Uniform Commercial Code FAQs

Contents
Agistors Liens
Child Support Liens
Colorado Housing and Financing Authority
Federal/State Tax Liens
General Lien Questions
Harvesters Liens
Hospital Liens
Mechanics Liens
Orders of Restitution
Redaction of Tax Identification Numbers
Searching Records
Spurious/Fraudulent Liens
Stud Service Liens

Searching Records

Q1. What should I do to get the best results when searching UCC records?

A1. When specifying search criteria, the less information you specify, the more results you are likely to receive. If you add supplemental criteria (such as address information or county) then only filings with that exact combination of data will be returned. Due to the variety of ways that records have been filed in the past, you may find that even though you specify correct information, relevant records are not included in your search results. This may be true, for instance, when a debtor's address has changed since the time of an initial filing. We recommend entering only the name without further criteria.

Enter debtor names in a manner that will maximize results. For instance, searching on XYZ Incorporated will not reflect records filed under XYZ Inc. because “Inc.” is considered different than “Incorporated” for search purposes. This is yet another reason to search for shorter names because the shorter name will match any records starting with the name. If you search for records and get no results, try again using less specific criteria.

Filings entered on a particular day will not be searchable by name on the day of filing unless you use the "Exact Text" search option. Overnight processing will make the filings searchable via all options on the following day. A Reception ID search will include filings done the same day.

Q2. My search did not return any results. Why not?

A2. Although a lack of search results normally indicates no filings for that criteria, a lack of results may be due to specifying search criteria that is too specific. We have also found that a search will "timeout" after five minutes of processing and return the message “PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED.” If this happens, try changing your criteria slightly and search again. You may need to select the "Refresh" or "Reset" button on your browser prior to entering new search criteria.

Q3. Why does the UCC document I filed online not appear in a debtor name search?

A3. If an online filer does an Alpha search by debtor name on the same day that the filing was submitted, the debtor name will not appear in the search results. An Exact name search or a reception ID search must be performed to locate the filing. An overnight process will make the filing searchable via all options on the following day.

Q4. Why is a filing listed for the debtor name I searched yet I have viewed copies of all associated documents and I don’t see their name anywhere?

A4. The information that our office maintains has sometimes been passed through multiple databases from multiple offices. In a small number of situations a debtor has been indexed in one of those databases incorrectly. This situation rarely occurs, but if you encounter an error such as this, please notify our office immediately either by phone or e-mail.

Q5. Why are some images not available for viewing?

A5. Several factors may cause an image to not be available for viewing. One reason is that some documents were filed electronically when that option first became available and did not have images associated with the filing information. This is a result of inconsistent practices in the early stages of electronic filing.

Another reason is that the documents may have been filed in different counties. Prior to January 1, 2000 UCC filings could be recorded at any county office in Colorado. When the records were added to the Secretary of State’s database, some documents were missed in the transition. You will need to contact the county where the statement was filed to obtain a copy of the document. Some counties did not provide us with copies of all of the images. If you have a good copy, please fax or mail it to us with an explanation and we will include it in our image database.

Q6. The application seems to have locked up. Why? How can I fix it?

A6. In some instances the application appears to lock up if you press your browser's Stop or Back button because the links will no longer activate. If this happens, press your browser's Refresh button to reactivate the links. Whenever possible, use the navigation buttons on the individual Web pages rather than your browser's Back button.

Also, if your browser times out (takes more than 5 minutes to return data) on a search, you must click the Refresh or Reset button on your browser. Doing so will reset the links on the Web page and allow you to continue your search.

Q7. Why can’t I exclude terminated and lapsed filings when I do a search?

A7. Our office previously allowed this type of search filter but it has since been removed due to the risk that the system could return potentially inaccurate data.

One reason for the possible inaccuracies is that some types of UCCs do not have lapse dates, such as Federal Tax Liens, Transmitting Utilities, Hospital Liens, Child Support Liens, and Agistor’s Liens.

A second example is the interpretation of section 4-9-412, C.R.S. of 1996 pertaining to the mandatory re-filing period, which applies to filings that may or may not have had continuations filed prior to the 1996-1997 continuation period. (More information may be found in section 4-9-528, C.R.S.) For example, if a UCC was originally filed in 1990 (lapse date in 1995), with a continuation filed in 1995 and then a 1996-1997 mandatory continuation also filed at the county level, the Secretary of State’s system would assume that the filing had lapsed. The continuation that was filed at the county level may not be included in our database; therefore, the information contained in the Secretary of State’s system would be misleading. Consequently, excluding lapsed filings may return misleading information because there is a potential that these UCC filings might be omitted from the search results.

The position of the Secretary of State’s office is to give our constituents as much information as we can provide and enable the constituent to determine what information is important to their specific objectives. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Q8. What types of liens may be e-filed?

