Code of Maine Rules
29 - DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE
250 - BUREAU OF MOTOR VEHICLES
Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions
Chapter 401 - ADMINISTRATIVE RULES FOR UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE, TITLE 11, ARTICLE 9-A
Section 250-401-1 - General Provisions
Current through 2024-38, September 18, 2024
100 Definitions.Terms used in these filing-office rules but not defined in this Section that are defined in the UCC shall have the respective meanings accorded these terms in the UCC.
A. "Active Record" means a UCC record that has been stored in the UCC information management system and indexed in, but not yet removed from, the searchable indexes, because it has not reached the one-year anniversary of its lapse date.
B. "Address" means either (i) a street address, route number (may include box) or PO Box number plus the city, state and zip code, or (ii) an address that purports to be a mailing address outside the United States of America.
C. "Amendment Statement" means a UCC record that amends the information contained in a financing statement. Amendments include assignments, continuations and terminations.
D. "Assignment Statement" is an amendment that assigns all or a part of a secured party's power to authorize an amendment to a financing statement.
E. "Division" means the Division of Corporations, UCC & Commissions of the Maine Department of the Secretary of State, Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions.
F. "Expedited Request" means the delivery of a request for an expedited search as further defined in subsection 105.
G. "Filing office" and "filing officer" mean the Maine Department of the Secretary of State.
H. "Filing officer statement" means a statement entered into the filing office's UCC information management system to correct an error made by the filing office.
I. "Information statement" means a UCC record that indicates that a financing statement is inaccurate or wrongfully filed.
J. "Initial financing statement" means a UCC record that causes the filing office to establish the initial record of filing of a financing statement.
K. "Remitter" means a person who tenders a UCC record to the filing officer for filing, whether the person is a filer or an agent of a filer responsible for tendering the record for filing. "Remitter" does not include a person responsible merely for the delivery of the record to the filing office, such as the postal service or a courier service but does include a service provider who acts as a filer's representative in the filing process.
L. "Searchable indexes" means the searchable index of individual debtor names and the searchable index of organization debtor names maintained in the UCC information management system.
M. "Secured party of record" includes a secured party of record as defined in the UCC as well as a person who has been a secured party of record with respect to whom an amendment has been filed purporting to delete them as a secured party of record. The term includes the assignor listed on an amendment that purports to be an assignment.
N. "UCC" means the Uniform Commercial Code as adopted in this State.
O. "UCC information management system" means the information management system used by the filing office to store, index, and retrieve information relating to financing statements as described in Section 3 of these rules.
P. "UCC record" means an initial financing statement, an amendment, an assignment, a continuation statement, a termination statement, a filing officer statement or an information statement, and includes a record thereof maintained by the filing office. The term shall not be deemed to refer exclusively to paper or paper-based writings.
Q. "Unlapsed record" means a UCC record that has been stored and indexed in the UCC information management system, but has not yet lapsed under UCC Section 9-1515 with respect to all secured parties of record.
101 Means to deliver UCC records; time of filing. UCC records may be tendered for filing at the filing office as follows.
A. Personal delivery by remitter, at the filing office's street address.The file time for a UCC record delivered by this method is, notwithstanding the time of delivery, 5 p.m. on the day of delivery.
B. Courier delivery by a person other than a remitter, at the filing office's street address.The file time for a UCC record delivered by this method is, notwithstanding the time of delivery, 5 p.m. following the time of delivery (even though the UCC record may not yet have been accepted for filing and may be subsequently rejected).A UCC record delivered after regular business hours or on a day the filing office is not open for business will have a filing time of the close of business on the next day the filing office is open for business.
C. Postal service delivery, to the filing office's mailing address.The file time for a UCC record delivered by this method is, notwithstanding the time of delivery, 5 p.m. on the day of delivery (even though the UCC record may not yet have been accepted for filing and may be subsequently rejected). A UCC record delivered after regular business hours or on a day the filing office is not open for business will have a filing time of the close of business on the next day the filing office is open for business.
