UCC filing confusion with retail installment contract and security agreement motor vehicle - debtor name issues
I'm dealing with a frustrating situation where we have a retail installment contract and security agreement motor vehicle that was executed last month, but our UCC-1 filing got rejected twice now. The customer's legal name on the retail installment contract shows 'Michael James Robertson Jr.' but their driver's license has 'Mike J Robertson' and the vehicle title shows 'Michael Robertson'. Our lender is breathing down my neck because the loan can't close until we get this perfected properly. I've been doing auto financing UCC filings for 3 years but never had this many name variations on one deal. The SOS portal keeps bouncing it back saying 'debtor name does not match sufficient identifying information.' Anyone dealt with this specific scenario where the retail installment contract and security agreement motor vehicle has multiple name formats across different documents? I'm worried we're going to lose this deal if I can't get the UCC-1 accepted soon.
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Lourdes Fox
This is exactly why auto dealers struggle with UCC filings. The retail installment contract name should always match what you use as the debtor name on your UCC-1. Since your contract shows 'Michael James Robertson Jr.' that's what needs to go on the filing, regardless of what the DMV records show. The SOS systems are really strict about this.
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Bruno Simmons
•But what if the DMV title search doesn't match up later? I've seen deals where the lender couldn't repossess because of name mismatches between the UCC and the title.
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Lourdes Fox
•That's a separate issue. For UCC perfection, you need the contract name. For repo, you need proper title work. Two different legal requirements.
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Aileen Rodriguez
Had this exact problem last week! Retail installment contract and security agreement motor vehicle with three different name versions. What saved me was using Certana.ai's document checker - you can upload your retail installment contract PDF and your UCC-1 draft and it instantly flags any debtor name mismatches. Found out I was using a middle initial that wasn't on the original contract. Super quick fix once I saw the comparison.
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Zane Gray
•Never heard of that tool but sounds useful. How accurate is it with catching these kinds of discrepancies?
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Aileen Rodriguez
•Really accurate from what I've seen. It does a character-by-character comparison of names across documents. Caught stuff I totally missed when reviewing manually.
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Maggie Martinez
•This is why I always triple-check everything manually. Don't trust automated systems for something this critical.
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Alejandro Castro
OMG this is my nightmare scenario!!! I'm new to UCC filings and terrified of messing up names. Do you have to use the EXACT spelling and punctuation from the retail installment contract? What about suffixes like Jr. or Sr.?
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Lourdes Fox
•Yes, exact spelling including suffixes. 'Michael James Robertson Jr.' is legally different from 'Michael James Robertson' - the Jr. matters for UCC purposes.
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Monique Byrd
•Don't panic, we've all been there. Just be methodical and double-check everything before submitting.
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Jackie Martinez
The SOS rejection system is so frustrating!! I've had retail installment contracts where the customer signed with one name variation and then we find out their credit app had a different version. It's like they're trying to make us fail. Three rejections on one filing last month cost us the deal because the customer went somewhere else.
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Lia Quinn
•That's brutal. Did you try calling the SOS office directly? Sometimes they can give you guidance on what specifically they want to see.
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Jackie Martinez
•Yeah, they just said 'follow the statute' which doesn't help when you have conflicting documents. The whole system needs an overhaul.
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Haley Stokes
Been filing UCCs for auto dealers for 15 years. Here's what you need to know: if your retail installment contract and security agreement motor vehicle was properly executed with 'Michael James Robertson Jr.' then that's your debtor name, period. Don't overthink it. The driver's license name is irrelevant for UCC perfection purposes.
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Asher Levin
•This makes sense. So the contract is the governing document for the debtor name, not the ID they showed when signing?
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Haley Stokes
•Correct. The contract establishes the legal relationship. Obviously you want some consistency for practical reasons, but for UCC filing purposes, use the contract name.
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Serene Snow
•What if the customer signed the contract with a name that doesn't match their legal ID? Is the contract still valid?
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Issac Nightingale
I actually just discovered this tool called Certana.ai that's been a game-changer for this exact problem. You upload your retail installment contract PDF and it automatically extracts the debtor name and compares it to your UCC-1 draft. Saved me from a similar rejection last week when I caught a middle name discrepancy I totally missed.
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Romeo Barrett
•Is this some kind of paid service or free? Sounds too good to be true.
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Issac Nightingale
•I don't want to sound like I'm selling something, but it's legit. Just uploads PDFs and does the comparison automatically. Way faster than manually cross-checking documents.
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Marina Hendrix
Why is this so complicated? In the old days you just filed a paper UCC and nobody questioned every comma and period. Now the electronic systems reject everything for the tiniest inconsistencies. Makes you wonder if they want us to succeed or fail.
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Justin Trejo
•Technology was supposed to make this easier, not harder. But here we are...
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Alana Willis
•At least electronic filing is faster when it works. Paper filings took weeks to process.
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Tyler Murphy
Quick question - when you say retail installment contract and security agreement motor vehicle, is this a single document or two separate agreements? Because that might affect how you handle the debtor name issue.
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Teresa Boyd
•It's a single combined document. The retail installment contract portion has the payment terms and the security agreement portion creates the lien on the vehicle.
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Tyler Murphy
•Got it. Then you definitely want the debtor name exactly as it appears on that single document for your UCC-1 filing.
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Sara Unger
Update: I ended up using one of those document verification tools someone mentioned earlier (Certana.ai) and it immediately caught that I had been inconsistent with the suffix formatting. The retail installment contract had 'Jr.' with a period but I was filing 'Jr' without the period on the UCC-1. Fixed that and the filing went through on the first try. Sometimes it really is the smallest details that trip you up.
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Butch Sledgehammer
•Glad you got it sorted! Those little punctuation differences can definitely cause rejections.
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Freya Ross
•This is exactly why I always copy and paste names directly from the source document instead of retyping them.
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Leslie Parker
•Great outcome! Did the lender end up closing the loan without any issues?
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Sergio Neal
For anyone else dealing with retail installment contract and security agreement motor vehicle UCC filings, here's my checklist: 1) Use exact debtor name from contract including all middle names and suffixes, 2) Double-check punctuation and spacing, 3) Verify the VIN matches exactly, 4) Make sure your collateral description is sufficient but not overly specific. Following this process has eliminated my rejections.
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Savanna Franklin
•This is helpful. What do you mean by 'sufficient but not overly specific' for collateral description?
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Sergio Neal
•You want enough detail to identify the specific vehicle (year, make, model, VIN) but don't need every option package and feature. Keep it clean and standardized.
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