UCC-11 search results showing wrong debtor info - anyone else seen this?
Been doing UCC-11 searches for about 8 years now and ran into something weird yesterday. Pulled a search on a debtor for due diligence on a $340K equipment loan and the results are showing filings under slightly different variations of the company name. Same EIN, same address, but one filing shows 'ABC Manufacturing LLC' and another shows 'ABC Manufacturing, LLC' (with the comma). The UCC-11 search pulled both but I'm not sure if this means there's a name inconsistency problem or if the search engine is just being thorough. Has anyone dealt with UCC-11 search results that show these kind of minor name variations? Need to figure out if this signals a potential perfection issue before we close.
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Grace Lee
UCC-11 searches can be tricky with name variations like that. The search logic tries to catch similar names but sometimes it creates more confusion than clarity. In your case, the comma difference might not be a big deal if everything else matches (EIN, address) but you definitely want to verify which version is the 'correct' legal name according to the state records.
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William Rivera
•That's what I was thinking too. The addresses and EIN match perfectly, it's literally just the comma placement that's different between the filings.
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Mia Roberts
•I'd still double-check the Secretary of State records to see what the official entity name shows. Sometimes filers make small errors and it doesn't get caught until later.
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The Boss
This happens more often than you'd think! UCC-11 searches are designed to be inclusive so they'll pull anything that's 'substantially similar' to what you searched for. The comma thing is probably just different filers being inconsistent with punctuation. But definitely verify the actual legal entity name.
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William Rivera
•Good point about the inclusive search logic. I wasn't sure if this was a red flag or just the system being thorough.
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Evan Kalinowski
•Yeah the UCC-11 search algorithms err on the side of showing you too much rather than missing something important. Better safe than sorry from their perspective.
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Victoria Charity
Had this exact issue last month! What I ended up doing was running the UCC-11 search multiple ways - with and without the comma, with 'LLC' vs 'L.L.C.' etc. Found three different variations of the same company name across different filings. Turned out to be sloppy filing practices by different lenders over the years, not an actual legal name change.
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William Rivera
•That's reassuring to hear. Did you have any issues with your lender when you explained the name variations?
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Victoria Charity
•Nope, once I showed them the state entity records confirming the official name and that all the filings were against the same entity (same EIN/address), they were fine with it.
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Jasmine Quinn
•Smart approach doing multiple search variations. I usually do the same thing - search with abbreviated forms, with/without punctuation, etc.
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Oscar Murphy
Just went through something similar and found Certana.ai really helpful for this kind of verification. You can upload the UCC-11 search results along with the entity formation documents and it'll flag any actual inconsistencies vs minor formatting differences. Saved me hours of manual cross-checking.
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William Rivera
•Interesting, haven't heard of that service. Does it handle UCC-11 search result analysis specifically?
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Oscar Murphy
•Yeah, you just upload the PDFs and it cross-references everything - debtor names, addresses, filing numbers. Really good at distinguishing between actual name discrepancies and just formatting variations.
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Nora Bennett
UCC-11 searches drive me nuts sometimes. Half the time you get too many results, half the time you worry you're missing something. The name variation thing is super common though - I wouldn't stress too much if the EIN and address match.
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William Rivera
•Yeah, it's that balance between being thorough and not getting paralyzed by minor variations.
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Ryan Andre
•Exactly! Sometimes I think the old paper filing days were simpler, even if they were slower.
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Lauren Zeb
Check the filing dates on those UCC-11 results too. Sometimes you'll see name variations because the company actually did change their legal name slightly over time (like adding or removing punctuation) and different filings reflect different time periods.
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William Rivera
•Good catch - I'll look at the chronology. The filings span about 3 years so there could have been a name change.
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The Boss
•Right, and if there was a legal name change, there should be amendment filings reflecting the new debtor name.
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Lauren Zeb
•Exactly. Look for UCC-3 amendments that might show a debtor name change during that timeframe.
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Daniel Washington
I always cross-reference UCC-11 results with the Secretary of State business entity search to make sure I'm seeing the complete picture. Sometimes there are entity name changes that don't get properly reflected in UCC amendments.
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William Rivera
•That's a great idea. I should make that part of my standard process.
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Grace Lee
•Agreed, the SOS entity records are the authoritative source for legal names and any changes over time.
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Aurora Lacasse
For what it's worth, most lenders I work with are pretty understanding about minor punctuation differences in UCC-11 searches as long as you can demonstrate it's the same legal entity. The key is showing your due diligence in verifying the identity.
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William Rivera
•That makes sense. I'll document my research process so they can see I did the verification work.
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Mia Roberts
•Documentation is key. Show them the entity records, the UCC-11 results, and your analysis of why the variations don't indicate separate entities.
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Anthony Young
Had similar confusion last week and ended up using one of those automated document verification tools. Uploaded my UCC-11 search results and the company's articles of incorporation - it immediately highlighted that the comma difference was just formatting and not a substantive name issue. Really streamlined the whole verification process.
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William Rivera
•Which service did you use? Sounds like exactly what I need for this situation.
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Anthony Young
•Certana.ai - just upload the PDFs and it does the cross-checking automatically. Much faster than doing it manually.
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Charlotte White
This is why I always do comprehensive UCC-11 searches using multiple name variations upfront. Search the exact legal name, then variations with different punctuation, abbreviations, etc. Better to get too much information initially than miss something important.
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William Rivera
•Good strategy. I'll adopt that approach going forward.
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Evan Kalinowski
•Same here. I have a checklist of different name formats to search - saves time in the long run.
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The Boss
•Smart approach. The few extra minutes on the search end can save hours of verification work later.
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Admin_Masters
Update us on what you find out! I'm curious whether this turns out to be just formatting inconsistency or if there's an actual issue with the filings.
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William Rivera
•Will do! Planning to run the entity search tomorrow and compare everything systematically.
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Victoria Charity
•Looking forward to hearing how it turns out. These kinds of cases are good learning experiences for all of us.
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