District of Columbia Code
Subpart 1 - Filing Office; Contents and Effectiveness of Financing Statement
§ 28:9–512. Amendment of financing statement

(a) Subject to § 28:9-509, a person may add or delete collateral covered by, continue or terminate the effectiveness of, or, subject to subsection (e), otherwise amend the information provided in, a financing statement by filing an amendment that:
(1) Identifies, by its file number, the initial financing statement to which the amendment relates; and
(2) If the amendment relates to an initial financing statement filed or recorded in a filing office described in § 28:9-501(a)(1), provides the information specified in § 28:9-502(b).
(b) Except as otherwise provided in § 28:9-515, the filing of an amendment does not extend the period of effectiveness of the financing statement.
(c) A financing statement that is amended by an amendment that adds collateral is effective as to the added collateral only from the date of the filing of the amendment.
(d) A financing statement that is amended by an amendment that adds a debtor is effective as to the added debtor only from the date of the filing of the amendment.
(e) An amendment is ineffective to the extent it:
(1) Purports to delete all debtors and fails to provide the name of a debtor to be covered by the financing statement; or
(2) Purports to delete all secured parties of record and fails to provide the name of a new secured party of record.
(Oct. 26, 2000, D.C. Law 13-201, § 101, 47 DCR 7576.)
This section is referenced in § 28:9-109 and § 28:9-516.
1. Source. Former 9-402(4).
2. Changes to Financing Statements. This section addresses changes to financing statements, including addition and deletion of collateral. Although termination statements, assignments, and continuation statements are types of amendment, this Article follows former Article 9 and contains separate sections containing additional provisions applicable to particular types of amendments. See Section 9-513 (termination statements); 9-514 (assignments); 9-515 (continuation statements). One should not infer from this separate treatment that this Article requires a separate amendment to accomplish each change. Rather, a single amendment would be legally sufficient to, e.g., add collateral and continue the effectiveness of the financing statement.
3. Amendments. An amendment under this Article may identify only the information contained in a financing statement that is to be changed; alternatively, it may take the form of an amended and restated financing statement. The latter would state, for example, that the financing statement “is amended and restated to read as follows: ...” References in this Part to an “amended financing statement“ are to a financing statement as amended by an amendment using either technique.
This section revises former Section 9-402(4) to permit secured parties of record to make changes in the public record without the need to obtain the debtor’s signature. However, the filing of an amendment that adds collateral or adds a debtor must be authorized by the debtor or it will not be effective. See Sections 9-509(a), 9-510(a).
4. Amendment Adding Debtor. An amendment that adds a debtor is effective, provided that the added debtor authorizes the filing. See Section 9-509(a). However, filing an amendment adding a debtor to a previously filed financing statement affords no advantage over filing an initial financing statement against that debtor and may be disadvantageous. With respect to the added debtor, for purposes of determining the priority of the security interest, the time of filing is the time of the filing of the amendment, not the time of the filing of the initial financing statement. See subsection (d). However, the effectiveness of the financing statement lapses with respect to added debtor at the time it lapses with respect to the original debtor. See subsection (b).
5. Deletion of All Debtors or Secured Parties of Record. Subsection (e) assures that there will be a debtor and secured party of record for every financing statement.
Example: A filed financing statement names A and B as secured parties of record and covers inventory and equipment. An amendment deletes equipment and purports to delete A and B as secured parties of record without adding a substitute secured party. The amendment is ineffective to the extent it purports to delete the secured parties of record but effective with respect to the deletion of collateral. As a consequence, the financing statement, as amended, covers only inventory, but A and B remain as secured parties of record.