Iowa Admin. Code r. 721-30.2 - Acceptance and refusal of documents

(1) Duty to file. Provided that there is no ground to refuse acceptance of the document under 30.2(2), a UCC document is filed upon its receipt by the filing officer with the filing fee, and the riling officer shall promptly assign a file number to the UCC document and index it in the information management system.

(2) Grounds for refusal of UCC document. The following grounds are the sole grounds for the filing officer's refusal to accept a UCC document for filing. As used herein, the term "legible" is not limited to refer only to written expressions on paper: it requires a machine-readable transmission for electronic transmissions and an otherwise readily decipherable transmission in other cases.

a. Debtor name and address. An initial financing statement or an amendment that purports to add a debtor shall be refused if the document fails to include a legible debtor name and address for a debtor, in the case of an initial financing statement, or for the debtor purporting to be added in the case of such an amendment. If the document contains more than one debtor name or address and some names or addresses are missing or illegible, the filing officer shall index the legible name and address pairings, and provide a notice to the remitter containing the file number of the document, identification of the debtor name(s) that was (were) indexed, and a statement that debtors with illegible or missing names or addresses were not indexed.

b. Additional debtor identification. An initial financing statement or an amendment adding one or more debtors shall be refused if the document fails to identify whether each named debtor (or each added debtor in the case of such an amendment) is an individual or an organization, if the last name of each individual debtor is not identified, or if, for each debtor identified as an organization, the document does not include in legible form the organization's type, state of organization and organization number (if it has one) or a statement that it does not have one.

c. Secured party name and address. An initial financing statement, an amendment purporting to add a secured party of record, or an assignment shall be refused if the document fails to include a legible secured party (or assignee in the case of an assignment) name and address. If the document contains more than one secured party (or assignee) name or address, and some names or addresses are missing or illegible, the filing officer shall refuse the UCC document.

d. Lack of identification of initial financing statement. A UCC document other than an initial financing statement shall be refused if the document does not provide a file number of a financing statement in the UCC information management system that has not lapsed.

e. Identifying information. A UCC document that does not identify itself as an amendment or identify an initial financing statement to which it relates, as required by Iowa Code sections 554.9512, 554.9514, and 554.9518, is an initial financing statement.

fTimeliness of continuation. A continuation shall be refused if it is not received during the six-month period concluding on the day upon which the related financing statement would lapse.

(1) First day permitted. The first day on which a continuation may be filed is the date of the month corresponding to the date upon which the financing statement would lapse, six months preceding the month in which the financing statement would lapse. If there is no such corresponding date during the sixth month preceding the month in which the financing statement would lapse, the first day on which a continuation may be filed is the last day of the sixth month preceding the month in which the financing statement would lapse, although filing by certain means may not be possible on such date if the filing office is not open on such date.

(2) Last day permitted. The last day on which a continuation may be filed is the date upon which the financing statement lapses.

g. Fee. A document shall be refused if the document is accompanied by less than the full filing fee tendered by a method described in 30.1(11).

h. Means of communication. UCC documents communicated to the filing office by a means of communication not authorized by the filing officer for the communication of UCC documents shall be refused.

i. XML refusal. UCC documents communicated by XML may be refused as provided in 30.3(3) for reasons not applicable to other communications methods.

(3) Grounds not warranting refusal. The sole grounds for the filing officer's refusal to accept a UCC document for filing are enumerated in 30.2(2). The following are examples of defects that do not constitute grounds for refusal to accept a document. They are not a comprehensive enumeration of defects outside the scope of permitted grounds for refusal to accept a UCC document for filing.

a. Errors. The UCC document contains or appears to contain a misspelling or other apparently erroneous information.

b. Incorrect names.

(1) The UCC document appears to identify a debtor incorrectly.

(2) The UCC document appears to identify a secured party or a secured party of record incorrectly.

c. Extraneous information. The UCC document contains additional or extraneous information of any kind.

d. Insufficient information. The UCC document contains less than the information required by Article 9 of the UCC, provided that the document contains the information required in 30.2(2)"a" through 30.2(2)"e."

Note: The debtor's taxpayer identification number (TAX ID #), social security number (SSN), and employer identification number (EIN) are not required, and may be readily available to the public if entered on UCC documents.

e. Collateral description. The UCC document incorrectly identifies collateral, or contains an illegible or unintelligible description of collateral, or appears to contain no such description.

f. Excess fee. The document is accompanied by funds in excess of the full filing fee.

(4) lime limit. The filing officer shall determine whether criteria exist to refuse acceptance of a UCC document for filing not later than the second business day after the date the document would have been filed had it been accepted for filing and shall index a UCC document not so refused within the same time period.

(5) Procedure upon refusal. If the filing officer finds grounds under 30.2(2) to refuse acceptance of a UCC document, the filing officer shall return the document, if written, to the remitter and will refund the filing fee. The filing office shall send a notice that contains the date and time the document would have been filed had it been accepted for filing (unless such date and time are stamped on the document) and a brief description of the reason for refusal to accept the document under 30.2(2). The notice shall be sent to a secured party or the remitter as provided in 30.4(2)"e" no later than the second business day after the filing office receives the document. The refund may be delivered with the notice or under separate cover.

(6) Acknowledgment.

a. At the request of a filer or remitter who submits a paper or paper-based UCC document, the filing officer shall either:

(1) Send to said filer or remitter an image of the record of the UCC document showing the file number assigned to it and the date and time of filing; or

(2) If such filer or remitter provides a copy of such UCC document, note the file number and the date and time of filing on the copy and deliver or send it to said filer or remitter.

b. For UCC documents not filed in paper or paper-based form, the filing officer shall communicate to the filer or remitter the information in the filed document, the file number and the date and time of filing.

(7) Other notices. Nothing in these rules prevents a filing officer from communicating to a filer or a remitter that the filing officer noticed apparent potential defects in a UCC document, whether or not it was filed or refused for filing. However, the filing office is under no obligation to do so and may not, in fact, have the resources to do so or to identify such defects. THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE LEGAL EFFECTIVENESS OF FILING RESTS WITH FILERS AND REMITTERS AND THE FILING OFFICE BEARS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR SUCH EFFECTIVENESS.

(8) Refusal errors. If a secured party or a remitter demonstrates to the satisfaction of the filing officer that a UCC document that was refused for filing should not have been refused under 30.2(2), the filing officer will file the UCC document as provided in these rules with a filing date and time assigned when such filing would have occurred had it not been wrongfully rejected. The filing officer will also file a statement (and such demonstration of error shall constitute the secured party's authorization to do so) that states that the effective date and time of filing is the date and time the UCC document was originally tendered for filing, and that sets forth such date and time.

Notes

Iowa Admin. Code r. 721-30.2

Amended by IAB August 23, 2023/Volume XLVI, Number 4, effective 9/27/2023