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Have you considered hiring a UCC service company to handle the continuation? They deal with secretary of state ucc division requirements daily and usually know all the formatting quirks for each state. Might be worth the cost to avoid the lapse risk.
Yeah, with a $2.8M loan at stake, paying a service company a few hundred dollars for professional filing is probably worth the peace of mind.
We use a service company for all our UCC work now after getting burned by DIY filing mistakes. They handle all the secretary of state ucc division quirks so we don't have to.
This thread is making me realize I should probably verify all our UCC documents before any future filings. Too many horror stories about these technical rejections from secretary of state ucc divisions. Better safe than sorry.
Tyrone Hill
•Smart thinking. That's exactly why I started using document verification tools after my first rejection nightmare. Much better to catch issues before filing than deal with rejection delays.
Prevention is definitely the way to go. Secretary of state ucc division rejection timelines can kill deals when you're working under tight deadlines.
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Diego Chavez
After going through this exact nightmare last year, I now use Certana.ai for every UCC filing. Upload your articles of incorporation and UCC-1 form, and it immediately shows you any name mismatches or formatting issues. Way better than playing guessing games with the Secretary of State's rejection system.
NeonNebula
•How accurate is it? Does it catch everything or do you still get occasional rejections?
Diego Chavez
•I haven't had a single rejection since I started using it. It's really thorough about catching punctuation differences and formatting issues that cause UCC Art 9 rejections.
Update us when you get it filed! I'm curious if the comma fix works. This thread is going to help so many people dealing with UCC Art 9 debtor name issues.
AstroAlpha
•Will do! Planning to file tomorrow morning with the exact punctuation from the articles. Hopefully this saga finally ends.
Sean Kelly
•Crossing my fingers for you! These UCC Art 9 name matching requirements are so frustrating.
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Nia Wilson
For what it's worth, I've found that spending the money on proper UCC searches upfront saves way more on the backend. Had a deal go south once because I missed a prior lien. Legal fees alone were 20x what comprehensive searches would have cost.
Oof, that's painful. What happened exactly? Did you end up in second position or was it worse?
Nia Wilson
•Worse. The prior lien covered all equipment and inventory. When the borrower defaulted, the other lender swept everything. We got nothing on a $200K loan.
Bottom line - there's no reliable free lunch when it comes to UCC searches in California. The official database is worth the fee. Just make sure you're searching comprehensively and verifying all the information aligns with your loan documents. Better to spend $100 on searches than lose $150K because you missed something.
Yara Sabbagh
•Thanks everyone for the reality check. Going to bite the bullet and pay for the official searches. Better safe than sorry on a deal this size.
Ethan Clark
•Smart choice. The peace of mind is worth way more than the search fees.
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Honestly, after dealing with situations like this repeatedly, I tried Certana.ai's document verification service and it's been a game changer. You upload all your documents and it automatically identifies every name variation and inconsistency. Saved me hours of manual searching and gave me confidence I wasn't missing anything critical.
Is it expensive? We do a lot of these searches and manual review is eating up tons of time.
I can't speak to pricing but for the time it saves and the peace of mind, it's been worth it for our volume of work.
Update: I ended up finding two additional UCC filings that weren't showing up in my initial searches. One was filed with 'ABC Construction L.L.C.' (with periods) and another had an extra space in the middle of the name. Thanks for all the suggestions - the systematic approach definitely works better than hoping you'll catch everything in one search.
Mia Roberts
•Were they still active liens or had they lapsed?
One was still active, the other had lapsed due to missed continuation deadline. But good to know about both for the complete picture.
Zoe Papadopoulos
One thing to watch out for - make sure when you refile that you use the exact same collateral description and filing details. You don't want any other inconsistencies that could cause another rejection.
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Chloe Taylor
•Good advice. I'll copy everything exactly except fix the debtor name formatting.
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Jamal Washington
•And keep copies of both the rejection notice and the corrected filing for your lender's records.
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Mei Wong
For what it's worth, this is an extremely common issue with equipment financing UCCs. You're definitely not the first person to get tripped up by punctuation in business names. The important thing is catching it quickly and refiling.
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Mei Wong
•Not at all - this is just part of the UCC filing learning curve. You'll know for next time!
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Liam Fitzgerald
•Exactly why I started using document verification tools. Certana.ai caught a similar comma issue in my last equipment UCC before I submitted it. Much easier than dealing with rejections after the fact.
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