Hi All, I’m very new to this, so please forgive my ignorance and the length of this post. I received a message last night via Facebook that I am due suspended royalties. My father inherited TX mineral rights from his GG-aunt, who died in 1942. My father died many years ago and left no will. I’d heard family stories about this inheritance, but live in a different state and had no idea how to proceed looking into it.
The guy said he represents a group that looks into unclaimed royalties, and provided me with family details, names, etc, that were all correct and said he’d had quite a time finding me to let me know. He says that the royalties are suspended because I couldn’t be found, and are worth a fair amount of money, even though my share is only 1/16 of the total.
He warned that I didn’t want these royalties to end up in the TX unclaimed funds coffers because it would be really hard to get then. The catch-- because of course there is one-- is that they will get the title taken care of for 20% of the accrued royalties, 20% of future royalties, and would pay 20% of the current and future taxes. They want you to sign a contract and are only willing to share the details and $$ amounts afterwards.
An attorney friend says that he thinks this might be the equivalent of those people who go through the unclaimed cash listings, then charge people a commission for what they could get themselves filling out a single-page form online. The royalty figures he quoted me on what the claim is producing were really good-- $60k for this past January, and $1.5m over the past 1 1/2 years. But I’ve seen no official paperwork to verify these numbers.
So two questions: Have any of you had experience with a company like this, pros or cons? If the offer has any legitimacy, I don’t want to dismiss it out of hand, but I don’t want to sign away my rights either. And now that I know I am owed royalties, but have no idea which company is doing the actual drilling, where do I go from here? My GG-aunt owned quite a bit of property in Beaumont TX, but that’s all I have to go on. Guessing I need to hire a TX attorney (ethical and reliable), but is there any legwork I can do prior to that? Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!
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That is ridiculous to agree to pay these guys 20%. Don’t sign anything. You need to engage a competent landman to do a couple of days of research and see what exactly you may own and then go from there.
Thanks for the advice. Yep, their contract was ridiculously vague, and there’s no way I’d sign anything like that. So think I should hire a landman first to run the title and do the curative work, then speak to an attorney? If you don’t know which company is drilling, is there a way to find a landman who doesn’t have a conflict of interest? Assuming I need to find an independent operator, correct?
Yes I would advise that you hire an independent “field” Landman and pay them a daily rate to do the research. I am happy to try and help out if you would like as I am sure others on the board would as well.
Once you have the legals, an Texas Attorney should be able to assist you with the appropriate title work. see Directory above.
I personally would first reach out to operator of the wells that owe you money and simply ask what needs to be done to get you into pay status. Sometimes you’ll run across a good in-house landman that will help you out rather than first hiring someone.
Thanks to all for the very sound advice. I spoke with an attorney in Houston (friend of a friend), and he and his colleague (former oil company CEO) agree with what you’ve said: Hire a landsman first. They are putting me in touch with someone. They said to only get a lawyer if needed once I have all the title details and have approached the company. I’d skip the landsman step, but unfortunately, I have no idea which company is drilling, nor the location. My best guess is East TX, possibly Beaumont area, since that’s where my gg-aunt owned much of her property. Not inferring the mineral rights are on property she owned, just thinking this is logical for an early 1900s spinster schoolteacher with great business savvy. Anyway, it’s a start. Texas is a big state, so hoping this guess is a lucky one.
I have no idea how a landsman would find a title if they had to search the entire state! Do they begin by looking at the will of the deceased?
Yes a good start will be pulling the probate and looking at the Inventory and Appraisal and going from there.
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