Search Tip: Alert Your Searcher if You Expect Hits on Your Public Records Search
UCC, Due Diligence
Lenders gather information from a variety of sources to create a comprehensive profile of an applicant’s existing financial obligations and gauge their ability to repay debts. By the time the lender is ready to initiate public records searches on a prospect, they often already have an idea of what they expect to find based on applicant disclosures and credit report information etc. However, it is uncommon for a lender to provide this information to their searcher. Herein, we suggest that it is a good idea to alert your searcher if you anticipate findings on your public records search request.
It isn’t “cheating” to let your searcher know that you are expecting certain records to turn up. Any party or lien information you can provide at the outset of the project will greatly improve the quality of your final results. Public records research is not an exact science; filing office records are idiosyncratic and abstracting pertinent information from the index can require some finesse.
Typographical errors occur, filings get indexed incorrectly, and subsequent filings get attached to the wrong original document. If a search does not yield the anticipated results, a well-informed searcher can take additional steps to locate the document and proactively work with the filing office to have the index corrected. Sending them back later to check for a missing lien will only add to your cycle time.
Your searcher wants to do a good job for you. By sharing what you already know, you arm him or her with the information they need to perform thorough research and investigate inconsistencies in the data on your behalf.