FAA Lien Search and Aircraft Title Search

When a lien is recorded against a particular aircraft, the FAA sends a notice to the secured party. This notice provides specific details about the lien as well as the affected aircraft and who the lien was filed by, date, etc. A lien may include different aircraft parts (engines, propellers, etc.)

Mechanic's liens can be particularly problematic. A mechanic may file a lien against an aircraft long after work has been performed on the aircraft (this is usually done if the owner did not pay or has not completed full payment). In these cases, an owner may not even be aware that there's a lien on the aircraft and this results in what is known as a "clouded title". This causes a problem for the owner, especially when trying to sell the plane.

In our 40 years of experience, we've come across a number of transactions where a buyer entered into an agreement based on trust, and post-sale, realized that there were financial issues with the purchased asset - so we always advise our customers to err on the side of caution.

Our lien searches are quick and will provide you with much greater peace of mind to proceed with your transaction. Basically, you're about to spend a lot of money on a beautiful piece of machinery - you don't want to try and cut corners with the basic, yet very important things.