For the fourth installment in our series on The Perplexing World of Uniform Commercial Code Demystified, we’d like to talk about the Importance of Performing a Search to Reflect after filing your UCC1 Financing Statement or UCC3 Amendment.

Despite your best efforts in preparing your UCC1 or UCC3 to perfection, the filing jurisdiction could very easily make a typo causing the filing to be mis-indexed when recording it into their database.  Why is this a problem for a Secured Party?  Just a small typo can make all the difference when searching for outstanding liens against the Debtor Name.  As a potential new Lender (Secured Party), an existing lien may not be reported.  As the existing Secured Party, your “first in line” position may not be reported even though your Financing Statement was on record before anyone else’s.  How about an Amendment or Assignment?  Was it filed against the proper UCC1?  Were all the Secured Parties recorded?  Was the Assignment done as a Partial or Full? Are you concerned yet?

So how do you ensure a typo was not made causing your filing to be mis-indexed?  Each time you file a UCC1 or a UCC3 with changes, request a Search to Reflect upon Thru Date Reached.  If an indexing error occurred, it can be found right away and corrected, rather than down the road when it’s potentially too late.

You can file a UCC and request a Search to Reflect nationwide with us today by sending us your filing and request to Orders@incserv.com.  Please give us a call if you have any questions or would like additional information.   We look forward to hearing from you and stay-tuned for our next segment on Due Diligence Searches!

Lucy Rose, Project Manager, Product Research and Development