A8. UCC-1 and UCC-3 financing statements, effective financing statements, and agricultural liens may be e-filed. Also, amendments adding, deleting or changing a debtor or secured party and continuations may be e-filed. Collateral may also be added, deleted, or restated electronically.

Other non-UCC liens and “in lieu of” filings may be filed. Examples of non-UCC liens are harvester’s liens and agistor’s liens.

Q9. How can I tell if my electronic filing went through?

A9. To check the status of any submitted filings:

From the UCC home page, click on "eFile".
Log into your account by entering your User Name and Password.
Select “My Account”.
Select “Get Status on Submitted Filings”.

A list of all submitted filings from the past 30 days will appear. This list shows the filing date, debtor name, filing status, reception number and filing details. The details can be used to print a copy of the filing.

Our office tries to clean out your filing history once a month. When a filing is thirty (30) or more days old, it will be removed from the filing history. We do this to reduce the amount of time it takes our system to load your status page, making our site faster and easier to use.

Q10. Why does the status of my filing say “validated” or “pending” and not “accepted”?

A10. Once you go through the payment part of the e-filing process and select “Pay Now,” your credit card information is routed through three (3) sources: our office, our office’s financial institution (to verify funds), and your credit card company. If any one of these three sources has a busy server, your filing will go into a “Pending” status. Our office will periodically attempt to reconnect with these outside sources throughout a 24-hour period. If your filing is in a “Pending” status, do not resubmit the filing. Within 24 hours, the filing should be processed and should show an “Accepted” status.

An “Accepted” status means that the filing has been submitted and is on record. You will have a Filing ID number for accepted filings. A “Rejected” status means the information has not been filed. A “Validated” status means that the filing is acceptable and will be filed after being submitted. You will be charged for accepted filings only.

You may edit, if necessary, and resubmit a validated or rejected filing by choosing “Import” from the filing status page. After choosing to import, you will likely receive a message that you have a filing in progress. Choose “Discard changes and import the filing.” You will then be able to submit the filing using a credit card or prepaid account.

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Q11. When e-filing an amendment, the system asks for the original filing “county code.” Is that necessary, since the Secretary of State’s office is the central filing office?

A11. Yes, you do need to list the original county code and reference the original county filing number when amending a filing that was first filed in a county. Since Revised Article 9 has taken effect, our office has obtained all UCC records from each county in Colorado, and now those county UCC filings can be amended in our office. Some of the transferred filings have the same filing numbers, so the filing number and county code is necessary to associate an amendment with the correct original filing. You can obtain a complete list of all county codes by selecting “UCC and EFS forms” under the SECURED TRANSACTIONS INFORMATION column in the Business Division, and choosing the “County Codes” listing.

Q12. What types of UCC and EFS searches are offered?

A12. Anyone with a password can perform searches and print copies of financing statements on our website for free.

In addition to the online search feature, a certified search may be requested. A certified search request is still processed using the online search feature, but a certificate indicating the results of the search and all of the statements on file, is included. Certified copies of specific financing statements may also be requested. Check the fee schedule in the Business Division for certified search request fees.

Requests for certified searches will only be processed on the exact information given in the request. Variances in names will not be searched. As an example, a search request for a debtor name of "Robert Smith" will not return results for the nicknames "Bob" or "Rob.” Also, entity name terms and some phrases, such as “Inc,” “LLC,” or “a Colorado Corporation,” are disregarded. Before requesting a certified search, it may be to the requestor's advantage to do a search on all variations of the name to ensure that results received from our office are what is needed by the requesting party.

Q13. How do I enter basic search information?

A13. Searches may be done in four possible ways: by Reception ID (same as a filing ID number), debtor name, secured party name, or assignee name. Choosing one of these options takes the searcher to the respective search form. The search results can be filtered based upon other pieces of information; however, searches are always initiated by choosing one of these four methods.

Each search type operates in a similar manner. You may specify basic search criteria at the top of the form, specify further search criteria below, and refine your search by including/excluding certain data. Always keep in mind that the more criteria you use for the search, the more you are limiting the search results. Often, simply entering a partial or whole business name or the reception ID gives you the best set of results without unnecessarily restricting the records you might wish to view.

When you have completed the search criteria, select the Search button. One or more pages of results will display if matching records are found.

Q14. There are several options listed for requesting a search. What does each option do?

A14. Name search criteria

There are several Search Type options:

ALPHA: A “less is more” search. The less information you enter into the search, the more results you will receive. This is the default search type.

PHONETIC: The search results are based on how a word sounds. This type of search may be helpful if you do not know the exact spelling of a name.

ALPHA & PHONETIC: Combination of alpha and phonetic search. This type of search will provide the broadest set of search results.

EXACT: Search results will only include the exact name that is submitted.

TEXT: Allows the use of a wildcard (*). For example, a search for *Freight* will return results that include Air Freight Services Inc, American Continental Freight, and other names with “Freight” somewhere in the name.

A search using any of the above options may be done for a business name or an individual name.

