Shop withholds aircraft from owner

[GAHorn]

I would like to clarify my opinion a bit.
I do not feel the inspection is the responsibility of the seller and , while anyone's negotiated "deal" is whatever they can arrange between buyer/seller... I would not expect any seller to be responsible for any inspection or any costs of any inspection which I required for purposes of my determination of airworthiness or value. In other words... the annual inspection I will have performed as my "pre-buy" will be completely at my cost, and the inspector will be MY contract employee. He will make his report to ME...and I will decide how much, if any, of the report I will share with the seller.

Any discrepancies found will be negotiated as a part of the sale. Either seller will fix them (after all, he is ultimately the one responsible for the airworthiness of the airplane as long as it is in his name)...or I will purchase the aircraft and be responsible for them (and perhaps will have re-negotiated the sales-price in light of the discrepancies.

In most cases the price will be re-negotiated, I will pay the seller the new price, the inspector will fix the discrepancies, and I will pay him for his work. All of his work, including the inspection. (In fact, the inspection portion will have been paid to him up-front...after all, the seller deserves to be able to expect his aircraft returned to him in the same condition as he presented it for inspection. He should not feel he is being "held up" simply because I want to inspect the potential purchase.)

I also have the privilege to walk away from it when I get the inspector's report. But before paying for an inspection, the seller and I will have executed a letter of intent, so that I have the right to complete the purchase after inspection provided we both agree on the price. (I.E., The seller promises not to withdraw his airplane from the sales agreement simply because he doesn't like what the inspector finds, unless he is willing to reimburse the inspection costs.)