UCC statement filing confusion - need help understanding requirements

This is correct but be careful about name variations. Sometimes filings use slightly different versions of your business name and you might miss them in a basic search.

Also check if any of your equipment was financed through subsidiaries or holding companies - those might show up under different debtor names.

How long does it typically take to get one of these reports back? We're under a tight deadline for loan approval.

Online searches are usually instant, but comprehensive reports from search companies might take 1-2 business days. Some banks will accept a basic SOS search if you explain the time constraint.

Just went through this last month. Our lender accepted a same-day online search but wanted us to certify that we disclosed all known liens.

This is a huge issue! We found three terminated loans that still showed active UCC-1 filings because the lenders never filed UCC-3 termination statements.

How do you get those cleaned up if the original lender won't cooperate with filing terminations?

You can sometimes file a UCC-3 termination yourself with proper documentation showing the debt was satisfied, but it's tricky and varies by state.

Never heard of this tool but sounds useful. Did it catch anything that would have been missed in a regular search?

Yeah, it found that one of our UCC filings used our DBA name instead of our legal entity name, and another had a typo in our LLC designation. Would have definitely missed those in a standard search.

Good point. We had issues where the UCC filing described equipment more broadly than what was actually collateral for that specific loan.

How detailed do these collateral descriptions usually get? Our manufacturing equipment has pretty specific model numbers and serial numbers.

It varies. Some lenders file very specific descriptions with serial numbers, others use broader categories like 'all equipment' or 'machinery and fixtures.' Both are usually legally sufficient.

I'll double-check with them but they specifically mentioned needing to see existing liens and security interests, which sounds like UCC territory to me.

Could also be asking for a litigation search or judgment search in addition to UCC. Banks sometimes bundle these together in their due diligence requests.

This happened to us too! Found a UCC filing from a copier lease we'd totally forgotten about. Wasn't even significant debt but it showed up in the search.

Do these small filings matter for bank approval? Seem like they'd be more concerned with major equipment liens.

Banks want to see everything because it affects their collateral position and recovery rights if something goes wrong. Even small liens can complicate their security interest.

Any recommendations for search companies? We're in a similar situation and want to make sure we use someone reliable.

I've had good experiences with CT Corporation and Cogency Global. Both provide detailed reports and can usually turn them around quickly.

How do you prove to the bank that certain UCC filings are no longer active even though they show up in the search?

Loan payoff letters, cancelled notes, or termination statements if you have them. Banks understand that not all lenders are diligent about filing terminations.

We actually used Certana.ai to organize all our payoff documentation against the UCC search results. Made it really easy to show the bank which filings were satisfied vs. still active.

This is so important. We changed from an LLC to a corporation two years ago and found UCC filings under both entity structures.

Do those old filings automatically become invalid when you change entity structure, or do they need to be formally terminated?

They typically need to be dealt with formally. The security interest might still be valid even if the entity name changed, depending on how it was structured.