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I actually had success calling the Georgia SOS UCC department directly when I had questions about search results. They can sometimes clarify whether filings are related or help you understand what you're seeing. Their number is on the website.
Good idea, though I'm not sure they can give legal advice about lien priority or whether names refer to the same entity.
This thread is making me realize I probably need to be more thorough with my Georgia UCC searches. I usually just do one search with the exact corporate name and call it done. Sounds like that's not sufficient.
Update us when you figure it out! I'm dealing with a similar issue on a different entity and curious what ends up working for you.
Last resort if nothing else works - try filing with the exact name format from their most recent annual report. Sometimes that's different from the original Articles and more current in their system.
Annual reports are usually the most current official record of how the state has the entity name stored.
Exactly. The formation documents are historical but the annual reports reflect how the state currently has everything formatted.
This is why I hate equipment financing transactions with multiple parties involved. Too many opportunities for the original debtor identification to get screwed up.
At least OP is being proactive about it. I've seen deals where nobody realizes there's an original debtor issue until there's already a problem.
Bottom line - you need to determine who actually granted the security interest in the equipment originally. That's your 9-102(a)(65) original debtor. If your current UCC filing doesn't reflect that entity as the debtor, you'll need to file amendments to correct it. Don't risk a $340K perfection gap over debtor name issues.
Thanks everyone - this gives me a much clearer picture of what I need to research. Going to pull all the original documents and trace through the security interest grants.
This thread is exactly why I always double-check everything manually even with automated systems. Technology is great until it's not, and UCC filings are too important to trust blindly to any software system.
Update us when you figure out the root cause! This could affect a lot of ALCS users and it would be helpful to know what the fix ended up being.
Will do. Planning to check the field mappings first, then look into the version upgrade if that doesn't solve it.
Evan Kalinowski
One more verification trick - if you're unsure about a debtor name match, check the secured party address. If it matches your records, it's probably the right filing even if the debtor name has minor variations.
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Evan Kalinowski
•Right, as long as the debtor name is 'substantially similar' and the secured party matches, you're usually good. The key is catching major discrepancies that could affect enforceability.
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Victoria Charity
•Still worth getting name discrepancies fixed with UCC-3 amendments though. Better safe than sorry in a default situation.
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Jasmine Quinn
Just finished a similar audit last month. Ended up using a combination of manual searches and document verification tools. The automated checking caught several issues I missed in my initial review. Definitely recommend having some kind of verification backup for important filings.
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Jordan Walker
•That's reassuring. I was worried about relying too much on automated tools but sounds like they're pretty reliable as a backup check.
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Jasmine Quinn
•Yeah, I use them as a second pair of eyes. Manual review first, then automated verification to catch anything I missed.
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