Official Comment

1. Source. New.

2. Reasonable Notification. Section 9-611(b) [Maine cite section 9-1611, subsection (2)] requires the secured party to send a "reasonable authenticated notification." Under that section, as under former Section 9-504(3), one aspect of a reasonable notification is its timeliness. This generally means that the notification must be sent at a reasonable time in advance of the date of a public disposition or the date after which a private disposition is to be made. A notification that is sent so near to the disposition date that a notified person could not be expected to act on or take account of the notification would be unreasonable.

3. Timeliness of Notification: Safe Harbor. The 10-day notice period in subsection (b) [Maine cite subsection (2)] is intended to be a "safe harbor" and not a minimum requirement. To qualify for the "safe harbor" the notification must be sent after default. A notification also must be sent in a commercially reasonable manner. See Section 9-611(b) [Maine cite section 9- 1611, subsection (2)] ("reasonable authenticated notification"). Those requirements prevent a secured party from taking advantage of the "safe harbor" by, for example, giving the debtor a notification at the time of the original extension of credit or sending the notice by surface mail to a debtor overseas.

§9-1613.__Contents and form of notification before disposition of

collateral: general

Except in a consumer-goods transaction, the following rules apply.

(1)__The contents of a notification of disposition are sufficient if the notification:

(a)__Describes the debtor and the secured party;

(b)__Describes the collateral that is the subject of the intended disposition;

(c)__States the method of intended disposition;