.
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Summer Green
•Perfect example of why you always need to check the source documents rather than trusting search displays.
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Gael Robinson
•Excellent outcome. For future peace of mind, that Certana tool mentioned earlier would catch these discrepancies instantly.
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Edward McBride
This thread is super helpful - I'm bookmarking it for reference. Dealing with UCC filings is stressful enough without worrying about search display quirks!
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Darcy Moore
•Right? The technical aspects are complicated enough without the systems adding confusion.
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Dana Doyle
•At least SC provides access to the actual filing images. Some states make that process much more difficult.
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