One problem with getting an Annual done (regardless of which side is paying for it) is that an Annual is a visual inspection plus trivia like changing oil and checking brake fluid. The whole plane could be so badly rusted it is almost falling apart but it will still be airworthy.
The maint industry is used to working on totally shagged old dogs, and work with just one eye open. They have to otherwise they would go out of business. Flying schools in particular like “minimal work” done, as do many owners. A common sight is a guy driving up in a 100k car and jumping into a real old dog, trailing a cloud of red rusty smoke. Especially if it is a helicopter 
For example there is no need at Annual to borescope (via spark plug holes) the cylinders. There are engine mfg limits on how much metal is OK in the oil filter(s) but I doubt the airframe MM says anything about that, so it won’t be an Annual service failure if you find half the camshaft in there 
And the mfg suggested limits on how much metal are really generous. It is an old joke that if the fragments are big enough to read the serial numbers, that is a problem. But really the Lyco guidelines (you can google them) are that a huge amount of metal is OK.
NCyankee’s post above is spot on.
One can understand why people might not cut open the oil filter every time – I do it every time on my Lycoming and have yet to find any metal in the element. Equally important is the screen, if you have one, and looking at the bottom of the oil drain pan. Pieces of cam or follower spalling off the surface are large enough that they may not make it to the filter.
My 100K mile car looks like new BTW, half way though it’s service life, and will probably look like new the day it gets sold for $2K – the last one I had like that sold in 3 hours.
Ownership needs to be a hands-on, brain-on activity unless it is to be an open wallet activity filled with frustration and manipulation by others.
I’m not sure the lawsuit will bring anything. If the first company brought their contract in a good order they might not be liable for the result if anything was overseen. And I’m quite sure they will have that, because a used plane may always have a surprise.
When I bought my plane I had no inspection done. From a retrospect it was absolutely naive. I didn’t even check all the logs. But as I did the mx myself (and had taken over that setup from the former owner) there was no real room for fraud. The same examiner is still with me. I had some maintenance items that had been signed off before but that haven’t been done, never in 50 years. That was some surprise and maybe 2 days of work and several hundreds of Euros. Some items have come up that wouldn’t have been found in prebuy, I think.
I don’t know whether I bought “my last plane”, as @Peter said. But I had that it mind.
And yes: ownership is worth every penny! My way of flying just changed completely…
One can understand why people might not cut open the oil filter every time – I do it every time on my Lycoming and have yet to find any metal in the element. Equally important is the screen, if you have one, and looking at the bottom of the oil drain pan. Pieces of cam or follower spalling off the surface are large enough that they may not make it to the filter.
That is how it is supposed to work. Big bits in the strainer and little bits in the filter.
I’ve never seen any metal either but still do it because it takes only minutes. Significant bits of steel can destroy the oil pump.
It is an easy thing to check on a prebuy but make sure you don’t warn the oner that you are going to do it, because he might change the oil and then you will find nothing (I have seen this happen).
UdoR wrote:
My way of flying just changed completely…
That is what I meant by “trust” but of course it goes with "availability, “cost profile” and a lot more items…
Unfortunately I am also a prebuy sceptic by now. Especially if the prebuy is done by anyone who has ever set eyes to the airplane before, let alone maintained it or issued any airworthiness certification. Pure speculation, however, from afar, it looks like the plane was “dressed”, an expensive prebuy was offered to give the impression of a thorough inspection, and when the known deficiency materialized again after the sale, the new owner was accused to have caused it.
This belongs to one of the prebuy threads here but basically anybody who has worked on the plane before should be asked to do a prebuy – because they “will not find problems” which they should have found during previous work.
In exceptional case I would make an exception to the above if a guy who I know and trust over years is involved (somebody I trust to quietly tell me “this is a piece of sh*t”) but a company, no way.
