Our bank filed a UCC financing statement on acccounts, inventory, and equipment on an LLC loan customer, in the Georgia county where the registered agent of the LLC is located and in another Georgia county where the principal office is located.

We have learned that another bank had filed earlier than we did, but in another county.

Our lender believes that the other bank's earlier filing does not affect our lien because we filed where the registered agent and the principal office are located. But my understanding of Georgia law is that the earliest filing has priority regardless of where registered agents and principal offices are located.

Can anyone shed any light on this subject? I admit I'm not real knowledgeable about this particular subject.

I love easy questions.

It doesn't matter where the registered agent of the LLC resides. The proper place to file is the state in which the LLC filed its organization papers. If that is Georgia, then the place to file is with the office of the clerk of the superior court of any county. It is a centralized system that is maintained by the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority, but the only way to get your filing recorded is with any clerk of the superior court.

In your example, I think you have a problem.

FWIW, your LO didn't make that up - It was that way as recently as the late 1990's but the UCC rules have since undergone a significant revision.

I appreciate the responses, and I have communicated the information to the loan officer.

I saw that the Georgia Bankers Association will have a UCC seminar in Macon on November 20, 2008. It looks I need to be there.