Closings glossary
UCC search
A search of UCC filings for security interests in personal property, run against the seller and, on entity deals, against the entity itself.
What is a UCC search in a closing?
Quick Answer
The full definition
A search of UCC filings for security interests in personal property, run against the seller and, on entity deals, against the entity itself.
Which related terms should you know?
These are the terms that come up alongside ucc search in the same file.
- Co-op lien search
- The search performed on a co-op purchase covering UCC filings, judgments, liens and unpaid building charges tied to the shares and to the selling shareholder. It supports no policy of insurance, so the protection comes from clearing what it reports before the closing rather than from insuring around it.
- Stock certificate (co-op)
- The certificate evidencing the shares allocated to a co-op apartment. Shares and the proprietary lease travel together and cannot be sold separately from each other.
- Aztech recognition agreement
- The agreement in which a co-op corporation acknowledges a lender's security interest in a shareholder's shares and proprietary lease. The Aztech form is the version most New York co-ops accept.
- Lien
- A claim against property securing payment of a debt. Liens rank by priority, and closing normally means paying or releasing every one ahead of the buyer's interest.
- Bulk sale
- A sale of substantially all of a business's tangible assets, carrying New York bulk sale notice requirements. It comes up on commercial closings where an operating business transfers with the real estate.
Where does ucc search come up in a New York City closing?
A Bay Ridge co-op seller's 2011 UCC-1 is still on file with the City Register, and a termination has to be filed before the buyer's lender funds.
What else should you read before closing?
Questions this raises
Building types
- Standard co-opThe ordinary New York City cooperative: you buy shares in a corporation and receive a proprietary lease to occupy a specific apartment.
- Sponsor co-op unitAn unsold share allocation still held by the building’s original sponsor, sold under the offering plan rather than through the ordinary board process.
- CondopA building split into two condominium units, one commercial and one residential, where the residential unit is owned by a cooperative corporation.
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