Demographic search criteria

A search may be narrowed to return results specific to an address, city, state, zip code, and/or county. Using these fields may cause you to receive an incomplete set of results. For instance, if XYZ Company has moved since the time of an initial filing, that filing may not appear if you limit your results only to their new address. Also, differences in how an address was submitted and data entered could lead to incomplete search results.

Do not search using only demographic criteria. It is highly recommended demographic criteria be used only with a business or individual’s name.

Refine your search

A search may be refined to only include results from a particular date forward. You may also limit the search results to particular collateral types. However, collateral information is only entered for EFS records. This may be helpful when searching for effective financing statements covering farm products. To choose more than one collateral type, hold down your Control key as you click on the collateral. Other collateral information will be found on the image of the filing and will not be available for searching.

Do not search by only date and/or collateral code. Again, it is highly recommended that the “refine” criteria be used only to narrow a search in conjunction with a business or individual’s name.

Unless you are very familiar with the results of a search, it is highly recommended that none of the search filters be used.

If you encounter a shopping cart while searching, please disregard that option and log out and log back in before continuing to search.

A search using only a business or individual’s name will provide the broadest results.

Secured party searches sometimes include too many results to process and will cause the session to time out. If you encounter this problem, you may need to refine your search criteria. If you are searching by a bank’s name with multiple branches, it may be advantageous to search by particular branches using information such as bank name and address.

Search by reception ID

Type in the reception ID as it shows on the filed copy of the financing statement. For example, a financing statement filed in Arapahoe County may have a capital 'A' at the beginning of the reception number. Include the “A” in the number when searching. If no match is found, retry the search without the “A.” Secretary of State filings begin with the year the statement was filed followed by the number “2” and then 6 additional digits.

In the Refine Your Search box, you may include a date and/or county in association with the reception number.

Q15. I searched for the debtor name of an individual, but the results did not produce any information. Why?

A15. Forms used to request information without using the required fields asking for specific data per specific box as is now required. Consequently, transferring data from one format into another was problematic. It was deemed safer to put questionable names into the business name field. For example, a name such as Davis Thomas is not clear as to which is the correct last name of the individual.

An individual’s name should be searched as an individual and as a business name to obtain the most accurate search results when including older documents. If you encounter this issue, please contact the Secretary of State’s office so that the name may be corrected.

Q16. How do I get more detailed information now that I have a list of search results?

A16. When the search results page is displayed, a variety of information such as filing number, filing office, filing type and date of filing will show for each record.

To view the information for a single record:

Select the name or filing number for the record
The Filing Results page will appear for the record
Select the filing ID number to view the filing details. Alternatively, you may select the document icon to view any associated images.

To view filings for multiple records:

Select the box in the Group Select column.
You may de-select those records you do not wish to view. Select “Group Select” to mark the box for all of the records in your search results.
Then, select the "View Group Selected Filings" link under the State Seal to display a Group Selected Results page.
You will then have the option to either View Images or View Report.

The “View images” and “View report” options will allow you to view collateral information, and determine if a continuation or a termination has been filed or if a record has lapsed.

Q17. What does “View Images” show me?

A17. This selection will return all images of documents associated with the Group Selected Filings. You also have the option of viewing and printing a print friendly image one page at a time or viewing and printing all images associated with the filing as a PDF document. Both of these options open the document in a new window. Close the window to return to the results page. Note that in many cases the only way to see collateral described in a filing is to view the actual document image.

Q18. What does “View Report” show me?

A18. The report is a list of all of the filings you have selected. Each record in the report indicates the original filing ID number, filing office, filing date and lapse date. The record then lists all of the debtors and secured parties associated with each filing. Any amendments, such as continuations or terminations, associated with the original financing statement will be listed under the debtor and secured party information. Collateral information is not displayed in the report. Select the Back button on your browser to return to the previous page.

Q19. How do I start a new search?

A19. Select “Search UCC Database” at any time to start a new search.

All of the records you group select through multiple searches will be stored in the Group Selected Results. Click on “Group Select” twice to de-select the boxes next to the list of filings and begin a new search. Then select “Search UCC Database.” Do not de-select the group filings if you wish to include previous search results in your next search report.

You may also log out of the search site and log back in to clear your search history.

Q20. Why would I want to include previous search results in my new search?

A20. Including results from a previous search with a new search enables you to get a more complete listing on all possible debtor names. An example would be if you would like to include all records for William "Bill" Smith in your search. After you complete your search of “William Smith” and select the filings you wish to view, select "View Group Selected Filings”. This will take you to the "Group Selected Results" page. You may select the "Search UCC Database" link. You may then search for "Bill Smith" and, after selecting the results you wish to view, select "View Group Selected Filings" again. This will bring you back to the Group Selected Results screen and both the records from “William Smith” and “Bill Smith” will be displayed. In this manner, you may also add together other debtor names, such as husband and wife, co-owners, or other groups.

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