washington secretary of state ucc search showing weird results - debtor name issues?

That might be part of it. Some of our older filings were done when the company names had slightly different formats. Like one debtor changed from 'ABC Corp.' to 'ABC Corporation' but we never amended the UCC-1. Would that cause search issues?

Absolutely. The search algorithms are pretty literal. If the legal name changed but you didn't file a UCC-3 amendment, you'd need to search under both the old and new names to find all your filings.

Good point about continuations. I should probably pull a full list of our filing dates to see which ones might be approaching the 5-year mark.

Yeah definitely check those dates. I've seen lenders lose their security interest because they missed continuation deadlines by just a few days.

Interesting, never heard of that service. How accurate is it compared to manual searches?

Pretty solid - it caught several name discrepancies in our portfolio that we would have missed doing manual searches. Saves a lot of time too since it processes multiple documents at once.

I'm always skeptical of automated tools for this stuff but if it's catching real problems that manual review misses, might be worth looking into.

I feel your pain. The inconsistency is maddening, especially when you're trying to do comprehensive searches across multiple entities.

Exactly! And don't even get me started on how they handle subsidiary relationships and parent company cross-references.

That's a great point. I should be pulling the full filing history for each UCC-1, not just confirming they exist.

Right, and pay special attention to any partial releases or amendments that might have reduced your collateral coverage.

Also worth checking if any termination statements were filed that you weren't expecting. I've seen cases where junior lenders accidentally terminated senior liens.

I didn't think about calling them. Do they charge fees for phone assistance with searches?

They might for extensive searches, but for a few problem cases they're usually pretty helpful. Worth a try before you spend more time struggling with the system.

How long did that amendment process take? We're under a tight timeline for our review.

Most amendments processed within a week, but you'll want to budget extra time in case any get rejected for errors. The WA system is pretty good about processing times compared to some other states.

Just make sure you're using the current versions of the UCC-3 forms. Washington updated their forms last year and won't accept the old versions anymore.

That's clever, I'll try that approach for the ones that aren't showing up.

Yeah, partial searches can be really helpful. Just be prepared to sift through more results to find what you're looking for.

Oh wow, that's a scary thought. I assumed our outside counsel would have caught any rejections, but I should probably verify that with them.

Definitely worth double-checking. I've seen situations where filing confirmations got lost in email or weren't properly communicated back to the lender.

This is another reason why having a systematic document verification process is so important. Too easy for things to slip through the cracks otherwise.

That sounds like exactly what I need. Does it work with Washington state filings specifically?

Yeah, it handles filings from all states. The PDF upload feature makes it really easy to batch process everything at once rather than doing individual searches.