DiligenceLegal
UCC Search
Also known as: UCC filing search, lien search, public records search
A public records search that reveals every loan, lien, and security interest filed against the business. Run by every buyer in week one of diligence to verify the seller's debt disclosure.
WHY IT MATTERS
A UCC search is a public records check that pulls every loan, lien, and security interest filed against the company. Buyers run it in the first week of diligence. It costs a few hundred dollars and returns a complete picture of every creditor who has a recorded claim on the business's assets. The UCC search is the buyer's independent verification of the seller's debt disclosure. When the two match, credibility is intact. When the UCC search surfaces items the seller didn't disclose — credit cards, equipment financing, old liens never released — the credibility hit changes how every subsequent disclosure gets treated. The amounts are often small. The signal is not.