Sarasota County solar lien search

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

In the Sarasota 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 Sarasota, Venice, North Port, Osprey or Siesta Key.

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 Sarasota County roof, and theclerk's Official Records searchis the right one. Most Florida counties write the office name as Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller; here the clerk's own site writes it Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller, so check the exact wording before you quote it in a letter. The version of this rule for every state is on where to search for a solar lien.

How do you search the Sarasota County official records?

Open the clerk's Official Records search and type your surname into the box marked Last or Business Name, with your first name in the box beside it. The hints under the two boxes tell you the format the index expects: Smith or Bank of America on the left, John R or John R Jr or John R III on the right. Leave the Date Filed boxes empty so the search covers the whole index, and read the document type on every result.

One thing this search never asks is which side of the document your name sits on. There is no grantor box, no grantee box, and no Direct or Reverse choice to make. Several other Florida clerks put that choice in front of you and a wrong pick quietly hides a filing, so this is one setting fewer to get wrong here.

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

Why do you have to tick two document types?

Because Sarasota County indexes them separately. The Document Type control on the search is a list of checkboxes running to a few hundred entries, and two of them are relevant to solar: FINANCING STATEMENT and UCC FINANCING STATEMENT. They are different boxes. Tick one and you have searched half the ground, which is a quiet way to come away thinking the record is clean. The safer move is to run the name search with no document type ticked at all, let the whole index answer, and then read the type column yourself for anything that says financing statement, UCC or fixture filing.

Watch the index banner at the top of the form while you are there. It gives the exact span the permanent index covers, and the end date is the previous business day rather than today. The clerk's own Recording Documents FAQs say a recorded instrument is viewable the following business day, generally after 2:00 PM. So a filing made this morning is not in the answer you just got.

What is the property fraud alert, and should you use it?

It is free and it is worth ten minutes. You enter an email address, click the link in the verification email, and register the names you want watched. After that the clerk emails you whenever a document is recorded in Sarasota County under one of those names, within 24 hours of the recording, with a link to the document in the official records. You can register as many names as you choose, so cover both owners.

The clerk'sFAQ for the serviceis worth reading for two reasons. It asks you to register spelling variations, Dave as well as David, VanBuren as well as Van Buren, because the alert fires on the name as indexed. And it asks you to enter a business or trust name with less detail rather than more, so ACME Services rather than ACME Services, Inc. The alert only covers Sarasota County, and it watches a name rather than a parcel, so it will not fire on a filing made against a previous owner.

What do you do if you find a solar filing?

Open the image and read who filed it and what it covers. If it 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. A paper copy from the clerk is $1.00 per page, and a certified one is another $2.00 per instrument, which is the version a title company or a lender will want.

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 Sarasota 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.