Documents older than 5 years will expire
Scott H. Hines, Alexandria County Registrar of Deeds (RoD), records Assume Business Name (ABN) documents in his office for county businesses or anyone wishing to record an ABN. Some people refer to Assumed Business Name as “doing business as” or DBA. This is a fictitious name by which a company may wish to be known or do business.
Local business owners should be aware of upcoming deadlines related to the North Carolina assumed business name process. Register Hines reports that under the Assumed Business Name Act (Chapter 66 Section 14A) (NC GS § 66-71.15), all applications for a putative business name filed before December 1, 2017 will be 1 day automatic expiration.
Businesses wishing to renew their ABN must register a new Assume Business Name (ABN) document with the Registry of Deeds by December 1; otherwise, according to Register Hines, their old certificate will expire after that date. “Old ABN certificates recorded before December 1, 2017 will automatically expire about 15 days or about 2 weeks before they expire,” Hines said.
Hines explained that the new process has some positive advantages over the old ABN process. For example, newly submitted certificates do not expire. They remain in effect until revoked and recorded in the Registry of Deeds. In the past, businesses had to record an ABN separately in each county. The new form allows businesses to apply their pseudonym in multiple counties or all 100 North Carolina counties at once with one check mark on the form and one record. The Alexander RoD’s office notified the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office to include the submission in a statewide online database searchable in all 100 counties.
The advantages of the new ABN process are:
• It allows filers to specify up to five hypothetical business names on one form.
• ABN documents no longer need to be notarized.
• One application is valid statewide and searchable in online databases.
• Sole proprietorships, corporations, LLCs and partnerships now use the same form.
If you would like more information on the Assumed Business Name process, please contact the RoD Office during business hours, Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or call the Office of Registration of Deeds at (828) 632-3152. Alternatively, use the following links and resources for more information:
To search RoD public records online, visit: https://www.alexandercountync.gov/rod/index.php and click “Search Online Records”.
The hypothetical business name form is online: https://edpnc.com/start-or-grow-a-business/start-a-business/business-forms/.