Warbird Information Exchange

Here's the story:
Back in early 2004 I had a customer that owed me @3,000.00 for A&P work that had been done on his Pa-28 over the last 2 years. (2 annuals and removal/install of an engine, plus several oil changes etc.) I let the bill ride because the guy was a friend and I was supposed to have flying priviledges on the plane. (never flew it though.)
By Mid 2004 it was obvious my friend was having problems. specifically, he was hooked on Crystal Meth and refused to acknowledge it. I watched him as he rapidly lost his prosperous contracting business and his marriage failed.
He told me he wanted to sell his plane, I told him I would release his logbooks when I got paid. No buyers appeared. He called me and told me he would sign over his interest in the plane to me. At that point he was 4 payments behind to the bank and had not paid county personal property taxes on the aircraft.
I drafted a letter where he signed over his ownership/interest of the airplane to me in return for being released from owing me the 3,000 he had outstanding. In the letter I said it was based on the Bank (citizens national bank of Laurel maryland) allowing me to assume the loan. I sent the letter to the bank and they told me over the phone that they would do it but the payments had to be caught up immediately or the plane would be repoed (sp). I caught up the payments and taxes and have had them paid ahead ever since. I asked the bank to send me loan papers repeatedly but never got anything.
Then back in March my loan payment check was returned. The bank had been purchased by PNC bank and they had no record or knowledge of such a loan, or any record of such a loan even in my friend's name!
I sent them copies of all my papers including copies of cancelled checks, and...... I haven't heard anything back at all. not a phone call email or letter. When I call on the phone nobody knows anything or I get sent to on hold purgatory. I followed this up with the same info and letter explaining the situation sent via registered mail.
There is a lien still with the FAA from the original bank (citizens bank) and that keeps me from selling the plane or getting a partner. at this point I'm about out of Ideas.
Any suggestions? what would you do? serious answers only please.

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All I did was press this red button here...

Get the paperwork from a wreck and swapo changeo.

Ace. Go see the bank in person with all your paperwork, after calling for an appointment first. Your chances of success are slim, but it is the first step. There is a small chance you might find a banker with integrity and empathy. The other problem, of course, is the bank ownership change and the fact that you relied some on word of mouth, not written contracts. Here's the GOOD NEWS; in many places you can go into small claims court and don't need a lawyer. You present your story to the judge, WITH WRITTEN EVIDENCE, and you get a decision. There will be a monetary limit, here it is $7000. That may be too low for you, but even this will get the bank's attention, and you don't spend $5,000 in legal fees. If you have evidence of payments to the bank, like canceled checks that will help. Just be honest and focused in telling the facts.

I just won a case here for $2200 where the local shop,(not QG), put the wrong part in my Bonanza, the mechanic had not checked for the correct part number. I tried to be polite, wrote an nice letter, and mostly got ignored until I filed in small claims court. Right before the hearing, the big shot CEO phoned from Chicago. They had offered half price, certainly never said, "sorry we made a mistake". The never even bothered to answer my letter. So I kept the court date, won the amount I asked for, and now they have a legal record against them on file. It doesn't always work, I once won a judgment for a $2000 loan, only to find the deadbeat had 23 previous judgments against him and no assets in his name.

If you have a shop,the most important person, may be the lady at the front desk who makes sure the bills get paid, both going in and going out.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

See if PNC will send you a letter stating that they have no interest in the loan and that they now own all the assets of Citizens Bank. That shows the chain of ownership from Citizens to the new bank, and that the new bank has released interest.

You want them in writing to indicate that they now own the assets of Citizens, and yet do not claim any outstanding balance on (or knowledge of) that loan.

When you submit that to the FAA that may release the lien. The bank is supposed to fill out a Chattel Mortgage Release once the loan is paid off, but they may not do so if they have no record of the loan.

The bank may have written off that loan long ago (and just kept cashing your checks), or the person who remembered is out of the payment loop and no longer responsible due to the merger. The bank's inefficiency should not be denying you the use of your asset.

I know that in NJ a mechanic(auto) can file a "Mechanic's Lein" against an auto which has had work performed & not paid for, allowing the mechanic to hold legal possession of said vehicle. Check with a lawyer in your state, and see if the same can be done there with an aircraft. Then, get a lien against the aircraft citing yourself (private)& the Citizen's Bank as co-owners, with your business entity as the claimant. Make the lein in the amount of funds owed your shop by your friend as well as those which you paid to the bank. You may then present such evidence to the FAA of a second lein on the aircraft, and effectively block the new bank from removing it until the whole matter is settled.

Just a thought, check with professional counsel to see if it is a viable plan.

Good Luck!

Robbie

I am in almost the same boat, I have a customer that owes me over 4K for a annual, engine change, avionics work and other repairs. It has been almost a year, I am self employed, and by the end of the month I will be broke, I am behind on my utilities, I have my Goldwing up for sale, along with my car, yet this ass has the money to go to the mountains every weekend and I am lucky to afford a $5 subway sub.

I had a similiar problem a few years ago on a T-6 I wanted to purchase. Twenty years earlier a previous owner had a loan on the airplane with a bank. He had paid off the loan, but they had never released the lien. The bank was then bought by one of the big banks and they had no record of the loan. The wrote a letter saying their was no lien, but the FAA wouldn't accept it until they received a copy of the banks charter showing their purchase of the other bank. I tried to get it done for months and then finally just hired a title company to do it. They got it done for a couple of hundred bucks.