UCC-3 form Texas filing got rejected - debtor name issue
Need help with a UCC-3 form Texas situation that's driving me crazy. Filed an amendment last week to add collateral to an existing UCC-1 and the Secretary of State rejected it saying the debtor name doesn't match exactly. The original filing from 2022 has the company name as 'Southwest Equipment Solutions LLC' but our UCC-3 form Texas submission had 'Southwest Equipment Solutions, LLC' with the comma. I thought this was just a formatting thing but apparently not. The underlying loan is for $340K in construction equipment and we need this amendment filed ASAP because the borrower is acquiring additional machinery next month. Has anyone dealt with Texas SOS being this picky about punctuation in debtor names? I've been doing UCC filings for 8 years and never had a rejection over a comma before. The continuation isn't due until 2027 so that's not the issue - just need to get this amendment through. Any advice on how to handle this UCC-3 form Texas rejection would be appreciated.
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CosmicCommander
Texas SOS has gotten really strict about exact debtor name matches in the last couple years. You'll need to file the UCC-3 with the exact name from the original UCC-1, comma and all. Check your original filing receipt or search the UCC records to get the precise formatting.
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Giovanni Colombo
•This is exactly right. I learned this the hard way on a UCC-3 termination last year. Even spacing matters to them now.
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Fatima Al-Qasimi
•Why are they so picky though? It's obviously the same company!
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CosmicCommander
•Because the UCC search logic is very literal. If someone searches for the exact name on the original filing, they need to find all related documents. Name variations break that chain.
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Dylan Cooper
Had this exact problem with a Texas UCC-3 amendment three months ago. Took me two tries to get it right. What saved me was using Certana.ai's document checker - you can upload your original UCC-1 and your new UCC-3 form and it'll instantly flag any name mismatches before you submit. Wish I'd known about it before my first rejection!
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Sofia Ramirez
•Never heard of that service but sounds useful. Do they check other stuff too or just names?
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Dylan Cooper
•They verify all the document consistency - filing numbers, collateral descriptions, everything. Really thorough automated checking.
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Dmitry Volkov
•I'm definitely going to look into this. Just had a UCC-3 continuation rejected for a similar reason and I'm tired of paying filing fees twice.
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StarSeeker
ugh texas sos is the worst for this stuff. i've had rejections for the dumbest reasons. last month they rejected my ucc-3 because i put 'Inc.' instead of 'Incorporated' even though both are legal abbreviations
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Ava Martinez
•That's so frustrating! Did you have to refile or did they let you correct it somehow?
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StarSeeker
•had to refile completely. cost me another $15 and two weeks delay. client was not happy
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Miguel Ortiz
For your immediate situation, log into the Texas SOS UCC search portal and pull up your original 2022 filing. Copy the debtor name character for character, including all punctuation and spacing. Then refile your UCC-3 amendment with that exact name. Should go through without issues.
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Amara Okafor
•Good idea, I'll do that today. Should I also check if there were any other UCC filings against this debtor that might have different name formats?
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Miguel Ortiz
•Yes, definitely run a full debtor search. If there are multiple name variations in different filings, you might want to consider filing additional UCC-3s to cover all variations, or at least note the discrepancies in your file.
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Zainab Omar
•That seems like overkill. Just match the specific UCC-1 you're amending and you'll be fine.
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Connor Murphy
I handle a lot of equipment financing in Texas and this debtor name precision requirement has definitely increased. What's really annoying is that some other states are more flexible - you can file with reasonable name variations and they'll still link properly. But Texas wants exact matches.
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Yara Sayegh
•Which states are more flexible? I work multi-state deals and would love to know who's easier to work with.
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Connor Murphy
•Delaware and Nevada are pretty reasonable. Florida used to be flexible but they've tightened up recently too. Each state has its own quirks unfortunately.
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NebulaNova
Pro tip from someone who's been burned by this: always keep a copy of your UCC search results showing the exact debtor name formatting when you file amendments or continuations. Save yourself the hassle of having to look it up later when you're under deadline pressure.
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Keisha Williams
•That's smart. I usually just rely on our loan file but those sometimes have name variations too.
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Paolo Conti
•Yeah, loan docs, corporate charter, UCC filing - they all might have slightly different formatting. The UCC system only cares about what's in the actual filing.
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Amina Diallo
Another thing to watch out for - if your borrower has changed their legal name since the original UCC-1, you might need to file a UCC-3 name change amendment first, then file your collateral amendment. Don't assume the name is still current just because the UCC-1 is still effective.
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Amara Okafor
•Good point. I checked and they're still operating under the same name, but I should verify with their corporate records to be safe.
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Oliver Schulz
•Secretary of State corporate search is usually good for verifying current legal names. Most states update that database regularly.
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Natasha Kuznetsova
Wait, I'm confused about something. If you're filing a UCC-3 amendment to add collateral, doesn't that require describing the new collateral pretty specifically? Are you also dealing with collateral description issues or just the debtor name problem?
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Amara Okafor
•Just the debtor name issue so far. The collateral description is straightforward - 'all construction and earth-moving equipment now owned or hereafter acquired by debtor.' Pretty standard language for equipment loans.
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AstroAdventurer
•That's a broad description but it should work for most equipment. Just make sure it covers the specific machinery they're acquiring next month.
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Javier Mendoza
Honestly this kind of rejection makes me want to use one of those automated checking services. A colleague mentioned Certana.ai recently - apparently you just upload your UCC documents and it catches these name consistency issues before filing. Might be worth the peace of mind for future filings.
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Emma Wilson
•I've been thinking about trying something like that too. These manual reviews are so error-prone and the rejections cost time and money.
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Malik Davis
•Same here. If it can prevent filing fees being wasted on rejections, probably pays for itself pretty quickly.
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Isabella Santos
Update us when you get the corrected filing through! I'm dealing with a similar Texas UCC-3 situation and want to know if fixing the exact name formatting solves it completely.
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Amara Okafor
•Will do. Planning to refile tomorrow with the exact name from the original UCC-1. Fingers crossed!
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Ravi Gupta
•Good luck! Texas SOS processing times have been pretty reasonable lately, so you should know within a few days.
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