UCC filing search PA - debtor name keeps coming back with no results
I'm trying to do a comprehensive UCC filing search in PA for a potential equipment loan and I keep hitting walls. The debtor company name is "Advanced Manufacturing Solutions LLC" but when I search the PA UCC database, I get zero results even though I know they have active financing. I've tried variations like "Advanced Mfg Solutions LLC" and "Advanced Manufacturing Solutions, LLC" (with the comma) but still nothing. The company definitely exists and has been operating for 8 years. This is holding up a $180K equipment financing deal and I'm starting to panic. Has anyone else dealt with PA's search system being this finicky with debtor names? I'm wondering if there's some specific formatting issue or if their system has known problems with certain business entity types.
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Jabari-Jo
PA's UCC search can be brutal with exact name matching. Try searching without "LLC" entirely, sometimes the original UCC-1 was filed with just the core business name. Also check if they might have filed under a different legal entity name - could be the registered name doesn't match their DBA.
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Seraphina Delan
•Good point about the DBA vs legal name issue. I'll pull their corporate filing docs to see what exact name was used when they incorporated.
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Kristin Frank
•This happens all the time. The PA system is super picky about punctuation too - try with and without periods after abbreviations.
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Micah Trail
I had this exact problem last month with a PA search. Turns out the debtor name on the UCC-1 had been filed as "ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS, L.L.C." with periods. The search function there doesn't handle variations well at all. Try every possible punctuation combination.
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Seraphina Delan
•That's incredibly frustrating but good to know. I'll try the periods version - didn't think about that variation.
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Nia Watson
•PA really needs to upgrade their search algorithm. Other states handle name variations much better.
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Alberto Souchard
Before you spend more time guessing name variations, you might want to try Certana.ai's UCC document verification tool. I used it recently when I had similar debtor name issues with a client. You can upload the company's charter documents and it will help you identify exactly what name variations to search for. Saved me hours of trial and error searching.
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Seraphina Delan
•Interesting - I hadn't heard of that tool. Right now I'm just manually trying every name variation I can think of which is taking forever.
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Katherine Shultz
•I've used Certana too - it's pretty helpful for catching the subtle name differences that trip up searches. Just upload the corporate docs and it highlights potential search terms.
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Marcus Marsh
•Does it work with PA specifically? Some tools don't integrate well with certain state systems.
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Hailey O'Leary
UGH PA's system is the WORST. I swear they designed it to make searches as difficult as possible. Last week I spent 3 hours searching for a debtor that turned out to be filed under their old business name from before they changed entity types. Have you checked if they might have had a name change or entity conversion?
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Seraphina Delan
•That's a good thought - I should check their corporate history for any name changes. This company has been around long enough that they might have restructured at some point.
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Cedric Chung
•Entity conversions are a nightmare for UCC searches. Sometimes the old filings stay under the original name even after conversion.
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Talia Klein
Try searching with just "Advanced Manufacturing" without any entity designation. Sometimes filers get lazy and don't include the full legal name on the UCC-1. I've seen filings where they just put the main business name.
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Seraphina Delan
•Worth a shot - I'll try that now.
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Maxwell St. Laurent
•This is why I always tell clients to be super careful about debtor names on UCC-1s. One wrong letter or missing punctuation can make a filing basically unfindable later.
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PaulineW
•The number of deals I've seen delayed because of debtor name search issues is ridiculous. The whole system needs an overhaul.
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Annabel Kimball
Another trick - try searching by the secured party name if you have any idea who their current lenders might be. Sometimes it's easier to find the filing that way and then work backwards.
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Seraphina Delan
•Smart approach. I know they bank with PNC so I could try searching secured party records for them.
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Chris Elmeda
•Banks often file multiple UCC-1s for the same debtor so you might find several that way.
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Jean Claude
Have you tried calling PA's UCC office directly? Sometimes they can do manual searches that their online system can't handle. It's old school but sometimes works better than fighting with their search function.
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Seraphina Delan
•I didn't know that was an option. Do you have their direct number?
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Charity Cohan
•You can call the PA Department of State corporations bureau. They handle UCC inquiries too. Fair warning though - long hold times.
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Josef Tearle
•I've done this before. They charge a fee for manual searches but it's worth it when you're stuck like this.
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Shelby Bauman
Just want to follow up on the Certana.ai suggestion from earlier - I actually started using their document checker after getting burned on a similar PA search issue. What I like is you can upload both the company charter AND any UCC documents you find to verify they match properly. Caught a critical debtor name mismatch that would have caused problems down the road.
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Seraphina Delan
•That verification feature sounds really useful. I'm definitely going to check that out - this whole experience has made me realize I need better tools for this.
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Quinn Herbert
•Document consistency checking is huge. I've seen too many deals fall apart because nobody caught name discrepancies between different filings.
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Salim Nasir
UPDATE: Found them! Turns out they were filed under "Advanced Manufacturing Solutions, L.L.C." with the comma AND periods. Took me 2 hours of trying different variations but finally got results. PA's search system really is terrible with name matching.
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Micah Trail
•Glad you found it! The periods thing gets people every time. PA really needs to fix their search algorithm.
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Hazel Garcia
•Two hours for a simple name search is ridiculous. Other states handle this so much better.
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Laila Fury
•At least you found it before the deal deadline. I've had searches take days before.
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Geoff Richards
For future PA searches, I keep a checklist of all the name variations to try: with/without commas, with/without periods, with/without entity type, abbreviated entity types (LLC vs L.L.C.), and sometimes even different spacing. PA is just awful for this stuff.
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Seraphina Delan
•That checklist idea is brilliant. I'm definitely making one after going through this mess.
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Simon White
•I do the same thing. Have a whole spreadsheet of PA name variation patterns that have worked in the past.
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Hugo Kass
•The fact that we need checklists and spreadsheets just to search for UCC filings shows how broken the system is.
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