Title search
A title search establishes who legally owns an aircraft and whether any liens, mortgages, tax claims or unpaid maintenance charges are attached to it. For US aircraft it means searching the FAA registry in Oklahoma City and the International Registry created by the Cape Town Convention; other registries have their own procedures and some, particularly for older aircraft that have changed country several times, are patchy. A clean title report and, ideally, title insurance protect the buyer from a previous owner's creditor turning up years later. It is inexpensive relative to the aircraft price and should be ordered before the deposit goes hard.