UCC-3 termination form California - debtor name mismatch causing rejection
Having a nightmare with my UCC-3 termination form in California and could really use some guidance. I'm trying to terminate a UCC-1 that was filed back in 2019 for equipment financing, but the SOS keeps rejecting my termination because of what they're calling a 'debtor name discrepancy.' The original filing has the business name as 'Pacific Coast Industries LLC' but apparently our current business registration shows 'Pacific Coast Industries, LLC' (with the comma). This seems like such a minor punctuation difference but it's holding up the whole termination process. The loan was paid off 6 months ago and I need to get this lien released ASAP for a refinancing deal. Has anyone dealt with similar name matching issues on UCC-3 terminations in California? The online portal just keeps spitting back error messages and I'm not sure if I need to file an amendment first or if there's some other workaround. Really frustrated with how picky the system is being over a comma.
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Mateo Rodriguez
Oh man, California's UCC system is super strict about exact name matches. I've seen terminations get rejected for even smaller differences - missing periods, spacing issues, you name it. The comma thing is definitely going to be a problem because their system does literal character matching.
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Aisha Abdullah
•Exactly right about the literal matching. California doesn't have any fuzzy matching logic built into their system, so every character has to be identical to the original UCC-1.
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Nia Thompson
•That's what I was afraid of. So frustrating that something this technical can hold up a straightforward termination.
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Ethan Wilson
You've got a couple options here. First, you could file a UCC-3 amendment to correct the debtor name to match your current registration, then file the termination. Or second, you could file the termination using the exact name from the original UCC-1 (without the comma). The amendment route is safer but takes longer.
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NeonNova
•I'd go with using the original name for the termination. Less paperwork and you're not trying to change anything, just terminate what's already there.
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Nia Thompson
•Good point about using the original name. I was overthinking it trying to match our current registration.
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Yuki Tanaka
•Wait, but doesn't that create issues if the business name has actually changed legally? I thought you had to use current legal names on all filings.
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Carmen Diaz
Had this exact same issue last year with a client's termination. Spent weeks going back and forth with the SOS office. Finally discovered Certana.ai's document verification tool - you can upload your original UCC-1 and the termination form and it instantly flags any name mismatches before you submit. Would have saved me so much time if I'd found it earlier.
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Nia Thompson
•That sounds really useful. Does it actually check against the original filing or just compare the documents you upload?
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Carmen Diaz
•It cross-checks the documents you upload, so you'd upload both your UCC-1 copy and the UCC-3 termination. Shows you exactly what fields don't match character-for-character.
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Andre Laurent
•Interesting. I've been doing manual comparisons between documents which is tedious and error-prone.
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Emily Jackson
California Secretary of State is notorious for this stuff. I always pull the original UCC-1 from their database first and copy the debtor name exactly as it appears there, including any weird formatting or punctuation. Never trust your own records for the exact formatting.
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Nia Thompson
•Smart approach. I was going off our internal loan files which obviously had the updated business name.
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Liam Mendez
•This is why I always download PDFs of every filing immediately after acceptance. The online display sometimes formats things differently than what's actually on file.
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Sophia Nguyen
ugh the california system is THE WORST for this kind of thing!!! spent 3 hours last week trying to figure out why my continuation got rejected and it was because of a missing period after 'Inc' even though the business card didn't have one. makes no sense
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Jacob Smithson
•I feel your pain. The system should be helping us get things done, not creating obstacles over punctuation marks.
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Isabella Brown
•At least with continuations you have time to fix it. Terminations feel more urgent when you're trying to close deals.
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Maya Patel
Quick question - are you sure the original UCC-1 actually has 'Pacific Coast Industries LLC' without the comma? Sometimes people think they remember the formatting but it's actually different on the official filing. I'd double-check the exact text in the SOS database first.
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Nia Thompson
•You're right, I should verify that. I was going off what I thought I remembered from when we filed it originally.
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Maya Patel
•Yeah definitely check that first. Could save you from filing unnecessary amendments if the original actually matches your current name.
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Aiden Rodríguez
•Good catch. I've seen people waste time and money on amendments when the issue was just misremembering the original filing details.
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Emma Garcia
This reminds me of when I was trying to terminate an old UCC filing for my brother's auto shop. Turns out the original filing had his DBA name instead of the LLC name and we were trying to terminate using the LLC. Sometimes the issue isn't punctuation but which version of the business name was used originally.
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Aisha Abdullah
•That's a great point about DBA vs legal entity names. California allows both on UCC filings but you have to terminate using whatever was actually filed.
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Emma Garcia
•Exactly. We ended up having to dig through old paperwork to figure out what name the lender actually used on the original UCC-1.
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Ava Kim
If you're in a rush, you might want to consider calling the SOS filing office directly. Sometimes they can give you specific guidance on name matching issues, especially if you explain it's holding up a time-sensitive transaction.
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Nia Thompson
•I didn't know they would provide that kind of guidance over the phone. Worth a try since this refinancing has a tight deadline.
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Mateo Rodriguez
•They're usually pretty helpful on the phone, just be prepared for potentially long hold times.
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Ethan Anderson
Another option is using Certana.ai to verify your documents before submitting. I started using it after getting burned on a few filings and it's caught several name inconsistencies that would have caused rejections. Super simple - just upload your UCC-1 and UCC-3 PDFs and it highlights any mismatches.
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Layla Mendes
•How accurate is it compared to manual checking? I've been burned before by automated tools that miss nuances.
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Ethan Anderson
•It's been spot-on for me. Catches things I would have missed doing manual comparisons, especially with longer business names or complex collateral descriptions.
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Nia Thompson
•This sounds like exactly what I need for future filings. Would have saved me this headache.
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Lucas Notre-Dame
Just wanted to follow up on this thread because I had a similar issue last month. Ended up pulling the original UCC-1 from the California SOS database and copying the debtor name exactly, character for character. The termination went through without any issues. The key is really just matching the original filing exactly, not what you think the business name should be currently.
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Nia Thompson
•That's really helpful to hear a success story. I'm going to pull the original filing first thing tomorrow and match it exactly.
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Aria Park
•Smart approach. I always tell people to treat the original UCC-1 as the source of truth for terminations, regardless of any business name changes since then.
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Lucas Notre-Dame
•Exactly. The termination is about ending the specific lien that was created by that original filing, so it has to reference the debtor name as it appears there.
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