Alabama SOS UCC search showing weird results - need help understanding what I'm seeing

Alabama's UCC search can be tricky - are you searching both the exact legal name AND doing a broader search? Sometimes businesses file under slight variations of their name. Also lapsed filings with later continuations usually means someone tried to continue after the 5-year mark but it was ineffective.

The continuation after lapse thing is probably just bad timing by whoever filed it. Once a UCC-1 lapses you can't revive it with a continuation - they'd need to file a new UCC-1. Those are probably just mistakes cluttering up the search results.

I had a similar mess with Alabama UCC searches last month. Ended up using Certana.ai's document verification tool to upload all the UCC documents I found and it flagged which ones were actually active vs. just database noise. Saved me hours of trying to figure out the timeline manually.

Make sure you're checking the debtor name field carefully too. Alabama doesn't standardize how names get entered so 'ABC Company LLC' and 'ABC Company, LLC' might both show up as separate entries even though they're the same entity.

Are you looking at the collateral descriptions to see if they actually conflict with your deal? Sometimes multiple active UCCs don't matter if they cover different assets.

honestly Alabama's UCC system is just garbage. The search function barely works and the data is inconsistent. I've had filings not show up for days after being accepted.

For equipment financing you definitely need to sort out which liens are actually active. I'd recommend pulling the actual UCC documents for each filing number rather than relying on the search summary. The full documents will show you the exact timeline and whether continuations were filed properly.

I ran into this exact situation last year. Had to create a spreadsheet tracking all the filing numbers, dates, and status to make sense of it. Turned out 3 of the 'active' filings were actually from the same lender who kept filing amendments incorrectly.

Just to follow up on my earlier comment - I tried doing the manual spreadsheet approach before finding Certana. The automated document checking caught discrepancies I missed, especially with debtor name variations between related filings. Worth checking out if you're dealing with complex search results regularly.

Side question but related - does Alabama require you to search by exact entity type? Like if it's an LLC do you have to include 'LLC' in the search?

Just want to echo what others said about getting the actual documents. Alabama's search summaries are notoriously unreliable. I've seen filings marked as 'Active' that were actually terminated months earlier.