The lien was filed before the first withdrawal hit your account. You were never asked. You were never notified separately. It is already there, attached to everything the business owns or will own.
When you signed the MCA agreement, a UCC-1 financing statement was filed with the Secretary of State. The filing creates a public record that says another party has a security interest in your business assets. It does not require a court order. It does not require your separate consent beyond the MCA signature itself. The signature on the MCA agreement was the consent. The filing was simultaneous or near-simultaneous with funding. By the time the advance hit your account, your business was already encumbered.
The UCC-1 covers everything the agreement defines as collateral. In most MCA contracts, that definition is broad enough to function as a blanket. Future receivables. Present receivables. Bank accounts. Equipment. Inventory. Accounts. General intangibles. The language does not discriminate between asset classes. It sweeps across the entire business.
What the Lien Actually Does
A UCC lien does not mean the MCA company owns your assets. It means the MCA company has a priority claim on them. The distinction matters, but the practical effect is often the same. If another lender searches your business name in the UCC database — and every lender searches before funding — they see the lien. They see that someone else is already in line. They see risk they did not create and cannot control.
This is why your next loan application was denied. Not because of your credit score. Not because of your revenue. Not because of your business plan. Because the UCC filing told the next lender that your receivables are already spoken for, your assets are already pledged, and any new lender would be subordinate to the existing claim. No lender wants to be second in line when the first creditor has a blanket lien.
The denial compounds the original problem. The MCA created a cash flow strain. The UCC lien prevents you from obtaining the financing that could alleviate the strain. The business is locked into a single creditor relationship it did not choose and cannot easily exit.
Priority and Stacking
UCC liens operate on a first-to-file system. The first MCA company to file has first priority on the collateral. The second has second. The third has third. If you have stacked multiple MCAs, each funder filed a lien, and each is positioned in the order they filed. The last funder in line knows they are last. That is why their terms were the most aggressive — the factor rate was highest, the repayment period was shortest, and the daily withdrawal was largest. The funder priced the risk of being last in line into the cost of the advance, and you absorbed that cost.
Stacking also means multiple UCC filings appear on your record simultaneously. To any outside observer searching the database, multiple filings signal a business under financial stress. The signal is accurate, but it also ensures the stress continues by preventing new financing on reasonable terms.