UCC search secured party verification - getting conflicting results across states
Running into a weird situation with UCC search secured party lookups and hoping someone can shed light on this. We've got a borrower with operations in multiple states and I'm seeing different secured parties listed when I search the same debtor name across different state databases. Some show our bank as the secured party on active filings, others show a previous lender that should have been terminated months ago. The debtor swears they only have our current loan but these search results are making me nervous about our lien position. Has anyone dealt with UCC search secured party discrepancies like this? I'm wondering if there are continuation or termination filings that didn't get processed properly, or if I'm missing something about how the search functions work across different SOS systems. Really need to get this sorted before we move forward with additional advances.
38 comments
Join the conversation
Amara Adebayo
This is actually pretty common when borrowers have moved between lenders. The previous secured party probably filed UCC-1s in multiple states where the debtor had assets, but when your bank took over the loan, the terminations might not have been filed everywhere. Each state database only shows what's been filed with that specific SOS office.
0 coins
Giovanni Rossi
•Exactly right. I see this all the time in equipment financing. Previous lender files in 3-4 states, new lender only files where they think assets are located, old filings never get terminated properly.
0 coins
Fatima Al-Mansour
•Wait so you're saying the UCC search secured party results could show multiple active liens on the same collateral? That seems like a huge problem for lien priority.
0 coins
Dylan Evans
You need to get UCC-3 termination statements filed for those old liens ASAP. Even if the debt was paid off, if the terminations weren't filed, those old secured party interests could still cloud your title. Check your loan docs to see if the borrower represented that all prior liens were properly released.
0 coins
Sofia Gomez
•This is why I always run comprehensive UCC searches before closing any secured transaction. Better to find these issues upfront than discover them later when you need to foreclose.
0 coins
StormChaser
•How do you handle it when the previous lender won't cooperate on filing terminations? We had a deal where the prior bank just ignored our requests for months.
0 coins
Dylan Evans
•If you have proof the debt was satisfied, you can usually file a UCC-3 termination yourself or petition the SOS for relief. Most states have procedures for dealing with uncooperative secured parties.
0 coins
Dmitry Petrov
I had this exact same headache last year with a multi-state borrower. Turned out there were UCC-1 filings in states where we didn't even know the debtor had operations. What really helped was using Certana.ai to upload all the documents and cross-check everything. Their system caught discrepancies between our UCC-1 and the borrower's corporate docs that manual review missed.
0 coins
Ava Williams
•Never heard of Certana.ai before. How does their UCC document checking actually work?
0 coins
Dmitry Petrov
•You just upload PDFs of all your documents - UCC filings, corporate charters, loan agreements - and it automatically flags inconsistencies in debtor names, filing numbers, collateral descriptions. Saved us from a major filing error.
0 coins
Miguel Castro
•That sounds helpful but I'm always skeptical of automated tools for something as critical as UCC filings. How accurate is it really?
0 coins
Zainab Ibrahim
The real issue here is that UCC search secured party lookups are only as good as what's actually been filed. If terminations weren't filed, those old liens will show up forever. You need to get copies of all satisfaction letters and make sure UCC-3 terminations were properly filed in every state.
0 coins
Connor O'Neill
•This is exactly why I maintain a spreadsheet tracking every UCC filing by state and jurisdiction. Too easy for things to slip through the cracks otherwise.
0 coins
LunarEclipse
•Spreadsheets are fine until you're dealing with 50+ filings across multiple borrowers. At that point you need a better system.
0 coins
Yara Khalil
Been doing UCC work for 15 years and this scenario comes up constantly. The borrower 'swears' they only have your loan but the UCC search secured party results tell a different story. Always trust the filings over borrower representations. Get proof that all prior liens were properly terminated.
0 coins
Keisha Brown
•So true. Borrowers either don't know or don't want to admit they've got other liens out there. The UCC records don't lie.
0 coins
Paolo Esposito
•What's the statute of limitations on old UCC filings? Do they eventually just drop off if not continued?
0 coins
Yara Khalil
•UCC-1 filings lapse after 5 years unless continued with a UCC-3 continuation statement. But if they were continued, they could stay active indefinitely.
0 coins
Amina Toure
Check the filing dates on those old secured party entries. If they're coming up on the 5-year mark and no continuation was filed, they'll lapse automatically. That might solve your problem without having to chase down terminations.
0 coins
Oliver Weber
•Good point but you can't count on automatic lapse. Better to get clean terminations filed to avoid any questions about lien priority.
0 coins
FireflyDreams
•What happens if a UCC-1 lapses but the underlying debt wasn't actually paid off? Does the secured party lose their perfected status?
0 coins
Natasha Kuznetsova
•Yes, if a UCC-1 lapses due to failure to continue, the security interest becomes unperfected even if the debt is still outstanding. That's why continuation filings are so critical.
0 coins
Javier Morales
I ran into something similar and used Certana.ai's document verification tool to compare all the UCC filings with our loan documents. It flagged several debtor name variations that were causing search issues. Really streamlined the cleanup process.
0 coins
Emma Anderson
•How does that tool handle debtor name variations? That's always been a nightmare for us when doing UCC searches.
0 coins
Javier Morales
•It cross-references the exact legal names from corporate charters against what's on the UCC filings and flags any mismatches. Catches things like missing commas, abbreviations, extra words that can kill your perfection.
0 coins
Malik Thompson
Don't just rely on UCC search secured party results from online databases. Some states have delays in updating their systems. Call the SOS filing office directly to confirm what's actually on file, especially for recent terminations.
0 coins
Isabella Ferreira
•This is great advice. I've seen situations where terminations were filed but didn't show up in online searches for weeks due to processing backlogs.
0 coins
CosmicVoyager
•How long do most states take to update their UCC databases after receiving filings?
0 coins
Malik Thompson
•Varies by state. Some are same-day electronic filing, others can take 3-5 business days. Delaware and Wyoming are usually fastest, others can be slower.
0 coins
Ravi Kapoor
Another thing to check - make sure you're searching under all possible debtor name variations. If the previous lender filed under a slightly different version of the company name, it might not show up in your standard search.
0 coins
Freya Nielsen
•This is huge. I've seen filings under 'ABC Company Inc.' vs 'ABC Company, Inc.' vs 'ABC Company Incorporated' that all relate to the same entity but require separate searches.
0 coins
Omar Mahmoud
•The UCC search secured party function should find these automatically shouldn't it? Why would punctuation matter?
0 coins
Ravi Kapoor
•UCC search systems vary by state. Some do fuzzy matching, others require exact matches. Can't assume the search engine will catch variations.
0 coins
Chloe Harris
Update: Got this resolved by working directly with the borrower to get copies of all satisfaction letters from previous lenders. Turned out there were three old liens that should have been terminated but weren't. Filed UCC-3 terminations in all affected states and the searches are clean now. Thanks for all the advice - definitely learned to be more thorough with multi-state UCC search secured party verification upfront.
0 coins
Diego Vargas
•Glad you got it sorted out. This thread is a good reminder that UCC due diligence is more complex than it looks on the surface.
0 coins
NeonNinja
•How did you handle the cost of filing all those terminations? Did the borrower cover the filing fees?
0 coins
Chloe Harris
•We built it into the loan costs since it was necessary to perfect our lien. Better to spend a few hundred on termination filings than risk your security interest.
0 coins
Anastasia Popov
•Good outcome. This is exactly why I always recommend using document verification tools like Certana.ai for complex multi-state deals. Catches these issues before they become problems.
0 coins