CO Code § 4-9-501 (2021)
2021 Colorado Code|Title 4 - Uniform Commercial Code|Article 9 - Secured Transactions|Part 5 - Filing|§ 4-9-501. Filing Office

  Except as otherwise provided in subsection (b) of this section, if the local law of this state governs perfection of a security interest or agricultural lien, the office in which to file a financing statement to perfect the security interest or agricultural lien is:   The office designated for the filing or recording of a record of a mortgage on the related real property, if:   The collateral is as-extracted collateral or timber to be cut; or    The financing statement is filed as a fixture filing and the collateral is goods that are or are to become fixtures; or       The office of the secretary of state, in all other cases, including a case in which the collateral is goods that are or are to become fixtures and the financing statement is not filed as a fixture filing.       The office in which to file a financing statement to perfect a security interest in collateral, including fixtures, of a transmitting utility is the office of the secretary of state. The financing statement also constitutes a fixture filing as to the collateral indicated in the financing statement which is or is to become fixtures.    The office in which to file an effective financing statement pursuant to article 9.5 of this title is the office of the secretary of state.     History. Source: L. 2001: Entire article R&RE, p. 1378, § 1, effective July 1.    Cross references:   For offenses relating to this title, see part 5 of article 5 of title 18.   Official Comments   Copyright by the American Law Institute and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. Reproduced with the permission of the Permanent Editorial Board for the Uniform Commercial Code. All rights reserved. —   Editor's note:   The Official Comments to the Uniform Commercial Code are available only in the printed book form of Colorado Revised Statutes. As noted above, the Official Comments are subject to copyright by the American Law Institute and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. At this time, Colorado has a license to reprint the Official Comments in the printed book form.   Editor's note:    The numbering and sequencing of C.R.S. subsections do not necessarily correspond with the numbering and sequencing of subsections in the uniform act.    This article was numbered as article 9 of chapter 155, C.R.S. 1963. The provisions of this article were repealed and reenacted in 2001, resulting in the addition, relocation, and elimination of sections as well as subject matter. For amendments to this article prior to 2001, consult the Colorado statutory research explanatory note and the table itemizing the replacement volumes and supplements to the original volume of C.R.S. 1973 beginning on page vii in the front of this volume. Former C.R.S. section numbers are shown in editor's notes following those sections that were relocated. For a detailed comparison of this article, see the comparative tables located in the back of the index.     Law reviews:   For article, “Lien and Security Interest Provision of AAPL Model Operating Agreement”, see 13 Colo. Law. 1216 ; for a discussion of a Tenth Circuit decision dealing with secured transactions, see 66 Den. U. L. Rev. 795 (1989); for article, “Mastering The Maze of Secured Transactions - Part 1”, see 21 Colo. Law. 2329 (1992); for article, “Remastering the Maze: Revisions to UCC Article 9 Filing Provisions”, see 25 Colo. Law. 3 (June 1996); for article, “Introducing Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code”, see 30 Colo. Law. 9 (Sept. 2001); for article, “Perfecting Security Interests in Intellectual Property”, see 32 Colo. Law. 85 (April 2003).   Editor's note - Colorado legislative change: Colorado added subsection (c).   OFFICIAL COMMENT   1. Source. Derived from former Section 9-401.   2. Where to File. Subsection (a) indicates where in a given State a financing statement is to be filed. Former Article 9 afforded each State three alternative approaches, depending on the extent to which the State desires central filing (usually with the Secretary of State), local filing (usually with a county office), or both. As Comment 1 to former Section 9-401 observed, “The principal advantage of state-wide filing is ease of access to the credit information which the files exist to provide. Consider for example the national distributor who wishes to have current information about the credit standing of the thousands of persons he sells to on credit. The more completely the files are centralized on a state-wide basis, the easier and cheaper it becomes to procure credit information; the more the files are scattered in local filing units, the more burdensome and costly.” Local filing increases the net costs of secured transactions also by increasing uncertainty and the number of required filings. Any benefit that local filing may have had in the 1950's is now insubstantial. Accordingly, this Article dictates central filing for most situations, while retaining local filing for real-estate-related collateral and special filing provisions for transmitting utilities.   3. Minerals and Timber. Under subsection (a)(1), a filing in the office where a record of a mortgage on the related real property would be filed will perfect a security interest in as-extracted collateral. Inasmuch as the security interest does not attach until extraction, the filing continues to be effective after extraction. A different result occurs with respect to timber to be cut, however. Unlike as-extracted collateral, standing timber may be goods before it is cut. See Section 9-102 (defining “goods”). Once cut, however, it is no longer timber to be cut, and the filing in the real-property-mortgage office ceases to be effective. The timber then becomes ordinary goods, and filing in the office specified in subsection (a)(2) is necessary for perfection. Note also that after the timber is cut the law of the debtor's location, not the location of the timber, governs perfection under Section 9-301.   4. Fixtures. There are two ways in which a secured party may file a financing statement to perfect a security interest in goods that are or are to become fixtures. It may file in the Article 9 records, as with most other goods. See subsection (a)(2). Or it may file the financing statement as a “fixture filing,” defined in Section 9-102, in the office in which a record of a mortgage on the related real property would be filed. See subsection(a)(1)(B).   5. Transmitting Utilities. The usual filing rules do not apply well for a transmitting utility (defined in Section 9-102). Many pre-UCC statutes provided special filing rules for railroads and in some cases for other public utilities, to avoid the requirements for filing with legal descriptions in every county in which such debtors had property. Former Section 9-401(5) recreated and broadened these provisions, and subsection (b) follows this approach. The nature of the debtor will inform persons searching the record as to where to make a search.   A given State's subsection (b) applies only if the local law of that State governs perfection. As to most collateral, perfection by filing is governed by the law of the jurisdiction in which the debtor is located. See Section 9-301(1). However, the law of the jurisdiction in which goods that are or become fixtures are located governs perfection by filing a fixture filing. See Section 9-301(3)(A). As a consequence, filing in the filing office of more than one State may be necessary to perfect a security interest in fixtures collateral of a transmitting utility by filing a fixture filing. See Section 9-301, Comment 5.b.