Shedding a Very Old Lien

[wanttaja]

A friend of mine restored a basket-case airplane, and is in the process of selling it. One potential buyer did a lien search, and discovered one from over forty years ago.

The lien was only for a couple of hundred dollars, but with compound interest it would now be practically more than the value of the plane.

The original lienholder (a maintenance shop) no longer exists.

Anybody have any advice on what he can do to get this taken care of?

Ron Wanttaja

 

[poadeleted20]

You've got two choices.

1. You can try to find the assigns of the shop when it went out of business, or get a lawyer to handle the proof that the debt no longer exists. That will cost you more than the lien is worth.
2. You can just ignore the lien (there's no compound interest -- the value of the lien is all they can claim). Unless the next buyer in due course cares, it probably won't matter. At worst, you'll have to pay someone the amount of the lien if they ever show up.

Pick one based on your risk tolerance.

 

[wanttaja]

You've got two choices.

1. You can try to find the assigns of the shop when it went out of business, or get a lawyer to handle the proof that the debt no longer exists. That will cost you more than the lien is worth.
2. You can just ignore the lien (there's no compound interest -- the value of the lien is all they can claim). Unless the next buyer in due course cares, it probably won't matter. At worst, you'll have to pay someone the amount of the lien if they ever show up.

Pick one based on your risk tolerance.

Thanks, Ron. The airplane owner and I have been through the web, etc. to try find any successor company, but no luck.

My buddy is really relieved that there's no compound interest. Since the amount is pretty low, I think he'd just as soon pay it off. The lien was discovered by the last prospective buyer. The guy decided against the airplane for more than the issue of the lien, but the lien didn't help....

Ron Wanttaja

 

[Henning]

Go to a title insurer and for a small fee and the price of the lien, they'll guarantee against that lien which makes it a non issue, if someone would claim against it, they'll just pay it. You could also handle it with an escrow account to guarantee against it, call it a 5 year account. You can also say, "Ok, I'll take $XXX of the price. Whatever, this one shouldn't be an issue as the buyer is bound to accept one of the solutions. As you said, it's just a few hundred $$$.