D. Electronic filing, using the filing office's online UCC filing system.The file time for a UCC record delivered by this method is the time the filing office's system analyzes the relevant transmission and determines that all the required elements of the transmission have been received in the required format and are machine readable.
E. Means of communication.Regardless of the method of delivery, information submitted to the UCC filing office must be communicated only in the standard, printable ASCII (i.e. American Standard Code for Information Interchange) character set, or it will be handled pursuant to subsection 406 of these rules.A financing statement or amendment form that does not designate separate fields for organization and individual names, and separate fields for the surname, first personal name, additional name(s)/initial(s) and suffixes for individual names is not an acceptable means of communication to the filing office.
F. Transmitting utility, manufactured homes and public-finance transactions.The only means to indicate to the filing office that an initial financing statement is being filed in connection with a manufactured-home or public-finance transaction, or that a financing statement is being or has been filed against a debtor that is a transmitting utility, is to checkthe appropriate box on a UCC1 Financing Statement or to transmit the requisite information in the proper field in an electronic filing of an initial financing statement.
102 Search request delivery.UCC search requests may be delivered to the filing office by any of the means by which UCC records may be delivered to the filing office. Additionally, search requests may be delivered to the filing office by fax transmission.The requestor must submit a Maine UCC Information Request form for each debtor name to be searched, as provided in Section 5 of these rules.
103 Approved forms.The forms prescribed by 11 MRSA §9 - 1521 are accepted by the filing office. Other forms will not be accepted by the filing office.
104 Filing fees.The fees for filing and indexing a UCC record or processing a UCC search request are prescribed by 11 MRSA §9 - 1525.
105 Expedited services and fees.Expedited services are available for UCC search requests only.Requests for expedited service must be made on the Maine UCC Information Request form.The services and fees are as follows.
A. Same-day expedited service.To receive same-day expedited service, the request must be submitted to the filing office between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on a day that the office is open for business, and the search will be processed by 5 p.m. on that day.A request submitted between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on a day that the office is open for business will be processed by 10 a.m. of the following business day.The fee for same-day expedited service is $25.00 per debtor requested.
B. Next-day expedited service.To receive next-day expedited service, the request must submitted to the filing office between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on a day that the office is open for business, and the search will be processed by 5 p.m. on the next business day.The fee for next-day expedited service is $10.00 per debtor requested.
106 Methods of payment.All fees related to UCC records may be paid by the following methods.
A. Cash.Payment in cash shall be accepted if paid in person at the filing office.
B. Checks.Personal checks, cashier's checks and money orders made payable to the filing office shall be accepted for payment provided that the drawer (or the issuer in the case of a cashier's check or money order) is deemed creditworthy by the filing office in its discretion.
C. Debit and credit cards.The filing office shall accept payment by debit and credit cards issued by approved issuers. Remitters shall provide the filing officer with the card number, the expiration date of the card, the name of the card issuer, the name of the person or entity to whom the card was issued and the billing address for the card. Payment will not be deemed tendered until the issuer or its agent has confirmed payment.
D. Subscription Accounts.The Information Resource of Maine (InforME) may offer additional payment methods for its subscribers.
107 Overpayment and underpayment policies
A. Overpayment.The filing officer shall refund the amount of an overpayment of $5.00 or more to the remitter as provided by policy of the State Controller adopted pursuant to 5 MRSA §1543.
B. Underpayment.Upon receipt of a UCC record with an insufficient fee, the filing officer shall return the document to the remitter as provided in Section 203 of these rules.
108 Public records services and fees.Public records services include the following methods by which any member of the public may obtain copies of UCC records and data from the UCC information management system.Public record services do not include search requests as described in Section 5 of these rules. The following methods are available for obtaining copies of UCC records and copies of data from the UCC information management system:
A. Bulk copies of records.Bulk copies of UCC records are available on CD-ROM or via ftp. The fee for obtaining UCC records by this method is $.10 per record.
B. Data from the information management system.A list of available data elements from the UCC information management system and the file layout of the data elements are available from the filing office upon request.Extracts of data from the UCC information management system are available on CD-ROM or via ftp as follows:
