UCC Lien Search by Debtor Name — 19 Official State Sources

Search official state UCC registries by organization (business) debtor name and get back one normalized feed of lien records from nineteen official state sources: AR, CO, CT, FL, IA, ID, KY, ME, MI, MS, MT, NE, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, RI, WI. Built for lenders, equipment lessors, and factoring companies doing pre-lending due diligence: before you extend credit, see who already holds a security interest in the debtor's assets — secured party, filing number and type, filing and lapse dates, status, and collateral where the state publishes it.

Organization-debtor search only (no individual/person search — by design). No API keys, no logins, no CAPTCHA bypass — every record comes from an official state source and carries a sourceUrl and retrievedAt timestamp so you can verify it yourself.

What you get per lien record

Field	Description
state	Two-letter state code the record came from
debtorName	Debtor organization name as filed (where the state publishes it)
debtorAddress	Debtor address, where published
securedParty	Secured party name(s) — multiple parties joined with ;
securedPartyAddress	Secured party address, where published
filingNumber	The state's own filing number (unique per record)
filingType	Normalized short label: UCC-1, UCC-3, Amendment, Continuation, Termination, or the state's own lien label (e.g. IRS Tax Lien, EFS)
filingDate	Filing date, ISO YYYY-MM-DD
lapseDate	Lapse date, ISO YYYY-MM-DD (or null)
status	Active / Lapsed / Terminated, as derivable from published facts
collateral	Collateral description where the state machine-publishes it (CO, KY, OR farm filings, RI post-2010 filings); null elsewhere — never guessed
sourceUrl	Link back to the official state source
retrievedAt	When this record was fetched (ISO 8601)

Fields a state does not publish are null, never guessed.

Input

• debtorName (required) — the ORGANIZATION debtor name to search. Use the business's full legal name for best results (several states match begins-with or exact, see the per-state table).
• states — any of AR, CO, CT, FL, IA, ID, KY, ME, MI, MS, MT, NE, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, RI, WI. Omit for all nineteen.
• maxResultsPerState — cap per state (default 50, max 500). Several states fetch one detail page per record, so this also bounds runtime and politeness load.
• exactMatch — post-filter to debtor names containing the full query string (useful where a state's matching is loose).

Input example

{
  "debtorName": "ACME MANUFACTURING",
  "states": ["NY", "FL", "CT", "CO"],
  "maxResultsPerState": 50,
  "exactMatch": false
}

Per-state sources, stated honestly

Every state publishes different fields, on a different cadence, with different matching rules. We'd rather tell you a source's limits up front than let you find out from a missed lien.

