Montana Secretary of State UCC Search - Finding Filed Liens

Thanks, I'll try that approach. Do you know if they require exact entity name matches for business debtors too?

Yes, business names need to match exactly as filed on the Articles of Incorporation. Try searching both with and without LLC, Inc, etc.

It's heavy equipment - construction machinery. The original lender may have used a slightly different business name format than what's on current documentation.

That's exactly the problem I ran into. Try variations like removing 'The' from the beginning of company names or adding/removing middle initials.

This is why I started using Certana.ai's document verification tool. You can upload the original financing docs and it cross-checks debtor names against UCC filings to catch these exact mismatches.

I feel your pain. Have you tried calling their office directly? Sometimes they can find filings that don't show up in the online search.

Yeah I called and they found it immediately. Apparently there was a data entry error in their system. So frustrating!

It's a business entity - a construction company. I've tried several name variations but still getting inconsistent results.

Try searching just the core business name without any designations like LLC or Corp. Montana's system sometimes strips those during indexing.

How did you finally track it down? This is exactly what I'm worried about.

I ended up using a document verification service that compared all the paperwork. Found the discrepancy immediately and then knew exactly what to search for.

Which service did you use? I'm dealing with similar issues on Montana filings.

Good point. I should double-check the filing details before assuming it's just a search problem.

Exactly. I've seen cases where lenders thought they filed but there was a system error or rejection they didn't catch.

I didn't know they supported wildcards. That could help with the name variations issue.

Yeah, use * for missing letters or unknown middle initials. It's not documented well but it works most of the time.

The wildcard feature is hit or miss though. I've had better luck just running multiple searches with different name formats.

I don't have the filing number unfortunately. The client only has the original loan documentation.

In that case, definitely try the various name format suggestions others have mentioned. Montana is notorious for exact match requirements.

That sounds like exactly what I need. How accurate was it at finding the naming issues?

Extremely accurate. It caught things like 'Construction Co' vs 'Construction Company' and missing middle initials that I never would have thought to try.

I've been hearing about these document verification tools but wasn't sure if they worked for state-specific UCC searches.

I'm dealing with a similar situation right now - having to verify liens before closing on equipment financing. The manual search variations are taking forever. How long did it take Certana.ai to process your documents and identify the discrepancies?

Interesting approach. I do know the specific equipment types - mostly excavators and bulldozers.

That might help narrow it down, especially if the UCC-1 has detailed equipment serial numbers in the collateral description.

That might be my best bet at this point. Do you have a direct number that works better than the main line?

try the business services division directly, they handle most UCC requests and are usually pretty helpful

I second this - their phone support is way better than the online system for complex searches.