Montana UCC lien search showing weird results - am I missing something?

This happens more than you'd think. The UCC search engines are pretty literal about debtor names. If the original UCC-1 was filed with even a small variation like 'ABC Company LLC' vs 'ABC Company, LLC' (notice the comma), the search might miss it. Also check if they filed under a DBA or if there were any amendments that changed the debtor name over the years.

You might want to try searching with different name variations. Drop the entity type (LLC, Inc, Corp), try with and without commas, and search both the legal name and any trade names. Also check if they've had any corporate changes - mergers, name changes, etc. since 2019. Those could affect how the liens appear in searches.

Had a similar nightmare last month. Turns out there were actually THREE different variations of the debtor name in the system from different lenders over the years. None of our searches caught all of them until we started using Certana.ai's document verification tool. You can upload the borrower's corporate documents and their existing UCC filings and it automatically cross-checks all the name variations to make sure you're not missing anything. Found two liens we would have completely missed otherwise.

Another thing to check - was the original UCC-1 filed at the state level or locally? Some equipment filings, especially construction equipment, might have fixture filing components that get recorded at the county level. Also verify the filing was actually accepted and not rejected for some technical reason.

The Montana SOS search system has some quirks too. Sometimes you need to search by filing number instead of debtor name, especially for older filings. If you have any reference numbers from the borrower's documents, try searching those directly.

This is exactly why due diligence is so critical with UCC searches. I always run multiple search variations and also request copies of all existing financing statements from the borrower. For a $180K deal, you definitely want to be thorough. Consider having the borrower order an official UCC search from the Secretary of State office - they might catch variations your online searches are missing.

One more thought - check if the borrower has any subsidiaries or related entities. Sometimes equipment gets cross-collateralized across multiple entities within a corporate family, and the UCC filings might be under the parent company or a different subsidiary name.

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Turns out there were two issues - first, the original UCC-1 was filed with a comma in the debtor name that we weren't including in our searches. Second, there was actually a second lien we completely missed because it was filed under a slightly different entity name (they had changed from LLC to Inc. but the old lien was never amended). Used one of those document checking tools someone mentioned and it caught both issues immediately. Definitely learned my lesson about being more thorough with name variations!

This thread is a perfect example of why UCC due diligence is so tricky. The search systems work fine if everything is filed consistently, but real-world corporate records are messy. Entity name changes, punctuation differences, DBA names - there are so many ways for searches to miss existing liens.

For anyone else dealing with similar search issues, I'd recommend keeping a checklist of all the name variations to try: legal name with/without punctuation, legal name with/without entity type, any DBAs, any former legal names, parent/subsidiary names, and any variations you find in existing corporate documents. It's tedious but catches most of the common issues.