State	Source	Matching	Honest caveats
Arkansas	BCS UCC public JSON API (bcs.sos.arkansas.gov)	Contains (min 2 chars)	Free search rows only: secured party + city/state published. Collateral, street addresses, and full party detail are behind the paid certified UCC-11 → null. Client-side organization-only privacy filter drops any matched row whose debtor reads as an individual. Server caps 100 rows, no paging. Dedup by filing number keeps the initial financing statement so filingDate reflects lien origination.
Colorado	CDOS open data (data.colorado.gov, 4 official datasets)	Substring	Richest record — secured party + collateral text on most records. Daily refresh, ~1–2 day lag. Includes IRS/hospital/EFS/statutory liens. One record per filed document naming the debtor; lineage lapse/termination is reflected in status/lapseDate.
Connecticut	SOTS official UCC dataset (data.ct.gov)	Substring	Updated daily. Scope: active liens + <1 year past lapse — long-lapsed history absent. Collateral not published. Also carries vessel/aircraft/IRS/municipal lien types (labeled).
Florida	FL UCC registry public API (floridaucc.com)	Prefix	Full parties + addresses. Collateral lives only in the filing-image PDF → null. ~5-day processing lag. Debtor index lists UCC-1s; later amendments are not separate records.
Idaho	SOSBiz UCC API (sosbiz.idaho.gov)	Whole-leading-word prefix	Free preliminary list publishes secured party + debtor city/state. Collateral and full street addresses are behind the paid Access Idaho premium product → null. Whole-word prefix match (not a substring search); very broad single-token queries are truncated by the source's own anti-abuse gate. Out-of-state-registered orgs correctly return 0 (Revised Article 9).
Iowa	IA SoS filings portal JSON (filings.sos.iowa.gov)	Starts-with	Full parties, normalized filing types, termination detection. Collateral PDF-only → null. Weekly "current as of" cutoff (~few days lag).
Kentucky	KY SoS UCC search (web.sos.ky.gov)	Prefix	Collateral text published (verbatim). Scope: active filings (+ <1 yr past lapse) only. Records current through ~2 weeks prior.
Maine	Bureau of Corporations "Unofficial Debtor Name Search" (apps1.web.maine.gov)	Contains (case-insensitive)	Names-only index. The free search returns only a single-column list of organization debtor names (filings active or lapsed within the past year) — it confirms an org has UCC filings on record but publishes no detail. securedParty, filingNumber, filingDate, lapseDate, status, collateral, and addresses are all null (the paid official search is never touched). Deduped by org name; hard-capped at 50 names, no pagination.
Michigan	MI UCC portal API (ucc.michigan.gov)	Exact full legal name	Thin free layer: filing number, date, lapse date, status only — secured party/addresses/collateral are in the paid UCC-11 product → null. Scope: active + lapsed <1 yr. Use the debtor's exact legal name.
Mississippi	SOS STAR business portal, "UCC Public Search" (business.sos.ms.gov)	RA9 normalized starts-with	Free public search plus a free per-filing filing-chain fetch for the secured party. Collateral is not in the free view (image-only) → null. status is derived from the filing chain (Terminated / Lapsed / Active). securedParty is the original UCC-1 secured party of record. Organization-debtor only — never enumerates individual co-debtors.
Montana	SOS Liens Search API (biz.sosmt.gov)	Contains	Free public search returns the full debtor hit list (certified copies/UCC-11 out of scope). A positive organization allowlist emits only entity debtors — individuals and suffix-less person-named businesses are dropped (zero-individual guarantee). Only city + state per party (no street). 100-row cap, no pagination. filingType is MT's own category label (UCC / EFS / Title 71). Primary debtor only.
Nebraska	NE lien search API (business.nebraska.gov)	Substring (primary debtor)	Free non-certified search. Secured party + city published; street addresses/collateral null. Server caps one response at 100 rows. Liens where the searched org is a non-primary co-debtor are not returned.
New Jersey	DORES non-certified search (njportal.com)	Begins-with	Free layer publishes debtor name/city, filing number, status, filing date ONLY — secured party, lapse date, and collateral are behind the state's paid $6 status report → null. ~2-business-day lag.
New Mexico	SOS Enterprise UCC public JSON API (enterprise.sos.nm.gov)	Contains (case-insensitive)	Same vendor platform as Arkansas. Free search rows publish secured party + city/state only; collateral, street addresses, and full party detail are behind the paid certified UCC-11 → null. Client-side organization-only privacy filter drops individual-debtor matches. Server caps 100 rows, no paging.
New York	DOS UCC e-filing portal (ucc-efiling.dos.ny.gov)	Begins-with (min 3 chars)	Current same-day. Full parties via per-lien detail fetch (slower on big result sets). Collateral not published → null.
Ohio	SOS "UCC Online" JSON API (ucc.ohiosos.gov)	Exact (RA9 normalized name)	Free index publishes debtor + secured-party names only — addresses and collateral live in the paid certified-copy product → null. No Active/Lapsed status string is published, so status is null (deriving it from a lapse date alone would be a guess). filingType passes Ohio's own event label through as filed (Original, Amendment, Continuation, Termination, Assignment). Feed the full normalized legal name.
Oregon	OR SoS open data (data.oregon.gov, 3 datasets)	Substring	Scope caveat: last-calendar-month UCC/EFS/IRS filings (refreshed monthly, up to ~6-week lag) plus all currently-effective farm-product liens (full history for farm debtors, collateral included). Full historical non-farm search is behind a challenge-walled UI → not covered.
Rhode Island	RI Dept. of State Business Services UCC Search (business.sos.ri.gov)	Begins-with	Grid + a per-filing history fetch enrich secured party, debtor street address, and Collateral Information text where published (post-2010 filings; older filings keep collateral in scanned PDFs → null). lapseDate and status are not published by RI → null (honest). Includes lapsed/historical filings. One extra polite request per returned record.
Wisconsin	WI DFI WiMS API (wims.dfi.wi.gov)	Contains	Secured party published; addresses/collateral not in the free summary → null. Current registry data.

