Secretary of state UCC division won't accept my continuation filing - debtor name issue?
Been going in circles with our secretary of state ucc division for 3 weeks now. Filed a UCC-3 continuation back in February but it keeps getting rejected. The original UCC-1 was filed in 2020 for equipment financing on our manufacturing line. Now they're saying there's a 'debtor name inconsistency' but I'm looking at both documents and the names look identical to me. Original filing shows 'Midwest Industrial Solutions LLC' and my continuation shows the exact same thing. Called the SOS office twice and got different explanations each time - first person said it might be punctuation, second person mentioned something about registered name vs trade name. This is a $2.8M equipment loan and the lapse deadline is coming up fast. Anyone dealt with secretary of state ucc division name matching issues like this? The portal error message just says 'debtor name does not match original filing' but gives zero specifics about what's wrong.
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Sienna Gomez
I've seen this exact issue before. Secretary of state UCC systems are incredibly picky about debtor names. Even a missing comma or period can trigger rejection. Have you pulled the original UCC-1 directly from their database to compare character-by-character? Sometimes what looks identical on screen has hidden formatting differences.
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Daryl Bright
•That's a good point. I've been comparing from our internal copies. Let me pull the official record from the SOS database and see if there are any differences I'm missing.
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Kirsuktow DarkBlade
•This happened to us last year! The original filing had 'ABC Corp.' but our continuation said 'ABC Corp' without the period. Rejected three times before we caught it.
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Abigail bergen
Secretary of state ucc division systems vary by state but most have gotten stricter about exact name matching in recent years. Check if your original UCC-1 used any abbreviations like 'LLC' vs 'L.L.C.' or if there are any extra spaces. Also verify the debtor's current legal name hasn't changed since 2020 through amendments to articles of incorporation.
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Daryl Bright
•Good catch on the legal name changes. We did amend our articles last year but kept the same legal name. I'll double-check the exact formatting on both filings.
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Ahooker-Equator
•Yeah the secretary of state corporate division and UCC division don't always sync up perfectly. Name changes can create these exact problems.
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Anderson Prospero
•Ugh, this is why I hate dealing with government filing systems. They should have better error messages that tell you exactly what doesn't match instead of these useless generic rejections.
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Tyrone Hill
Had a similar nightmare with debtor name matching last month. After wasting weeks trying to figure out the discrepancy manually, I found this tool called Certana.ai that does document verification. You just upload your original UCC-1 and your continuation PDF and it instantly shows you exactly what doesn't match. Saved my sanity and caught a subtle spacing issue I never would have found otherwise.
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Daryl Bright
•That sounds exactly like what I need right now. How accurate is it at catching these tiny formatting differences?
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Tyrone Hill
•Super accurate. It does character-by-character comparison and highlights the exact differences. Much faster than trying to spot them visually, especially when you're dealing with secretary of state ucc division rejections under time pressure.
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Toot-n-Mighty
•Never heard of that service but anything that helps with these bureaucratic filing headaches sounds worth trying.
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Lena Kowalski
This is driving me crazy just reading about it! We have a continuation due next month and now I'm paranoid about the same thing happening. Is there any way to prevent these issues upfront?
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Sienna Gomez
•Best practice is to always copy the debtor name exactly from the original filing database record, not from your internal documents. Also helps to file continuations well before the deadline so you have time to fix rejections.
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Tyrone Hill
•That's smart advice. I also run any important UCC filings through document verification now before submitting to catch issues early. The secretary of state ucc division rejection process is too slow and stressful to wing it.
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DeShawn Washington
Secretary of state offices are the worst. I swear they reject filings just to make our lives harder. Last time I called about a UCC issue, they put me on hold for 45 minutes just to tell me to check their website.
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Mei-Ling Chen
•I feel your pain. The customer service at most secretary of state ucc divisions is pretty terrible. But in fairness, the name matching rules exist for good legal reasons even if the error messages suck.
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DeShawn Washington
•Yeah I get why the rules exist, just wish the systems were more user-friendly about explaining what's actually wrong.
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Sofía Rodríguez
Check if your state's secretary of state ucc division has any name formatting guidelines published online. Some states have specific rules about punctuation, abbreviations, and spacing that aren't obvious. Also worth calling the filing office directly and asking them to compare the names over the phone while you're both looking at the documents.
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Daryl Bright
•I tried calling but got conflicting information from different representatives. Maybe I'll try again and ask to speak with a supervisor who deals with UCC-3 rejections specifically.
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Sofía Rodríguez
•That's frustrating but unfortunately common. Sometimes the front-line staff at secretary of state ucc divisions aren't trained on the technical details. A supervisor or the UCC specialist might give you better guidance.
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Aiden O'Connor
We had this exact problem with a fixture filing continuation last year. Turned out the original UCC-1 had an extra space between words that wasn't visible in the PDF but was in the database. Secretary of state ucc division systems pick up every single character difference. Try viewing both documents in a text editor that shows invisible characters.
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Daryl Bright
•That's brilliant! I never would have thought to check for invisible characters. This could definitely be the issue since both documents look identical on screen.
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Zoe Papadopoulos
•Good suggestion. Hidden formatting characters are a common cause of these mysterious name match failures.
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Aiden O'Connor
•Yeah, it's incredibly frustrating when the rejection reason is so vague. The secretary of state ucc division really should upgrade their error messaging to be more specific.
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Jamal Brown
Just went through this nightmare myself. After three rejections and hours of comparison, found out our original filing had 'Manufacturing Co., LLC' but I was using 'Manufacturing Company, LLC' on the continuation. One abbreviation difference caused weeks of delays.
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Daryl Bright
•Oh wow, that's such a subtle difference but I can see how the system would flag it. I'm definitely going to check for any abbreviation inconsistencies in my filings.
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Jamal Brown
•Exactly! These secretary of state ucc division systems are way too literal. But I learned to always use the exact text from the original database record to avoid future problems.
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Fatima Al-Rashid
Have you considered hiring a UCC service company to handle the continuation? They deal with secretary of state ucc division requirements daily and usually know all the formatting quirks for each state. Might be worth the cost to avoid the lapse risk.
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Daryl Bright
•I'm starting to think that might be the safest option if I can't figure this out soon. The deadline pressure is getting intense.
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Fatima Al-Rashid
•Yeah, with a $2.8M loan at stake, paying a service company a few hundred dollars for professional filing is probably worth the peace of mind.
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Giovanni Rossi
•We use a service company for all our UCC work now after getting burned by DIY filing mistakes. They handle all the secretary of state ucc division quirks so we don't have to.
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Aaliyah Jackson
This thread is making me realize I should probably verify all our UCC documents before any future filings. Too many horror stories about these technical rejections from secretary of state ucc divisions. Better safe than sorry.
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Tyrone Hill
•Smart thinking. That's exactly why I started using document verification tools after my first rejection nightmare. Much better to catch issues before filing than deal with rejection delays.
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Abigail bergen
•Prevention is definitely the way to go. Secretary of state ucc division rejection timelines can kill deals when you're working under tight deadlines.
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