Charlotte County solar lien search

Where do you search for a solar lien in Charlotte County?

In the Charlotte County official records, which the Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller keeps as county recorder. A solar lien is usually a UCC fixture filing, and Florida sends fixture filings to the clerk of the circuit court rather than to the state registry. A clean search at the state registry does not clear a home in Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, Englewood or Rotonda West.

The statute draws the line itself.Florida Statute 679.5011sends a financing statement to the office of the clerk of the circuit court when the collateral is goods that are or are to become fixtures and the statement is filed as a fixture filing, and sends every other case to the Florida Secured Transaction Registry, the state index at floridaucc.com. So the registry is the wrong window for panels bolted to a Charlotte County roof, and theclerk's Official Records searchis the right one. Note the office name here: most Florida counties call it the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, and Charlotte County's own site writes it Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller. The version of this rule for every state is onwhere to search for a solar lien.

How do you search the Charlotte County records?

Open the clerk's Official Records search and use the Name tab. It gives you separate boxes for last name, first name, middle name and suffix, so you type the parts rather than one run-together string, and a Business Name option for a company or a trust. There is no disclaimer page to accept first. Set the filter to Contains if you are not sure how your name was typed, leave the date range at its full span, and read the document type on each result for a UCC, a financing statement or a fixture filing.

Two habits save time. Try your name with a middle initial and then without, because an index matches what somebody typed, and the Contains filter is there for exactly that problem. And if the house is in two names, search both. A filing made against one spouse will not surface under the other.

What do Direct, Reverse and Both mean on the name search?

They are the party type, and the search spells it out in its own help panel. Direct is equal to grantor and plaintiff, Reverse is equal to grantee and defendant, and Both will search every name indexed throughout a document. For this job, use Both and do not think about it again. A fixture filing can name the homeowner on either side depending on who prepared it, so a Direct-only search is one of the quiet ways people miss a filing that is sitting right there. The same panel is where the clerk warns that the site is built for Microsoft Edge and Chrome, and that another browser may hand you a short result list or no document image at all, which is worth knowing before you conclude the record is clean.

What is the Property Fraud Alert, and should you use it?

It is a free service from the clerk and it is worth ten minutes. You verify an email address with a code, then register the names you want watched, and the clerk emails you when a document is recorded in Charlotte County under one of them. You can put several names on one email address, so cover both owners. The clerk'sFAQ for the serviceis clear about the limit: you can register an individual name, a business name or the name of your trust, but not a property address or a parcel number. That matters here, because an alert keyed to a name will not fire on a filing made against a previous owner or against a trust you did not think to register. If the house is held in a trust, register the trust as a business name and type it only as far as the word trust, which is how the clerk indexes it.

What do you do if you find a solar filing?

Open the image and read who filed it and what it covers. Viewing and printing from the search costs nothing. If the filing secures a solar loan you have paid off, ask the lender for a UCC-3 termination and have it recorded. If it protects a lease or power purchase agreement that is still running, ask the provider in writing what they need for a sale or a refinance, and ask now, because their reply is the slow part.

The reason it matters at a closing is the buyer's lender.Fannie Mae's Selling Guiderequires a UCC search on a home with solar and requires a filing that ranks ahead of the mortgage to be subordinated before the loan closes. The closing-table version of this is atselling a house with solar.

Does every kind of solar leave a filing?

No. Loans nearly always do, leases and power purchase agreements often do, and cash purchases and subscriptions leave nothing on the record. The breakdown is ondo solar panels put a lien on your house. We sell subscriptions, the no-filing kind, so read it knowing that.

Looking at solar for a Charlotte County home?

Run your bill through the estimator. It takes about a minute and a real person follows up with figures for your roof. Read the Florida page first: it covers who insures the panels when a hurricane comes and who this is a bad fit for.