Business Liens Report

Overview

The Business Liens Report provides information about UCC Liens (aka UCC filings) for businesses in the US. The Report is currently in closed beta.

A UCC lien refers to a legal claim or interest on personal property that is filed under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), specifically UCC Article 9, which governs secured transactions in the United States. Essentially, a UCC lien is a type of security interest where a lender or creditor hold a claim over property owned by a borrower or debtor.

UCC liens are recorded within a state's Secretary of State office.

Common use-cases for this report.

• Risk assessment: This report helps customers understand the financial standing of a business. Having lots of UCC liens can provide negative signal about the financial standing of a business because it indicates that many of a business’s assets are up for claim by other businesses.
• Underwriting: When making loans to a business, it’s necessary to understand about the legal and financial obligations of a business, on top of general KYB.
• Due Diligence: In mergers, acquisitions, or investment scenarios, understanding existing UCC liens helps in assessing the true financial position of a business. It ensures that there are no undisclosed liabilities or claims that could affect the transaction or the company’s value.

Using the Business Liens Report

The Business Liens Report takes the Verified Business Record from the Business Registry Verification and then returns back overall lien count and details for each lien. Information returned back for each lien may include:

• Status of the lien: This can be open or closed, depending on the lien state.
• Document type:
  • original: this is the initial filing.
  • amendment: denotes a filing that changes the terms of a given outstanding lien.
  • continuation: UCC filings typically expire after 5 years. Before a filing expires, the creditor will often file a continuation to ensure that there is no lapse in the lien’s asset coverage.
  • termination: denotes that the original filing has now been terminated.
• Original filing details:
  • Like mentioned above, all lien filings will refer to an original filing. For original filings, this field will be the same as filing_reference
• Filing details: This includes the jurisdiction the lien was filed in, the original date, the filing reference, and the expiration date for the lien.
• Filing office: This gives information about the specific Secretary of State office the lien was filed in.
• Secured Parties: This refers to the organization that took out the original lien against the business.
• Debtor: This refers to the business that has liens taken out against it.
• Collateral: This refers to the collateral attached to the lien, which can include inventory, equipment, or other assets.

The Business Liens Report only covers UCC liens held by United States Secretary of State offices.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of liens does this report cover? This report covers UCC liens, which are held by the Secretary of State offices. Tax liens, which are held by the IRS and are placed by the federal government for unpaid taxes, are not covered yet by this report.