Owner liability
We operate a PA28 as a group. We have an agreement we've all signed which governs the way we operate the aircraft and how we collectively make decisions. The agreement was accepted by the bank for the purpose of gross coding our engine fund account, but in reality it probably has little or no standing in law.
We're not a limited company. Each of us are registered with the CAA as owners with one as the trustee.
Probably the same as hundreds of syndicates up and down the country.
Another syndicate at our airfield has recently sold a share to a businessman who had his lawyer cast an eye over the agreement. The feedback was that if one of our number had an accident which caused considerable fatalities over and above the insured sum (as death and personal injury cannot be limited or excluded by law) then the other registered owners of the syndicate (including the possibly now deceased pilots estate) would be liable.
Is organising ourselves as a limited company the answer? Presumably litigation would then be directed at the owning company rather than the owners and although we'd lose the engine fund we'd keep our houses.
Does anybody have any experience of this?
Cheers
R5