Delaware
No pre-filing refusal power, and no free public search What the badges mean
Last verified: July 27, 2026 — confirm current text on the official site; this date is not a promise the law is unchanged.
Specific items rechecked October 4, 2026 (second read): 11 Del. C. §§861, 877; 6 Del. C. §9-516; New Castle and Sussex alert services.
UCC financing statements
Check if one exists
No free public self-service debtor-name search exists. Searches are run by Authorized Searchers listed by the Division of Corporations — there's no walk-up equivalent to most other states' free hit-list search.
Refusal / removal authority
Delaware's filing office has no non-uniform authority to refuse a fraudulent UCC filing before it's recorded — only the mechanical grounds every state has under the uniform baseline.
No non-uniform pre-filing authority ide…
Full citations
- No non-uniform pre-filing authority identified
There is no pre-filing content/fraud review to invoke.
If it's already filed: §9-518 information statement; §9-625 civil remedies; Del. Code tit. 11 §877 (criminal).
Real-property liens
No dedicated pre-recording refusal, NCCL chapter, or TX-style owner-affidavit statute was identified for Delaware county recorders. Live criminal tools: 11 Del. C. §877 (offering a false instrument for filing — class A misdemeanor) and §861(b)(2) (forgery 2d degree when the instrument is/purports to be a deed or other instrument affecting legal rights, or a public record / instrument filed with a public office — class G felony). Clearing title still runs through quiet-title / equity counsel.
DE §877
DE §861
No dedicated RP fraudulent-lien civil p…
Full citations
- 11 Del. C. §877
- 11 Del. C. §861(b)(2)
- No dedicated RP fraudulent-lien civil petition confirmed
Sections 877 and 861 are criminal offenses that prosecutors can charge. Clearing a county land record is done through a quiet-title action in court. No clerk refuse/remove package confirmed.
Real-property records are held by the county Recorder of Deeds (New Castle, Kent, or Sussex) — contact them directly.
Get notified before it happens
A "property fraud alert" service is available in at least part of Delaware — it emails or mails you whenever a document gets recorded against your name, so you find out right away instead of months later. Sign up for New Castle County AlertMe →
Delaware's largest county (Wilmington). The county's page describes a voluntary Recorder of Deeds notification service but does not say whether it is free. Sussex County's Recorder of Deeds also offers an email alert service that watches a name you choose, not an address or parcel number (deeds.sussexcountyde.gov/LandmarkWeb/FraudAlert). A Kent County program was not confirmed.
How this usually works in Delaware
A summary of the tools Delaware law and filing offices provide — general information, not instructions for your facts. Confirm current practice with the filing office and talk to an attorney about your situation.
- 1Delaware has no free public UCC search; searches are run by Authorized Searchers listed by the Division of Corporations, which can describe the options.
- 2Real-property records are held by each county's Recorder of Deeds; there is no centralized state-level search.
- 3Delaware has no pre-filing refusal authority, so the filing office does not screen out a fraudulent record before it is filed. After filing, the tools are an information statement (§9-518) or a court action.
- 4Delaware's tools for false land instruments are criminal (11 Del. C. §877 and §861) plus quiet-title actions; no Delaware fraudulent-lien petition statute was found.
What to expect
Delaware remains thin for fraud targets — no pre-filing refusal, no free UCC search, and no dedicated RP civil petition — but criminal false-instrument / deed-forgery tools are real. Confirm the current fee on the state's official site — filing and search fees change and are not published here.
Sources: the LienGuardAI fifty-state survey and UCC search portal review (How we verify). No dollar fee amounts are published here — always confirm the current fee on the state's own site.