Since Buddy is going to cover why you don’t want to warrant and defend tomorrow, I will leave that alone. I do not believe they have a leg to stand on in not leasing each parcel separately. If they use several pages of lease form, the recording fees need not be much because they can record 1 page memorandums of lease for each lease. I think most companies and lease agents have a lease form they generally use that has been working well for them for some time. It shouldn’t be overly burdensome to them to generate separate leases for each parcel. I think you are asking for the bare minimum and if you don’t get it, I think I would walk. I haven’t read your leases, but I’m already getting the feeling you should be asking for dinner and a movie first. BTW don’t let them have the executed lease on the basis of a draft. Send them a copy of the executed lease, boldly marked copy, and hold the original until you actually have cash you can spend, if you continue to deal with this potential lessee at all. You can conceivably give up all right to your minerals for no money in your pocket, with no recourse but to sue. If you have to sue I would consider that you will be at least $10,000 out of pocket before you may recover, and probably more. Is the potential bonus money worth taking such risks to obtain? I recommend you protect yourself to the greatest extent possible unless you had no need for the money in the first place.
Sean Clay said:
I am also very interested in this subject, since I have a lease in my hand, waiting for my signature. I had requested that the Warrant & Defend part be struck out, and also that they split the two, not contiguous properties onto separate leases. They refused to do either. I am at a point where I just sign it as is, or go find another landman that will work with me. If I refuse this lease, can they ‘force pool’ me, while I am looking for better offers?