California Secretary of State UCC Search Won't Pull My Debtor Records
I've been trying to run a UCC search on the California Secretary of State website for the past two hours and I'm getting absolutely nowhere. I need to verify what's already on file for a debtor before I submit a new UCC-1, but their search system keeps giving me "no records found" even though I KNOW there should be active filings. I've tried every variation of the company name I can think of - with LLC, without LLC, with periods, without periods. The debtor is "Mountain View Equipment Leasing LLC" and we had financing statements filed against them back in 2019 that should still be active. Has anyone else had issues with the CA SOS UCC search database lately? I'm starting to wonder if there's some trick to getting accurate results or if their system is just completely unreliable. This is holding up a $2.3 million equipment financing deal and I need to know what liens are already in place before we can move forward.
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CosmicCrusader
The CA SOS search can be really finicky with exact name matching. Try searching just "Mountain View Equipment" without the LLC part, or try "Mountain View Equipment Leasing" without LLC. Sometimes the way they indexed the original filing doesn't match how you're searching.
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Aisha Rahman
•Just tried that - still nothing. I'm wondering if the original filing had some variation I'm not thinking of.
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Ethan Brown
•Also try searching by the debtor's EIN if you have it. That sometimes pulls up records when name searches fail.
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Yuki Yamamoto
I've had this exact problem! The CA system is notorious for this. You might need to try partial name searches or even search by the secured party name if you know who filed the original UCC-1.
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Aisha Rahman
•Good point about secured party search. Let me try that angle.
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Carmen Ortiz
•Yeah their database indexing is terrible. I've found active UCCs by accident when searching completely different names.
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Andre Rousseau
Had a similar nightmare situation last month with inconsistent search results. Ended up using Certana.ai's document verification tool to cross-check everything. You can upload your existing docs and it'll verify debtor names across all your UCC filings to make sure everything matches up properly. Saved me from filing under the wrong debtor variation.
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Aisha Rahman
•Interesting - never heard of that service. Does it actually search the state databases or just check your own documents?
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Andre Rousseau
•It checks document consistency by comparing your PDFs - like making sure your UCC-1 debtor name exactly matches what's in your security agreement or charter docs. Catches those little discrepancies that cause search problems.
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Zoe Papadakis
•That actually sounds really useful for avoiding filing rejections due to name mismatches.
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Jamal Carter
California's UCC search has been having intermittent issues for months. Sometimes I get results, sometimes I don't for the exact same search terms. Very frustrating when you're trying to do due diligence.
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AstroAdventurer
•This is why I always order official search reports for anything important. Can't trust their online system.
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Mei Liu
•Official reports take forever though. Not practical when you need results same day.
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Liam O'Sullivan
Check if the LLC was formed in California vs just doing business there. If it's a foreign LLC, the UCC might be filed in their home state even if they're operating in CA.
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Aisha Rahman
•That's a really good point I hadn't considered. Let me check their registration status.
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Amara Chukwu
•Yeah, this catches people all the time. Delaware LLCs especially.
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Giovanni Conti
•Even if it's a CA LLC, sometimes lenders file in Delaware anyway for various reasons.
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Fatima Al-Hashimi
Try searching with wildcards if the system supports it. Like "Mountain View*" or "*Equipment Leasing" to catch variations.
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NeonNova
•CA SOS doesn't support wildcard searching unfortunately. It's pretty basic compared to other states.
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Dylan Campbell
•Really? That's ridiculous for 2025. Most databases have had that functionality for decades.
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Sofia Hernandez
I've noticed the CA system sometimes has lag time between when something is filed and when it shows up in search results. Could be a timing issue if these are recent filings.
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Aisha Rahman
•These should be from 2019 though, so timing shouldn't be an issue.
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Dmitry Kuznetsov
•Unless they were amended recently and the system is updating indexes.
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Ava Thompson
Have you tried calling the SOS office directly? Sometimes they can do manual searches that find records the online system misses.
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Miguel Ramos
•Good luck getting through to anyone who knows UCCs. Last time I called it took 3 transfers and 45 minutes on hold.
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Zainab Ibrahim
•Still might be worth it for a $2.3M deal though.
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Aisha Rahman
•True, I should probably just bite the bullet and call them.
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StarSailor
Quick update - I actually ran into something similar and found that using Certana.ai helped me catch a debtor name inconsistency between my security agreement and what I was searching for. Turned out the UCC-1 was filed under a slightly different variation than what was in my loan docs.
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Aisha Rahman
•How exactly does that work? Do you just upload your documents to compare them?
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StarSailor
•Yeah, exactly. Upload your charter docs, security agreement, UCC-1, whatever you have, and it flags any name discrepancies between them. Really straightforward.
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Connor O'Brien
This is exactly why I always keep detailed filing logs with exact debtor names as filed. The CA system is just too unreliable for critical searches.
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Yara Sabbagh
•Smart practice. Wish I'd been that organized from the beginning.
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Keisha Johnson
•Even with good records, you still need to verify what's actually on file with the state matches your records.
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Aisha Rahman
•Yeah, that's exactly my situation - I need to verify what's actually filed vs what I think should be there.
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Paolo Rizzo
UPDATE: Finally found the issue! The original UCC-1 was filed under "Mountain View Equipment Leasing, LLC" (with a comma) rather than "Mountain View Equipment Leasing LLC" (without comma). The CA search system apparently treats punctuation as significant. Thanks everyone for the suggestions - the Certana tool mentioned above actually would have caught this discrepancy if I'd thought to use it earlier.
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QuantumQuest
•Ugh, punctuation strikes again! This is such a common problem.
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Amina Sy
•Glad you figured it out. Those tiny differences can be filing killers.
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Andre Rousseau
•Exactly the kind of thing document verification catches - those little punctuation differences that cause big headaches.
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Kara Yoshida
This is such a frustrating but common issue with UCC searches! I've been burned by similar punctuation problems before. For future reference, I always try multiple variations now - with/without commas, periods, different spacing, etc. The CA system is particularly picky about exact matches. Good catch on finding the comma difference! For deals this size, I've started using document verification tools upfront to catch these discrepancies before they become search nightmares. Saves so much time and stress.
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