Certainty and Convenience - Criteria for the Place of Filing Under the Uniform Commercial Code

Abstract

If a non-possessory security interest in personal property is of such a nature that public notice thereof is required to perfect it, there remain the questions of what form that notice should take and where it should be given. This article deals primarily with the second question—first in general terms, then as the question has been answered by the draftsmen of the Uniform Commercial Code, and finally as it has been answered in the fourteen states which had adopted the Code at the time the article was prepared.

Anybody who has had close contact with a financing arrangement secured by collateral scattered through several states is aware of the great variety of the rules adopted by the different states for determining the proper place to file or record a security interest in personal property. Even within the same state the rules may vary depending on the form of instrument utilized. Boiled down, these rules are usually one or more variations of the five ways for establishing the place of filing (or recording) discussed below.