Certification of notices of liens, certificates, or other notices affecting federal liens by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States or his or her delegate, or by any official or entity of the United States responsible for filing or certifying of notice of any other lien, entitles them to be filed and no other attestation, certification, or acknowledgment is necessary.
§ 2102.Certification
Title 7. Uniform Federal Lien Registration Act · Enacted 1979 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 29, 2026
In one sentenceSection 2102 provides that a notice of lien, certificate, or other notice certified by the Secretary of the Treasury, a delegate, or the responsible federal official for a non-tax federal lien is entitled to be filed as presented, with no further state attestation, certification, or acknowledgment required.
Full Text of § 2102
Plain-English Summary
Filing officers do not get to second-guess a federal lien notice's authenticity by demanding notarization or some other layer of state-law verification. This section says that once a notice of lien, a certificate, or another notice affecting a federal lien carries the certification of the Secretary of the Treasury, a delegate acting on the Secretary's behalf, or whichever federal official or entity is responsible for filing or certifying notice of a non-tax federal lien, that certification alone entitles the document to be filed.
The payoff is procedural, not substantive. A county recorder or the Secretary of State cannot reject a properly certified federal filing for lack of a notary's seal or some other acknowledgment California law might otherwise require of a document offered for recording. The federal certification does the whole job, which keeps the filing process quick and keeps state filing offices from becoming a second checkpoint on top of whatever verification the federal government already performed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a federal tax lien notice need to be notarized before a California filing office will accept it?
No. Certification by the Secretary of the Treasury or a delegate is enough on its own; no further attestation, certification, or acknowledgment is required.
Who can certify a lien notice to make it eligible for filing?
The Secretary of the Treasury or a delegate for tax liens, or whichever federal official or entity is responsible for filing or certifying notice of a different federal lien.
Can a filing officer reject a properly certified federal lien notice for missing paperwork?
No. Once the required federal certification is present, this section entitles the notice to be filed without additional state-law formalities.
Amendment History
(Added by Stats.1979, c. 330, p. 1185, § 1.)
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the West's Annotated California Codes / Thomson Reuters. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 29, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: ccp 2102 certification federal tax lien notarizationirs lien certification requirements californiasecretary of treasury delegate lien certification