UCC filing rejected - Fulton County Secretary of State keeps bouncing back my paperwork
Been trying to get a UCC-1 filed for three weeks now and the Fulton County Secretary of State office keeps rejecting it. First they said the debtor name didn't match exactly (missing a comma), then they said my collateral description was too vague, now they're saying something about the filing fee being wrong even though I'm using their own fee schedule. This is for a $180K equipment loan and we're running up against our deadline. Has anyone else dealt with this kind of back and forth? The online portal doesn't give you much detail about what's actually wrong, just generic rejection codes. Starting to think I need to drive down there in person but that's a 4 hour round trip. Any advice on getting these filings to stick the first time?
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Marcelle Drum
Ugh, I feel your pain. Fulton County can be really picky about exact formatting. What exactly does your debtor name look like on the UCC-1 versus what's on the original loan docs? Even something like 'LLC' vs 'L.L.C.' can cause a rejection.
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Collins Angel
•The loan docs have 'Atlanta Equipment Leasing, LLC' but I've been filing it as 'Atlanta Equipment Leasing LLC' without the comma. Didn't think that would matter but apparently it does.
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Marcelle Drum
•Yeah that comma will definitely cause issues. The debtor name has to match character for character with the organizational documents. Super frustrating but that's the rule.
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Tate Jensen
For the collateral description, you probably need to be more specific. What did you put down? 'All equipment' usually gets rejected - they want you to describe the actual machinery or at least the type of equipment.
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Collins Angel
•I put 'Restaurant equipment and fixtures located at 1234 Main Street.' Thought that was specific enough but maybe not?
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Tate Jensen
•That should work actually. Maybe add the county to the address? Sometimes they want the full legal description if it's fixture filing territory.
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Adaline Wong
•Restaurant equipment can be tricky because some of it might be considered fixtures if it's built into the building. You might need to clarify whether this is a fixture filing or regular UCC-1.
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Gabriel Ruiz
I had similar issues with document consistency when I was doing multiple UCC filings last year. What saved me was using Certana.ai's document verification tool - you just upload your PDFs and it instantly checks if your debtor names match across all your documents. Found three name discrepancies I would have missed otherwise. Super easy to use and caught the problems before filing.
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Collins Angel
•Never heard of that but sounds like exactly what I need. Does it check against the Secretary of State requirements too?
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Gabriel Ruiz
•It does cross-document verification to make sure everything is consistent. Upload your charter docs and UCC-1 and it'll flag any mismatches. Really saved me from multiple rejection cycles.
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Misterclamation Skyblue
What filing fee are you using? Georgia's UCC-1 fee should be $10 for the first page plus $2 for each additional page. Did you include any addendums that might have changed the page count?
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Collins Angel
•I was using $10 flat but I did attach an addendum for the collateral description. So that would make it $12 total?
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Misterclamation Skyblue
•Exactly. The addendum counts as an additional page. That's probably why they're bouncing it back on the fee.
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Peyton Clarke
•This is why I hate the online portal. The fee calculator never works right and you have to guess at the page count.
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Vince Eh
Honestly just call the office directly. I know it's a pain but sometimes talking to an actual person can save you weeks of back and forth. They can tell you exactly what's wrong instead of these cryptic rejection codes.
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Collins Angel
•Good point. Do you know if they have a direct line for UCC questions or do you just call the main number?
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Vince Eh
•Main number but ask for the UCC department. They're usually pretty helpful once you get through to the right person.
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Sophia Gabriel
Make sure you're not mixing up UCC-1 and UCC-3 requirements. UCC-1 is the initial filing, UCC-3 is for amendments. Sometimes people accidentally use the wrong form when they're trying to fix a rejected filing.
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Collins Angel
•Definitely using UCC-1. This is a brand new filing, not an amendment to an existing one.
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Tobias Lancaster
•Just double checking - you're not trying to file a continuation by mistake are you? Those have different requirements.
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Collins Angel
•Nope, initial UCC-1 filing for new loan. Continuation would be UCC-3 anyway and wouldn't be needed for 5 years.
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Ezra Beard
THE GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE OFFICE IS THE WORST. Sorry for yelling but they rejected my UCC filing six times last month. Six times! Each time for something different that they didn't mention in the previous rejection. It's like they make this stuff up as they go along.
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Statiia Aarssizan
•I know the feeling. Sometimes I think they reject filings just to collect extra fees when you have to refile.
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Ezra Beard
•That's exactly what it feels like! The whole system is designed to frustrate you into paying multiple times.
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Reginald Blackwell
Try cleaning up all three issues at once - fix the debtor name to match exactly with the comma, add the county to your collateral address, and pay the $12 fee for two pages. That should get it through.
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Collins Angel
•That's the plan. Going to triple check everything before resubmitting. Really can't afford another rejection with this timeline.
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Aria Khan
•Before you resubmit, maybe try that Certana tool someone mentioned earlier? Better to catch any other issues now than find out after another rejection.
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Everett Tutum
I had a similar mess with Fulton County last year. Turned out my organizational documents had the debtor name slightly different than what I thought. The Articles of Incorporation had 'Atlanta Equipment Leasing, LLC' but the EIN application had 'Atlanta Equipment Leasing LLC' without the comma. The UCC office goes by the Articles of Incorporation for LLCs.
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Collins Angel
•Oh man, that's exactly what might be happening. I need to pull the actual Articles of Incorporation to double check the exact formatting.
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Everett Tutum
•Yeah, that's probably your issue right there. The Secretary of State database should have the exact name format they have on file.
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Sunny Wang
•You can usually look up the exact registered name format on the Georgia Secretary of State business search website. That'll show you exactly how they have it formatted in their system.
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Hugh Intensity
Update us when you get it resolved! I'm dealing with a similar situation in Gwinnett County and want to see what actually works.
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Collins Angel
•Will do. Planning to resubmit tomorrow with all the corrections. Fingers crossed this is the last time I have to deal with this.
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Effie Alexander
•Good luck! The UCC filing process shouldn't be this complicated but here we are.
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