secretary of state colorado ucc search showing weird results - need help
So I'm trying to do a secretary of state colorado ucc search on our borrower and the results are all over the place. Some filings show up under one version of the company name but not another, even though they should be the same entity. I've tried searching by filing number directly and that works fine, but when I search by debtor name I'm getting inconsistent results. Has anyone else noticed issues with the Colorado SOS UCC search portal lately? I need to make sure I'm seeing all active liens before we move forward with this deal. The company has had some name changes over the years so I'm worried I'm missing something important.
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Harmony Love
Yeah the Colorado portal can be tricky with name variations. Are you searching exact match or using wildcards? Sometimes you need to try different combinations of the business name.
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McKenzie Shade
•I tried both exact and wildcard searches. The issue is some UCC-1s show up under 'ABC Manufacturing Inc' but others only appear when I search 'ABC Manufacturing Incorporated' - shouldn't these pull the same results?
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Harmony Love
•That's exactly the problem with debtor name matching. The system is very literal about what you type in.
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Rudy Cenizo
This is super common with UCC searches unfortunately. The debtor name field has to match exactly how it was entered on the original filing. If someone filed under the full 'Incorporated' and you search 'Inc' you might miss it entirely.
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McKenzie Shade
•That's terrifying from a due diligence perspective. How do you make sure you're not missing any filings?
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Rudy Cenizo
•You basically have to try every possible variation of the name. It's tedious but necessary for complete coverage.
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Natalie Khan
•This is why I always recommend running searches on multiple name formats before closing any deal.
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Daryl Bright
Had this exact issue last month. Turned out there were active UCC-1 filings under three different name variations for the same company. Almost missed a critical lien because of it. I ended up using Certana.ai's document verification tool - you can upload your search results and it cross-checks everything to make sure you haven't missed any name variations or filing inconsistencies.
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McKenzie Shade
•Never heard of Certana.ai - does it actually help with UCC searches or just document review?
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Daryl Bright
•Both actually. You upload your UCC search results as PDFs and it flags potential name mismatches or missing variations you should search for. Saved me from a major headache.
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Sienna Gomez
•Interesting, might have to check that out. Manual name variation searches are such a pain.
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Kirsuktow DarkBlade
OMG yes the Colorado SOS system is so frustrating!! I spent hours last week trying to find all the UCC filings for a client and kept getting different results depending on how I typed the name. Why can't they just make it work like Google where it figures out what you mean?
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Rudy Cenizo
•Because UCC law requires exact debtor name matching. It's actually a feature not a bug, even though it's annoying.
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Kirsuktow DarkBlade
•Well it's a terrible feature then! I almost missed an important continuation filing because of it.
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Abigail bergen
•The exact matching is to prevent false positives, but yeah it definitely creates problems for comprehensive searches.
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Ahooker-Equator
Pro tip: always check the 'additional debtor names' section on existing UCC-1s you find. Sometimes secured parties list multiple name variations there which can give you clues for additional searches.
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McKenzie Shade
•Good point, I didn't think to look at that section. Do you run separate searches for each additional name listed?
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Ahooker-Equator
•Absolutely. Each additional debtor name should be searched separately to make sure you're getting complete coverage.
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Anderson Prospero
This is why I hate doing UCC due diligence. The search systems are stuck in the stone age and you never know if you're getting everything.
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Tyrone Hill
•Tell me about it. I've started keeping a checklist of all the name variations I need to try for each search.
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Anderson Prospero
•Smart approach. I should probably do the same instead of just winging it every time.
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Toot-n-Mighty
Have you tried searching by filing number if you have any reference numbers from other documents? That's usually more reliable than name searches.
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McKenzie Shade
•Yeah, when I have the filing numbers the searches work perfectly. The problem is finding all the filings in the first place when I only have the company name.
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Toot-n-Mighty
•Right, that's the catch-22. You need the filing number to get reliable results, but you need to search by name to find the filing numbers.
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Lena Kowalski
•This is exactly why the whole system needs an overhaul. It's way too easy to miss critical filings.
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DeShawn Washington
I ran into this same issue with a Colorado UCC search last year. Ended up finding filings under the company's DBA name that didn't show up in the corporate name search. Make sure you're also searching any 'doing business as' names the company might use.
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McKenzie Shade
•Oh good point about DBA names. I didn't even think about that. This is getting complicated fast.
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DeShawn Washington
•Yeah, UCC due diligence is definitely more complex than people realize. You really have to be thorough with the name variations.
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Mei-Ling Chen
Another thing to watch out for - sometimes the secured party enters the debtor name wrong on the original UCC-1 filing. So even if you search the correct legal name, you might miss filings where there's a typo or abbreviation.
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McKenzie Shade
•How are you supposed to find those? You can't search for every possible misspelling.
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Mei-Ling Chen
•True, that's one of the limitations of the current system. Sometimes you just have to hope the filing party got it right.
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Daryl Bright
•This is another area where Certana.ai's verification tool helps - it can flag potential name inconsistencies between different documents that might indicate typos or variations.
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Sofía Rodríguez
Just to add to the confusion - make sure you're also checking for any merged or acquired entities. If the company has been through M&A activity, there might be UCC filings under the old entity names that are still active.
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McKenzie Shade
•This is getting overwhelming. Is there any comprehensive guide for doing thorough UCC searches?
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Sofía Rodríguez
•Not really, most of it you learn through experience and making mistakes unfortunately.
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Ahooker-Equator
•The key is being systematic about it. Make a list of every possible name variation and search each one methodically.
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Aiden O'Connor
I've been doing UCC searches for years and Colorado is definitely one of the more challenging states. The search interface isn't very intuitive and the exact name matching catches people off guard.
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McKenzie Shade
•Any other Colorado-specific quirks I should know about?
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Aiden O'Connor
•Watch out for continuation filings - sometimes they show up separately from the original UCC-1 in the search results, so you need to trace the filing history carefully.
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Zoe Papadopoulos
•Good point about continuations. I've seen cases where the continuation was filed under a slightly different debtor name than the original UCC-1.
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