California UCC Lien Search - Debtors, Secured Parties & Collateral

Search the official California Secretary of State UCC filing index (bizfileOnline) by debtor or secured-party name and get clean, structured JSON: file number, UCC type, status, filing date, lapse date, all debtors and all secured parties. No API key needed.

UCC-1 financing statements are how lenders publicly stake a claim on a business's assets. A live UCC filing tells you a company already has secured debt against its equipment, inventory or receivables - essential signal for credit risk, KYB, collateral and M&A due diligence. There is no open public API for the California UCC index, and other tools make you register for and supply your own API key. This actor is the API - and you don't bring your own key.

Why this actor

bizfileOnline is protected by Imperva with a CAPTCHA challenge, so most "UCC" tools on the market either force you to supply your own CAPTCHA-solver or state API key or cover only one narrow state. This actor handles the anti-bot and access for you - send a name and get every matching California UCC filing back, with all debtors and secured parties parsed out.

No key, no setup

The Imperva bypass runs on our infrastructure and is included in the price. No API key, no CAPTCHA, no proxy to configure. Just send a search term.

Pairs with our company & UBO actors (the full due-diligence flow)

This actor is the debtor / secured-debt check half of a KYB workflow. Chain it with the identity half:

1. California SoS Business Scraper - confirm the entity exists, its status, standing and registered agent.
2. This actor - screen the same business name against California's UCC lien filings for existing secured debt.

The same pattern powers our EU suite: Poland CRBR Beneficial Owners / KRS Board Members to source the people and companies, then Poland KRZ Debtor Registry to screen them for insolvency. Source the party, then check the party.

Quick Start

Click Try it and search by a debtor (or secured-party) name:

{
  "searchQueries": ["IN-N-OUT BURGERS"]
}

Screen several counterparties at once, keeping only active liens:

{
  "searchQueries": ["Acme Trucking LLC", "Sunrise Farms Inc"],
  "activeOnly": true
}

Input

Field	Type	Description
searchQueries	array	Debtor or secured-party names. Contains-match across both debtor and secured-party names. Use a full, specific name - a term matching more than 1,000 filings is rejected by the registry.
activeOnly	boolean	Keep only Active filings (drop Lapsed / terminated). Default false.
filedFrom	string	Keep only filings on/after this date (YYYY-MM-DD).
filedTo	string	Keep only filings on/before this date (YYYY-MM-DD).
maxResultsPerQuery	integer	Cap per query after filtering (default 50; 0 = no limit, up to the registry's 1,000 cap).

Output

One dataset item per UCC filing:

{
  "filingNumber": "U220205120011",
  "uccType": "UCC",
  "status": "Active",
  "filingDate": "06/24/2022",
  "lapseDate": "06/24/2027",
  "debtors": ["CHASE DELANO, LP - GLENDALE, CA"],
  "securedParties": ["IN-N-OUT BURGERS - BALDWIN PARK, CA"],
  "debtor": "CHASE DELANO, LP - GLENDALE, CA",
  "securedParty": "IN-N-OUT BURGERS - BALDWIN PARK, CA",
  "bizfileId": 7042477,
  "jurisdiction": "California, USA",
  "source": "California SoS UCC filings (bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov)",
  "sourceUrl": "https://bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/ucc",
  "searchQuery": "IN-N-OUT BURGERS",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-02T00:00:00.000Z"
}

debtors and securedParties are arrays because a single UCC filing can name several of each; debtor and securedParty are the same values joined for easy table display.

Common use cases

• Credit risk & lending - see whether a business already has secured debt (equipment, inventory, receivables) before extending credit; find the incumbent lenders.
• KYB / due diligence - screen a counterparty (or the officers / UBOs surfaced by our registry actors) against California's secured-debt filings.
• Collateral & M&A - identify liens on a target's assets and who holds them.
• Lender & MCA lead generation - find businesses taking on secured financing, and the secured parties competing for them.

Data source & compliance

• Source: the official California Secretary of State bizfileOnline UCC index (bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/ucc). Every record is stamped with its source URL and retrieval timestamp.
• Public records. California UCC filings are a public record open to anyone. This actor reads the open public search; it does not log in or bypass any paywall.
• Query-driven - it looks up the names you ask for, not a bulk copy of the register.
• Scraping public US filings is well-established (public records; post-Van Buren / hiQ v. LinkedIn). Use the data lawfully (KYB, credit risk, collateral due diligence, B2B) and gently. Not a consumer report - do not use for FCRA-governed decisions.

Notes

• The registry caps a search at 1,000 matches - a term that is too broad is reported back so you can refine it with a fuller debtor name.
• The free Apify plan returns a small preview; upgrade to a paid plan for full, uncapped results.