You walk into a laundromat you are thinking of buying. Twenty washers, fifteen dryers, all running, all yours in a month.
Maybe.
In the United States there is a public record of who has already been promised somebody's equipment. Hardly any first-time buyer looks at it.
What the record is
When a lender or a supplier takes equipment as security for a debt, they file a short document with the state. Michigan's own description is one sentence: financing statements are filed as public notice of a security interest in collateral.
New York's is plainer still: it is a notice that one person claims an interest in someone else's property, usually as security for a debt.
The filings are indexed by the name of the person or company that owes the money. A search comes back listing what is on file against that name.
Each entry shows you the debtor's legal name · who the secured party is · what the claim covers — sometimes named machines, sometimes everything · the filing date and whether it is still live.
If several secured parties come back for one business, the assets have been promised to several people.
🔴 It is not free, and the price varies
This matters, because it changes how you plan the work.
| State | What a search costs |
|---|---|
| Michigan | $6 per debtor name · certification seal $6 more · copies $2 a page |
| Texas | $15 for a debtor search certificate · copies $1 a page plus $15 per certificate |
A few dollars is nothing against the price of a business. But budget for several searches, not one: the current legal name, any previous name, and the seller personally if they own the equipment themselves.
⚠️ And what the state certifies varies. Michigan's certificate covers active financing statements, tax liens and assignments for that name. Other states index tax liens separately. Ask what the certificate you are buying actually covers — do not assume it is the same everywhere.
Why this matters when you buy
A security interest attaches to the property, not to the friendship between you and the seller. If the debt behind it is not cleared, the holder of that interest can act on the equipment.
Two decided cases show how far this reaches.
In one, a landlord held a security interest over a tenant's equipment. When the tenant went, the landlord was entitled simply to keep what was left behind — the lease said anything abandoned could be taken, and the court held that term enforceable.
In another, a bankruptcy court had to work out whether a forty-month "lease" of equipment that could not be cancelled was really a lease at all, or a purchase dressed as one.
That is the real question behind the machines: are they owned, borrowed, rented, or pledged? All four look identical when they are washing clothes.
How to look yourself
- Get the exact legal name of the business and of the seller. Not the sign over the door — the name on the formation documents.
- Search the state's filing office — usually the Secretary of State — for that name, and pay for the certificate.
- Search the state where the equipment sits, too, if that differs from where the company was formed.
- Read the collateral description. "All assets" means all assets.
- Ask for the paperwork behind every live entry — and for written proof that the debt is settled and the filing will be released.
⚠️ Four honest limits. The search only finds what was filed under the name you typed — one letter out and you find nothing. Filings can lapse without the debt being gone. Some claims never enter this system. And a search is a snapshot of a date, not a promise about tomorrow.
What it costs not to look
The machines are the business. If they leave, what remains is a rented room with plumbing in it.
Six dollars against a floor of equipment is not a close call.
If you are not in the United States
Most countries keep a register of security over movable property, under some other name. The question is the same: is anything I am buying already promised to a lender, and what does it take to release it?
Sources: Michigan Department of State, Uniform Commercial Code pages (description of financing statements, search and certification fees, and the scope of the filing officer's certification); Texas Secretary of State, UCC fee schedule; New York Department of State, UCC frequently asked questions. The two decisions — 3455 LLC v. NP Properties, Inc. (N.D. Ga. 2014) and In re ES2 Sports & Leisure, LLC, 519 B.R. 476 (Bankr. M.D.N.C. 2014) — are collected in the Hidden Liens report of the California Lawyers Association's UCC Committee. Checked 8 September 2026.
What we do. We read the public record behind one business that is for sale and write down what it shows, what it does not, and what no source shows at all — every finding with its source and the date we read it. We do not touch the seller's bookkeeping, and we do not tell you whether to buy.
Read the report before you pay for it. The samples are real reports on real listings with the names changed: €550 reads the public record; €950 also checks the documents the seller gives you against it.
Not sure the registers where you are show any of this? Send the country and a link to the listing. We will tell you what is checkable there and what is not — before anyone talks about money.