How to read UCC collateral descriptions
Serial numbers, VINs, model numbers and boilerplate: how to read what a UCC-1 financed, with real examples from Colorado filings.
By Ayman Tai, Founder, UCC Scout · Updated September 26, 2026 · Colorado figures as of November 12, 2026
The collateral description is the most useful and most messy part of a UCC filing. Lenders write it however they like, from a single VIN to a page of boilerplate. Here's how to read it, with real Colorado examples.
Serial numbers, VINs and PINs
2015 - Hyster H50CT WHSE Forklift s/n: B274V01619N
Year, make, model, type and serial: everything you need. Trucks carry a 17-character VIN, and heavy equipment a 17-character PIN; the 10th character of either encodes the model year.
UNIT #1412, ONE (1) GE BRIGHTSPEED 16 CT SYSTEM, SERIAL # 13953YC5
A medical CT scanner. Specific, high value, and a technology refresh at five years.
Make and model without a serial
Acme Model MRS11 Pizza Dough Roller-Bench identified by Serial Number 26308
A brand name alone can mislead: “CASE” in “in case of default” is not a Case backhoe. Count a make only next to a model number or year.
Boilerplate that isn't what it seems
… together with all attachments, accessions, and all accounts, general intangibles, contract rights and chattel paper relating thereto
Standard on captive filings. It covers things related to the machine and doesn't make the filing a blanket lien.
PARTIAL RELEASE ONLY: 1- Doosan DNM 750 II High Precision Vertical Machining Center…
An amendment releasing one machine. Something was sold or traded.
Descriptions that aren't equipment at all
A large share of UCC filings are something else: consumer solar systems, tool-truck accounts (“all tools and equipment purchased from…”), liens on injury claims, merchant cash advances (“future receipts”), crops and livestock. Filter them out before counting anything.
- Specific equipment with a serial, VIN or model number9,671 · 18.8%
- Equipment type named, no serial4,809 · 9.3%
- "Equipment", nothing more4,979 · 9.7%
- No collateral text published9,512 · 18.4%
- Blanket lien (all assets)16,348 · 31.7%
- Unclear6,245 · 12.1%
When there's no description
Some filings only say “see Exhibit A” and the exhibit isn't in the data. Then the lender is the best clue: a Caterpillar Financial filing is construction equipment, a PACCAR Financial filing is a truck.
Read the description on any Colorado business's filings with the UCC lookup. See also blanket vs equipment liens.