Dont forget about IRS liens, I am not sure how you go about digging for them but from what I have been told the title company needs to do some extra digging.

I bought a 150 a number of years ago. Had the AOPA do the title search. Came back clean. When I sold it, the new buyers title company found an old, unreleased lien. Ended up being a non issue, but at the time, it was an OH CRAP moment.. Like one guy said, ya place your money, and hope for the best
Gary

When I killed my plane last year the insurance was held up for months due to a lien that had been paid but had not been filed with the FAA as being paid. I owned the plane for twenty-five years and the owner before me had it for longer than that but the damn lien still showed up and caused trouble.
When I bought it I was assured it was clean and as the owner had owned it for decades I believed him.
Lots and lots of aggravation.

What is relevant and logical has no bearing on bureaucracy.

This may be a silly question, but here goes....If a person was to buy a partially completed kit project and there is no N number assigned yet, there shouldn't be a need for a title search...right???

billjesstaylor wrote:This may be a silly question, but here goes....If a person was to buy a partially completed kit project and there is no N number assigned yet, there shouldn't be a need for a title search...right???

There could easily be a UCC filing on it if it was used as an instrument of security for a loan, storage lien, etc. One could use an airframe number instead of an N-number and I don't believe the FAA would know a thing about it.

UCC is something that a thorough title search agency will check. Been there. [emoji1]

gbflyer wrote:

billjesstaylor wrote:This may be a silly question, but here goes....If a person was to buy a partially completed kit project and there is no N number assigned yet, there shouldn't be a need for a title search...right???

There could easily be a UCC filing on it if it was used as an instrument of security for a loan, storage lien, etc. One could use an airframe number instead of an N-number and I don't believe the FAA would know a thing about it.

UCC is something that a thorough title search agency will check. Been there. [emoji1]

Thanks for the heads-up, I would not have considered that.

contactflying wrote:Hotrod180, I'm confused as usual. I had title insurance, but they gave me the information that it had been paid anyway. When I wasn't getting the information from the new bank owner's secretary, I purchased the insurance. Dale's information about the legal death of a loan is interesting. I would always go with the insurance anyway.

Ive gotten title searches before on airplanes, but not "title insurance".
I wasnt aware it was offered by the T.A.P.-advertised title outfits.
And I dont think unpaid loans die. But sounds like maybe liens that arent followed thru on (aka "perfected") do.

I just had to use them for the Cessna 205. I knew it had a lien. I paid them $400 to have it cleared and they did it a couple weeks. I wouldn't have been able to do that myself without paying a lot more money. They find the info fast and know what to do to fix things, worth the $.

I used Aerospace reports when I bought my plane, it turned up one "encumbrance" lien. I was pretty certain the old lien from 30 years ago was settled, but just never reported to the FAA. Used that as a bargaining token and purchased the plane anyway. A year or two later I paid about $400 and they tracked it down and got the necessary paperwork filed to show the lien as settled with the FAA. That $400 was well worth it as the original bank had been acquired by another bank, etc. Would have taken me a lot of time to get it tracked down, they had it all done in a week or two.

In retrospect I think I could have come to the same conclusion as the initial title search just looking at the FAA records from the $10 CD and verifying each recorded lien was followed by a release. What they do is not rocket science, but convenience... the next buyer will likely perform the same search so in my opinion while the "search" is not exhaustive we are purchasing verification of easier resell later on.

When I buy my next plane I think I will use them again, it is a pretty insignificant cost to have the experts do the same thing I could do and have a little piece of mind from a second set of eyes.