Registration of Aircraft in Oklahoma City

[Larry Smith]

Here's a hypothetical for you. You are buying an aircraft from a person
who is in financial trouble and creditors are lined up to collect. That
means liens will probably be filed in Ok City.

So you do a title search. On your own. And you find some liens and get
them all paid, then file your bill of sale by mailing it to the FAA in Ok
City. Could you have faxed it? In the meantime, more liens have come in,
some by mail and some by fax. Some creditors have also sent liens by mail on
the same day you mail your bill of sale, and because one or more creditors
were closer to Ok City, their parcels got there first. Should you have used
a title company like AOPA and paid them $200, since their agents have
immediate access to the public documents in Ok City?

The upshot of your purchase is that you took the aircraft subject to $25,000
in liens, making your investment a very poor one. You now have an aircraft
worth $40,000 but you owe $25,000 more than the $35,000 you paid for it.
You will have paid $60,000 for a $40,000 aircraft because of those shocking
surprise liens. Poor you. You have no recourse against the seller because
he is insolvent and judgment-proof.

[Matthew P. Cummings]

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 09:57:24 -0500, Larry Smith wrote:

> You will have paid $60,000 for a $40,000 aircraft because of those shocking
> surprise liens. Poor you. You have no recourse against the seller because
> he is insolvent and judgment-proof.

Sounds like you should have used lubricant Larry. I don't know how you
did the title search, but if you did pay a private company other than AOPA
to check things out you might be lucky and be able to recover damages,
similar to how AOPA does it. If you just called around you're going to
wish you had more lubricant to ease the pain.

From my dealings with the FAA that want originals most of the time, but
will sometimes take a fax.

I've always had this theory that you shouldn't deal with people in the
conditions you set out, very poor risk and subject to peril.

[Larry Smith]

"Matthew P. Cummings" > wrote in message
ray.net...
> On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 09:57:24 -0500, Larry Smith wrote:
>
> > You will have paid $60,000 for a $40,000 aircraft because of those
shocking
> > surprise liens. Poor you. You have no recourse against the seller
because
> > he is insolvent and judgment-proof.
>
> Sounds like you should have used lubricant Larry.

No, I'm talking about YOU Cummings ---- You were
bent over and ....

I'm trying to clue others into how to avoid the excruciating reaming you got
and to show that the FAA (a government agency) gives preferred treatment to
the title search companies.