UCC Document Community

For future reference, keep copies of all your UCC search results. I maintain a file for each client with their UCC history. Makes renewals and amendments much easier down the road.

Just wanted to add - if you're doing multiple UCC searches in Texas regularly, consider setting up an account with their online system. It saves your payment info and search history, which makes repeat searches much faster. Also, they sometimes offer bulk discounts if you're ordering a lot of documents at once. Given that you mentioned taking over multiple equipment financing accounts, this might save you time and money going forward.

For your paper, you should definitely mention that Article 9 governs the entire secured transaction process from start to finish. It covers: creation of security interests, perfection methods, priority rules, rights and duties of parties, and default remedies. It's really a complete system for secured transactions in personal property.

Thanks for all the detailed responses everyone! This is really helping me understand the scope better. Just to make sure I have this right - Article 9 covers any transaction where personal property secures a debt or obligation, it provides rules for creating and perfecting security interests, establishes priority when multiple parties claim the same collateral, and gives remedies when borrowers default. But it excludes real estate, wage assignments, and certain federally regulated items like aircraft. Is that a fair summary for my paper?

Bottom line is there's no truly free UCC search option that's going to meet your needs for official lending purposes. Focus on optimizing your search strategy and making sure you're not doing unnecessary duplicate searches. That's where you'll save the most money.

As someone new to this space, this thread has been really helpful! I'm curious about the document verification tools that were mentioned - like Certana.ai. For someone just getting started with UCC searches, would it make sense to invest in something like that upfront, or should I focus on learning the manual process first to understand the fundamentals? Also, are there any good resources for learning the specific debtor name rules that seem to trip people up with duplicate searches?

Update: Filed the UCC-3 amendment this afternoon and it was accepted within a few hours. Now when I do a UCC financing statement look up under either the old or new business name, it shows up correctly. Thanks everyone for the advice - probably saved me from a major headache down the road.

This is exactly the kind of situation that makes me nervous as a newcomer to UCC filings. I've been handling smaller commercial loans but recently got assigned some larger equipment financing deals and the complexity around name changes and amendments is intimidating. Reading through this thread, it sounds like the key is to act fast when you discover a name mismatch rather than trying to figure out if it's "really" a problem. Better safe than sorry with that much money on the line. Thanks for sharing the step-by-step process and the real-world examples - this gives me a much better framework for handling similar issues when they come up.

One more thing about DC UCC forms - if any of your equipment has moved locations since the original filings, you might need to consider whether fixture filing rules apply. DC has some specific requirements if the equipment is now attached to real estate.

This is a great thread - I'm dealing with similar DC UCC continuation challenges. One thing I'd add is to double-check the timing on your filings. DC allows continuations to be filed up to 6 months before the 5-year expiration, but not earlier. Since your 2020 filings expire next year, you're probably in the safe window now. Also, I've found that DC's customer service line (202-727-5374) is actually pretty helpful if you call with specific questions about form requirements - they can usually clarify whether you need their local variants or if standard forms will work. Given the loan values you mentioned, it might be worth a quick call to confirm everything before you submit all 15 continuations.