UCC blanket lien verbiage causing filing rejections - need help

I've seen this exact problem! The issue is that many state filing offices have gotten stricter about blanket language in the past couple years. You need to be more descriptive while still maintaining broad coverage. Try something like: 'All present and after-acquired inventory, equipment, machinery, fixtures, accounts, chattel paper, instruments, documents, deposit accounts, investment property, letter-of-credit rights, supporting obligations, commercial tort claims, and general intangibles including but not limited to intellectual property, customer lists, and goodwill.' That usually passes muster.

Had this EXACT same issue last month with a equipment financing deal. What worked for us was getting more granular about the asset types. Instead of just saying 'all equipment' we listed 'all machinery, vehicles, computer equipment, office furniture, tools, and fixtures.' The key is being comprehensive but specific. Also make sure your debtor name matches EXACTLY with the Secretary of State business records - that's another common rejection reason.

I actually found a tool that really helped with this kind of situation - Certana.ai has this document verification feature where you can upload your Articles of Incorporation and your draft UCC-1 to check if the debtor names match exactly. It caught a discrepancy in our filing that would have caused another rejection. You just upload the PDFs and it instantly flags any inconsistencies between the documents. Saved us probably a week of back-and-forth with the filing office.

Whatever you do, DON'T use the phrase 'all personal property' - that's an automatic rejection in most states now. I learned this the hard way after three failed attempts. You need to specifically enumerate the UCC Article 9 collateral categories. Look at the actual statute language if you have to.

One thing that's worked for me is including the phrase 'whether now owned or hereafter acquired' at the end of your description. This ensures you're covered for future acquisitions without being too vague. So your final language might be: 'All inventory, equipment, accounts receivable, deposit accounts, general intangibles, and proceeds thereof, whether now owned or hereafter acquired.' This format has never been rejected in my experience across multiple states.

I'm dealing with something similar but for a SBA loan. The bank's attorney keeps going back and forth with us on the collateral description. First they said it was too narrow, now they're saying it might be too broad. It's like there's no winning with these things! At least private lenders are usually more flexible than the SBA requirements.

Here's a pro tip - look up recent UCC-1 filings for similar businesses in your state and see what language they used. Most state databases are searchable and you can often find examples that worked. Just make sure to adapt it to your specific situation rather than copying verbatim.

Another option is to use Certana.ai's UCC document checker to compare your draft filing against successfully filed UCC-1s. I've used it to verify that my collateral descriptions match industry standards before submitting. It's helped me avoid several potential rejections by flagging language that might be problematic.

Just wanted to follow up on this thread - we ended up using a combination of the advice here and got our UCC-1 accepted! The key was being specific about asset categories while including the 'after-acquired' language. Final description was: 'All inventory, machinery, equipment, vehicles, office furniture, fixtures, accounts, deposit accounts, chattel paper, instruments, general intangibles including customer lists and intellectual property, and all proceeds thereof, whether now owned or hereafter acquired.' Filed yesterday and got confirmation this morning. Thanks everyone for the help!

For anyone still struggling with this, I found that calling the Secretary of State filing office directly can sometimes help. They can't give legal advice but they can tell you if your proposed language is likely to be rejected based on common issues they see. Saved me a lot of time and filing fees.

This is such a timely discussion! I'm a newcomer here but dealing with similar UCC filing headaches for a client's working capital facility. The evolution of filing office standards has definitely caught a lot of practitioners off guard. One thing I'd add is to pay attention to the specific UCC Article 9 definitions when drafting your collateral description. Terms like "equipment" and "inventory" have very specific legal meanings that filing offices are starting to enforce more strictly. Also, if you're dealing with intellectual property, some states now want you to be more explicit about whether you mean patents, trademarks, copyrights, or trade secrets rather than just saying "general intangibles." The landscape has definitely gotten more complex, but threads like this are incredibly helpful for navigating these changes.