Let me ask an open question: even if the seller is dealing with a genuinely good used aircraft, who would get into used plane ownership if most of what he hears from the seller is that:
-No matter how good a survey you (or I) do, and even if the major items are OK, you will still find lots of expensive little thingies to fix
-You will have to do a lot of maintenance management
-Your airplane will be down for maintenance at least one month a year
-You will be fighitng authority paperwork on an ongoing basis
-At the same time you will still have to fight for license currency
-The airplane will not be ready for you unless you ready it.
-Your family a may or may not like flying with you
-The day of your dreamed-for trip the wx may force cancellation
… perhaps the typical seller speech will be, after perhaps listening to what you are after, more like
-this airplane is one of the best in its class
-the prior owner lovingly cared for it, and did this and that on the airplane
-you will be free to fly whenever you want, not subject to club schedules or rules
-you will be able to take your friends and family on lovely trips
-you will have great experiences you never dreamed of and you will at last be able to work on getting your IR
…
NDH used to be extremely important 20-30 years ago. The reality of used aircraft ownership is such that with increasing likelihood, a used aircraft in the market will be over a quarter century old…
This is a simple reflection of historical aircraft production numbers (see “unit shipped” below)
The above graph is missing an update from 2009, but as you can see below things have not improved at all since:
So, simply, a higher and higher percentage of used aircraft in the market have one kind of historical damage or another. The matter is not whether or not there is a prior damage history, but if, when and how it was repaired. Does a seller’s declaration of NDH replace a proper due diligence?
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Due dilligence, savvy PBI and educating oneself about airplanes and particularly about the brand you consider buying is the answer to that kind of stuff.
Exactly, and that is a job this forum helps a lot with. So comments like the OP should do a good service to raise awareness as to the importance of what you are saying
Antonio wrote:
The matter is not whether or not there is a prior damage history, but if, when and how it was repaired.
From a technical point of view it is definitely true. But when selling and buying cars or planes I would say real damage history always resulted in 5-10% reduction in price. In some cases it is not justified but when buying without making such a discount you will get hurt at resale. Also I heard about buyers buying on credit and banks refusing to finance a plane with damage history.
Regarding D-EGIE it definitely has damage history. It has two repairs engineered for that plane which also come with recurrent inspections as far as I remember. Properly done, so if the price is adjusted accordingly not a problem but one should not pay a non damage hisotry price like 500k EUR for it.
Antonio wrote:
Does a seller’s declaration of NDH replace a proper due diligence?
This is probably highly dependant on where you purchase the plane. In Germany for example, you’re not allowed to withhold such information – caveat emptor is not easily applicable.
This will be country dependent.
In the UK, items like cars, houses, and AFAIK planes – in fact practically all personal goods AFAIK – are sold “as seen” i.e. with no seller liability.
The main gotcha which creates a seller liability is if the seller made specific warranties e.g. “no accidents”, “engine 1500 TT”, etc. But if accident history is not mentioned, there is no seller liability.
With planes, it gets more complicated e.g.
Two identical threads merged 
In Germany for example, you’re not allowed to withhold such information
What if the seller doesn’t mention it, you never asked, and you buy the plane? Surely, only a written (or oral and witness-supported) “no damage” statement would be valid. And if you ask the seller about it and he refuses to say, you walk away
Peter wrote:
In Germany for example, you’re not allowed to withhold such information
I think you have to make a difference between private sales and commercial sales to private persons and commercial sales to commercial buyers. In the second case all kinds of special rules apply. For example “as seen” is not possible etc.
As this thread is about D-EGIE I know it was sold around 2005 or so without mentioning the damage from around 1995 and the buyer back then did sue and get serious money from the seller. But I have no details on what the contracts looked like etc.
Peter wrote:
What if the seller doesn’t mention it, you never asked, and you buy the plane? Surely, only a written (or oral and witness-supported) “no damage” statement would be valid. And if you ask the seller about it and he refuses to say, you walk away
Nope, Germany and the UK (and France) have an entirely different law system. Deliberately withholding such information – one can prove you knew about – makes you liable. This “due dilligence” is an UK thing. And no one believes you that you didn’t notice when you scratched the tarmac with your propeller as seen on Sebastians photos.
If a seller in Germany would offer the plane in this way, I fully expect him to come clear with the damage once an interest is established – and then the haggling starts. For that it helps that the price point is quite high.
The truth is somewhere in between. It’s like the argument of English v. Scottish property purchase law. In the latter, the contract is binding at the start, and everybody says how wonderful that is, avoiding the various nasty examples of homo sapiens behaviour. In practice it doesn’t actually work that way.
And I am sure it doesn’t actually work as described in Germany, either, because if it did, this seller will go straight to jail 
Yes it does work like that, indeed (plenty of cases around cars, bikes, etc) in Germany. But Jail is just a remotely related aspect.
What has been described here is primarily a civil law issue, between parties to the agreement: if the seller does not disclose a (significant) damage history at some stage prior to the execution of the contract, then he risks an invalid agreement with unwinding or (part) reimbursement of purchase price plus potentially damages.
Whether there is enough evidence and public interest for a criminal offence is an entirely different question. And whether it is then leading to jail time is yet another question.
