Massachusetts

UCC filings: Limited Land records: Limited

No UCC fraud refusal; deed forgery/uttering felonies; mechanical register refuse only What the badges mean

Last verified: August 10, 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): G.L. ch. 267 §§1, 5; ch. 36 §§12A, 24; F.H. Cann v. Moorman case note.

General information, not legal advice. Confirm current fees, forms, and deadlines on official government sites, and talk to an attorney about your situation. LienGuardAI does not file anything for you. See Legal Disclaimer & Terms of Use.

Relevant case law: When a Massachusetts collection agency tried to collect a borrower’s delinquent student-loan debt for the U.S. Department of Education, the borrower mailed an “Affidavit of Truth” claiming a common-law copyright and trademark in his own name, plus a “security agreement” that purported to give him a unilateral interest in all of the agency’s assets. He then billed the agency $500,000 for using his name and, on July 7, 2019, filed a UCC-1 financing statement with the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth purporting to place a $500,000 lien on the home of the agency’s officers. In later papers he asserted he was a “non domestic natural man” outside the United States and that the all-caps version of his name was a municipal legal person. The District of Massachusetts denied his motion to dismiss, found no copyright in a name and therefore no valid contract behind the filing, and granted a preliminary injunction requiring him to withdraw the UCC-1 — quoting an earlier federal decision that described the practice of filing baseless financing statements to harass and impair credit as well documented. The court then entered final judgment (June 13, 2022; amended July 6, 2022) declaring that he had no copyright or trademark in his name and that the $500,000 contract, the $500,000 lien, and his UCC-1 filings were void. Verified. (F.H. Cann & Associates, Inc. v. Moorman, No. 1:20-cv-11251-DPW (D. Mass. May 24, 2022; final judgment June 13, 2022, amended July 6, 2022).)

This is a plain-language summary of a published judicial opinion, not a complete report of the case. Confirm names, holdings, and procedural posture against the opinion itself.

UCC financing statements

Check if one exists

Search Massachusetts's UCC records

Free basic search. Secretary of the Commonwealth's UCC database; free debtor-name search, no login required.

Refusal / removal authority

Massachusetts has no non-uniform UCC pre-filing fraud refusal identified — only uniform mechanical grounds.

Citations 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: Information statement / ch. 106 §9-518 / §9-625.

Real-property liens

No dedicated NCCL chapter, fraud-specific register refuse, or TX-style owner affidavit was confirmed. Live criminal tools: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 267 §1 (forging a deed, muniment of title, public record, Land Court certificate/index, etc., with intent to injure/defraud — state prison ≤10 years or jail ≤2 years) and ch. 267 §5 (uttering a false/forged deed or instrument listed in §§1–4 as true, knowing it false — same penalties). ch. 36 §12A lets a register refuse only if an instrument cannot be properly duplicated/recorded — mechanical, not fraud. ch. 36 §24 is federal-lien recording, not fraudulent-lien law. Clearing title runs through quiet-title / Land Court counsel.

Citations MA §1 MA §5 MA §12A

Full citations

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 267 §1
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 267 §5
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 36 §12A

Chapter 267 §§1 and 5 are criminal offenses that prosecutors can charge; §12A does not give registers a fraud-based refusal power. Clearing a registry record is done through a quiet-title action in court.

If it's already recorded: Felony forgery/uttering penalties; no dedicated private statutory CoA confirmed.

Real-property records are held by the registry of deeds for the county (or district) where the property sits.

Get notified before it happens

Massachusetts has a free "property fraud alert" service — 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 Massachusetts Consumer Notification Service →

SoS-hosted free email alerts for residential owners (up to 3 properties on this portal). Participating registries are listed on the CNS welcome page — not every registry uses this exact host (some, e.g. Norfolk, run a separate signup). Admin program, not a statute mandate.

How this usually works in Massachusetts

A summary of the tools Massachusetts 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.

1The Secretary of the Commonwealth's free UCC database is linked on this page.
2Massachusetts has no pre-filing UCC fraud refusal, and ch. 36 §12A does not give registers a fraud-based refusal power.
3Ch. 36 §24 concerns federal-lien recording; it is not a fraudulent-lien cleanup statute.
4For a forged deed or instrument, Massachusetts's tools are the forgery and uttering offenses in ch. 267 §§1 and 5 and quiet-title actions; the free Consumer Notification Service sends alerts about future recordings.

What to expect

Massachusetts is criminal/court-leaning on land records, with verified deed forgery/uttering felonies — still no NCCL petition or fraud-specific clerk refuse. 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.