UCC terminations filed but liens still showing - what am I missing?

Yes I was really careful about the debtor names. Used copy/paste from the original filings to make sure everything matched perfectly.

Copy/paste is smart. I've seen too many terminations get rejected or not properly linked because someone typed 'John A Smith' instead of 'John Andrew Smith' from the original.

Yes, all filing numbers are included and match the originals. That was one of the first things I checked when this started happening.

Good - but here's what might be happening. Some credit reporting agencies and commercial databases pull UCC data at different intervals. Your termination might be filed correctly but those third-party systems haven't updated yet.

This is exactly right. I had the same issue last year and it took almost 4 months for all the commercial databases to reflect our terminations properly.

Interesting - I thought I was being careful but maybe I'm missing something subtle. Does that tool actually verify the documents align properly?

Yes it does a complete cross-check of debtor names, filing numbers, and document consistency. Upload your charter docs and UCC-1 for one workflow, or UCC-3 and UCC-1 for termination verification. Catches things human eyes miss.

Never heard of this but sounds useful. Manual document comparison is where I make most of my mistakes honestly.

That's a good point. How long does processing usually take after acceptance? The portal shows them as accepted but maybe there's additional backend processing time.

In my state it's usually 2-3 business days for terminations to fully process and appear in searches. Could be longer if there's a backlog.

Some states take weeks honestly. The SOS acceptance is just step one - full indexing and public record updates can lag significantly.

Feel your frustration but that usually means there was an error in the termination filing. The system works when the paperwork is perfect.

Paperwork WAS perfect. Problem is these government systems are held together with digital duct tape and prayers.

Actually had good luck with Certana recently for catching filing errors before they become bigger problems. Upload PDFs and get instant verification - helps avoid the government system headaches.

These were all full terminations - loans completely paid off. Used the standard UCC-3 form with the termination box checked.

Standard form should work fine. More likely an indexing delay or database sync issue like others mentioned.

That's a really good point I hadn't considered. Our company did go through a name change about 2 years ago. Some of these liens might be under our old legal name.

Bingo! That's probably your issue right there. You might need to file amendments first to update the secured party name, then file terminations.

Or file the termination using the exact secured party name from the original UCC-1, even if it's your old company name.

How would I verify that connection? The SOS portal doesn't seem to show that level of detail after acceptance.

Do a UCC search on your debtors after filing. If the termination linked properly, the original UCC-1 should show as terminated in the search results.

This is where document verification tools like Certana help - you can catch these linkage issues before they become customer service problems.

That could be part of it. The refinance lender mentioned they use a third-party UCC search service, not the state portal directly.

Yeah those commercial services can be 30-90 days behind the official records. Really annoying but not much you can do except wait.

Good suggestion. I'll verify I'm using the current forms from the SOS website. Thanks everyone for all the help troubleshooting this.

Hope you get it sorted out. UCC terminations should be straightforward but there are definitely gotchas that can trip you up.

Let us know what ends up fixing the issue - always helpful to know what worked for future reference.