Not covered & why

We never bypass CAPTCHAs, bot challenges, logins, or paywalls. A state moves into coverage only when an official free public route exists. States we probed and cannot serve without crossing that line:

State	Why not covered
AK	CAPTCHA/WAF — DataDome bot-defense + F5 BIG-IP
AZ	CAPTCHA/WAF — Cloudflare managed-JS challenge / Turnstile
CA	WAF — Imperva/Incapsula managed-JS challenge
DC	Login required
DE	No public search / paid (authorized-searcher-only)
GA	Login required (GSCCCA account)
HI	WAF/managed-JS — Salesforce Lightning Aura SPA behind Akamai
IL	Bot-wall — Akamai Bot Manager
IN	CAPTCHA-keyed search form
KS	Paid + login (no free org-name search tier)
LA	Paid + login / no central SoS search (parish model)
MA	WAF — Imperva Incapsula managed-JS challenge
MN	Paid (login + per-lookup fee)
MO	Login required
NC	CAPTCHA/WAF — Cloudflare managed challenge
ND	CAPTCHA (public search) + login (no-captcha option) + paid (certified)
NH	No public online search
NV	Login required
PA	CAPTCHA/WAF — Cloudflare managed-JS challenge
SC	Paid (per-search paywall, card required)
SD	Login required (pre-paid account)
TN	CAPTCHA — Cloudflare Turnstile on the search action
TX	Login + paid — SOSDirect subscriber portal (no Socrata dataset)
UT	WAF/managed-JS — Cloudflare Bot Management
VA	CAPTCHA — Google reCAPTCHA v3 (server-verified)
WA	CAPTCHA — Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise (server-verified)
WV	CAPTCHA — Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise (IP-reputation gated)
WY	Login required

Remaining states (AL, MD, OK, VT) are not yet integrated.

Typical uses

• Pre-lending / pre-lease due diligence: search a prospective borrower or lessee before filing your own UCC-1 — see existing secured parties and whether a blanket lien is already in place.
• Factoring onboarding: check a new client's receivables for prior security interests across the states they operate in.
• Portfolio monitoring: re-run your debtor list on a schedule and diff filing numbers to catch new liens.
• Asset research / competitive intel: see which finance companies are active against a company's equipment.

Companion actors

• Look up / verify any company (KYB) — the registry record behind a debtor, or any US company by name across official sources: Secretary of State Business Entity Search (KYB) (28 states, official-data-only).
• Brand-new business registrations as a lead feed: New Business Leads by State (16 official state sources).
• Sanctions screening — KYC/AML-check the same name against the official U.S. Treasury OFAC SDN list: OFAC Sanctions Screening.
• Federal contracts & grants — see a company's government revenue: Federal Awards Lookup.

Pricing

Pay-per-event: a small per-run start fee plus a per-result charge. You only pay for lien records actually returned. No subscription, no minimum.

For AI agents (MCP)

Built for agentic use: a clean, described input schema and a normalized output schema with per-record source URLs. Discoverable and callable through the Apify MCP server and pay-per-event agentic payment rails — an agent can screen a debtor across all nineteen states in one call.

Data sources

All data comes from official state government sources (Secretary of State / state filing-office UCC registries and their official open-data portals). This actor returns public record data as published by each state; it is provided "as is" for informational purposes and is not a certified UCC search. For a certified search, order one from the state filing office.

FAQ

How do I search UCC liens by company name across multiple states? Run this actor with the debtor's organization name. It queries each selected state's official UCC registry and returns one normalized feed of lien records — secured party, filing number/type, dates, status, and collateral where published — each with a link back to the official source.

Which states are covered? Nineteen: AR, CO, CT, FL, IA, ID, KY, ME, MI, MS, MT, NE, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, RI, and WI. Omit the states field to search all nineteen. States behind CAPTCHAs, bot-walls, logins, or paywalls (e.g. CA, WA, MN, IL, TX, GA) are deliberately not covered — see the "Not covered & why" table above. We never bypass access controls.

Can I search for liens against an individual person? No — organization (business) debtor search only, by design, for privacy reasons. Every state module hard-codes the organization search path and never submits individual name fields.

How fresh is the data? Varies by state and stated honestly: NY is current same-day; CO and CT update daily (~1–2 day lag); NJ ~2 business days; FL ~5 days; IA a weekly cutoff; KY ~2 weeks; OR's general UCC file refreshes monthly (farm liens are current). See the per-state table above.

How much does it cost? Pay-per-event: a small per-run start fee plus a per-record charge. You only pay for lien records actually returned — no subscription, no minimum.