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Curious, but is there an easy (read "free") way of checking on liens against our aircraft?

Carl, your right. I spoke too soon.
I was only imagining what Chris must be feeling when the lien was issued two weeks after the Registration was issue to him and that was two months after he bourgt the plane.

I spoke with the lienholder and determined that this is a business dispute between him and the previous owner of the aircraft over a deposit that was placed on the aircraft. The previous owner claims the buyer never paid for the plane and he kept the deposit, the buyer claims he didn't get his deposit back after the seller renegged on the deal.

According to the FAA, this is a non-recordable lien and they won't do anything with it. There is a letter on file stating this. The state of Texas did record the lien and that is what has my buyer concerned.

I also spoke with the FSDO about the airworthiness issue. They think I will need a DAR inspection to get a new airworthiness certificate. The previous owner rented the aircraft as a part 141 flight school and claimed to know nothing about the airworthiness certificate being invalid. My mechanic is also surprised that the airworthiness certificate would be invalid. Now the plane needs to sit until I can get a new airworthiness certificate.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Hopefully I won't be hearing from any FAA enforcement officials...

Chris,

Since this wasn't a recordable lien you (actually the buyer) may still be able to purchase title insurance. This would offer the protection the buyer is seeking against future lienholder claims. Title insurance companies will not insure unless they are 100% certain the title is clear (a litmus test in itself). Kinda ironic if you think about. In either case this may provide a piece of mind for everyone. I think it would cost about $300 - $500. Everyone keep me honest out there...

If someone wants to get "back" at me, they invent a reason for a lein, file it, don't tell anyone, and years down the road, I go to sell, discover the lein, cannot find the person who placed the lein to clear it, now what do I do?

Probably not a bad reason to check every couple of years, your records with FAA. Request a CD, its cheap. Kinda like getting your credit report ocassionally so you can see who has been inquiring about your credit.

Charles

Glad I don't live in Jaw-juh!

Here is some advice for everyone:

Go to http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_inquiry.asp and enter your N number. Your airworthiness information should have something there. If its says none, you might have a problem.

Go to http://162.58.35.241/e.gov/ND/airrecordsND.asp
Request the CD. If you haven't done this, DO IT NOW. It costs $10. I didn't do this and I should have. Maybe you will find something you didn't know.

An unscrupulous person could sell an airplane like mine to an unsuspecting buyer. There is no FAA lien and the airworthiness certificate appears to be valid on face. I'm can't ethically pass these problems on to anyone else. I'll take care of them somehow and whoever buys this plane will have a valid airworthiness cert and a clean title.

Chris

I spoke to the FSDO rep and it looks like this is a paperwork issue. They found a 337 for the airplane's reassembly in 1995 and I need to take the logs to the FSDO and they will probably give me a valid airworthiness certificate.

Glad it's gonna work out!

I've never been paranoid about involving the FAA.

May I suggest you give the good folks at AIC Title a call. They really helped me out when I felt absolutely helpless AIC Title [aictitle.com]

I went through a similar issue, only my lien was from 1961 (!!), and I was trying to clear the title from a foreign country (imported aircraft to Canada from US)