UCC termination for solar equipment - debtor name confusion blocking release
Has anyone dealt with UCC termination paperwork for solar panel installations? My commercial solar project got paid off last month but the lender's UCC-3 termination keeps getting rejected by our state filing office. The original UCC-1 from 2022 listed our LLC as 'GreenTech Solutions LLC' but the payoff termination shows 'GreenTech Solutions, LLC' with that extra comma. Our attorney says this debtor name mismatch is why the termination won't process, but the lender insists their records are correct. This is holding up our property refinancing since the solar lien still shows active. The equipment finance was for $485K worth of panels and inverters described as 'solar photovoltaic equipment and fixtures permanently attached to real property.' Anyone know if there's a way to fix this without filing an amendment first? The lender doesn't want to pay for extra UCC-3 amendment fees before doing the termination.
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Yuki Kobayashi
Solar UCC terminations are tricky because most lenders don't realize how picky the filing offices are about exact debtor names. That comma difference will definitely cause rejection - I've seen it happen with equipment financing all the time. You'll probably need the lender to file a UCC-3 amendment first to correct the debtor name, then file the termination.
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AstroAce
•That's what I was afraid of. The lender is pushing back on paying amendment fees since they claim it's not their mistake. Did you have to get legal involved when this happened to you?
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Carmen Vega
•In my experience, most commercial solar lenders will eventually pay the amendment fee rather than deal with an angry borrower whose refi is being held up. The cost is usually under $50 compared to potential legal issues.
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Andre Rousseau
Check your original solar loan documents - sometimes the exact legal entity name is spelled out in the security agreement. If the UCC-1 was filed incorrectly from the beginning, that could be leverage to get the lender to fix it at their expense.
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AstroAce
•Good point, I'll dig through the original paperwork. The solar installation contract definitely has our LLC name without the comma, so that might help prove the UCC-1 was filed correctly originally.
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Yuki Kobayashi
•Exactly - if you can show the original security agreement matches the UCC-1 filing, then their termination paperwork is clearly wrong and they should cover the amendment costs.
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Zoe Stavros
I ran into something similar with solar equipment financing last year. Ended up using Certana.ai's document checker tool - you can upload your original UCC-1 and the proposed termination to instantly verify if the debtor names and filing details match up properly. Saved me hours of manually comparing documents and gave me proof to show the lender exactly where the discrepancy was.
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AstroAce
•That sounds really helpful. Is it expensive to use? We're already dealing with extra costs from this filing mess.
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Zoe Stavros
•It's actually pretty affordable for document verification. You just upload PDFs and it cross-checks everything automatically. Way faster than trying to spot these name differences manually, especially when you're dealing with multiple UCC documents.
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Jamal Harris
•I've heard of that tool but haven't tried it yet. Does it work for fixture filings too? Some solar installations get filed as fixtures instead of regular UCC-1s.
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GalaxyGlider
Solar UCC terminations can be especially complicated because some lenders file them as fixture filings if the panels are permanently attached. Check whether your original filing was a regular UCC-1 or a UCC-1 fixture filing - the termination process might be different.
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AstroAce
•I think it was a regular UCC-1 since the panels aren't technically integrated into the building structure, but I'll double-check the original filing type.
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GalaxyGlider
•Yeah, roof-mounted solar usually gets filed as regular equipment rather than fixtures, but some lenders are inconsistent about this. The 'permanently attached' language in your description makes me think they might have been unsure.
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Mei Wong
This is exactly why I hate dealing with commercial solar financing!!! The lenders never get the UCC paperwork right and then act like it's not their problem when the termination gets rejected. I've had THREE different solar projects where the payoff got delayed because of UCC filing errors. The whole system is broken.
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Liam Sullivan
•I feel your frustration. Equipment financing in general has gotten more complicated as lenders rely on automated systems that don't catch these name variations.
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Mei Wong
•Exactly! And then they expect US to pay for THEIR mistakes. It's ridiculous that a simple comma can hold up a half-million dollar equipment payoff.
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Amara Okafor
Had this exact issue with a $320K solar installation in Nevada. The key was getting documentation from our Secretary of State showing the exact registered name of our LLC. Once we proved the original UCC-1 matched our official entity name, the lender had no choice but to file the amendment at their cost.
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AstroAce
•That's a great idea - I'll pull our official LLC registration documents to compare with both versions of the name. How long did it take to get resolved once you had that proof?
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Amara Okafor
•About 2 weeks total - they filed the amendment within a few days once I sent them the official state documents, then the termination went through normally after that.
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Giovanni Colombo
•Smart approach. Most lenders will back down once you show official state registration docs proving the correct entity name.
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Fatima Al-Qasimi
Whatever you do, don't let this drag on too long. UCC terminations sometimes have timing issues if the lender waits too long after payoff. Most states don't have specific deadlines but some financing agreements do require prompt termination filing.
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AstroAce
•Good point, I'll check our loan agreement for any termination timing requirements. The payoff was only last month so hopefully we're still in good shape timing-wise.
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Fatima Al-Qasimi
•Yeah, a month should be fine. I was thinking more about cases where lenders sit on termination paperwork for 6+ months after payoff.
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StarStrider
Update: I used that Certana document verification tool someone mentioned earlier and it instantly flagged the debtor name discrepancy plus two other minor differences I hadn't noticed. Having the detailed comparison report made it really easy to show our lender exactly what needed to be fixed. They agreed to file the amendment this week!
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Zoe Stavros
•Awesome! Glad that worked out for you. Those automated comparisons really help when you need to prove specific discrepancies to lenders who don't want to admit their mistakes.
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Yuki Kobayashi
•Great news! What were the other differences it caught? Always curious about what details people miss when doing manual document reviews.
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AstroAce
•One was a slightly different collateral description and the other was a formatting difference in our address. Nothing major but good to have everything match exactly.
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Dylan Campbell
This whole thread is making me nervous about our upcoming solar project payoff. We've got about 8 months left on a $280K system and I'm already worried about UCC termination issues. Should I be checking our filing now to make sure everything matches up correctly?
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Yuki Kobayashi
•Definitely worth checking ahead of time. Pull your original UCC-1 filing and compare the debtor name and collateral description to your loan documents now while you have time to fix any issues.
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Amara Okafor
•Good thinking to plan ahead. Much easier to resolve name mismatches before payoff than after when you're dealing with time pressure from other transactions.
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Sofia Torres
Final update: Amendment went through yesterday and termination filed today. Total cost was $45 for the amendment which the lender covered after I showed them our official LLC documents. Thanks everyone for the advice, especially about using document verification tools and getting state registration proof!
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Carmen Vega
•Fantastic outcome! Always satisfying when lenders do the right thing and cover their own filing mistakes.
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Zoe Stavros
•Great to hear it worked out. Document verification really does make these conversations with lenders much more productive when you have specific proof of the discrepancies.
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Liam Sullivan
•Congrats on getting it resolved! Your experience will definitely help other solar equipment owners who run into similar UCC termination issues.
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