The county clerk in Kingfisher County cannot find my deed, I am wishing to sell the acreage, I have been given a number of offers but have turned them down as I don’t have the documents and would like to find out what I actually own. I’m told it’s 160 acres, how can I find the deed to confirm what I own so I can see what it is worth? Thank you to anyone that can help.
Ian
SW/4 Section 36-17N-5W
How much per acre are the offers?
Why do you think there is a deed with your name on it? Did you purchase the property and file a deed with your name on it or did a relative own it and your name was never on a deed?
Hi, Ian -
How were you supposed to have acquired the property? By deed or by inheritance? If it was by inheritance, the County Probate Court would be where to look.
Are you receiving tax statements on the land? If so, the Tax Assessor or Appraisal District would have only changed their Rolls after having received copies of a deed or a probated Will. They will have that paperwork in their file for your tract of land.
You might try asking the people who have been making offers how you acquired your land or interests. They tracked you down somehow.
Hope this helps -
Charles Tooke
Thanks for the repetition so I’ll add to it as they seem to have left out: If by inheritance there may not be any deed and probably was never a probate done if you don’t know anything like you seem and you will not receive a tax statement and county assessor will not know a thing if there was no surface involved like it seems. I also don’t think I’d personally rely on people sending unsolicited offers to purchase as they already know something you don’t know and are not telling you, but is why they are trying to purchase yours. Doesn’t sound like very honest people to be asking questions of, but that is just me.
I’ve been offered $1200 an acre.
How much per acre are the offers?
Why do you think there is a deed with your name on it? Did you purchase the property and file a deed with your name on it or did a relative own it and your name was never on a deed?
Hello, my mother gave me the minerals before she died. I was told by a family member that we all had deeds done back in the 80s.
Hi, Ian -
How were you supposed to have acquired the property? By deed or by inheritance? If it was by inheritance, the County Probate Court would be where to look.
Are you receiving tax statements on the land? If so, the Tax Assessor or Appraisal District would have only changed their Rolls after having received copies of a deed or a probated Will. They will have that paperwork in their file for your tract of land.
You might try asking the people who have been making offers how you acquired your land or interests. They tracked you down somehow.
Hope this helps -
Charles Tooke
Thank you for your help, I have asked everyone including the people that have given the offers, and the people that have sent relief sought documents, none of them reply. I seem to be in the dark as no one wants to tell me anything.
Thank you, Ian
Ian -
I’m happy to help in any way that I am able.
I’ve lost track of the original thread, however: Are people offering to buy your minerals or lease them?
Charles
Hello there, people are sending me court documents for drilling and spacing. I don’t understand these documents. I’m getting buy offers. The minerals are currently working, so I already have them leased. I signed a lease many years ago when I was in my teens with the same company now. I have no education on this, so quite confused really. Thank you for your help.
Ian
Ian -
Don’t sell anything - especially if you are receiving unsolicited offers. Such unsolicited offers indicate to me that they know something that you don’t.
If you can scan in and send me a copy of your lease(s) and what documents they are sending you about drilling and spacing, I will review them and let you know what I see going on. Hopefully I will be able to explain the purposes of the documents to you as well.
Oh, and it would not have been legal for any company to have papers of any kind signed by an underaged teenager (I would imagine in Texas that would be under age 18) unless they had been declared an adult by the courts. How old were you when you signed the lease you spoke of?
For the sake of full disclosure, I am a Certified Professional Landman with more than 30 years of experience in representing companies in the field, addressing the concerns of mineral and landowners. If I cannot adequately address your concerns, I will try and direct you to someone or some organization who can.
One other thing: I have not yet asked around about what is being paid for leases in your general area, but 167 mineral acres x $1,250.00 = $208,750.00 in Bonus payment.
Are you used to receiving that sort of money? If not, you might want to consider consulting someone who is. Ask their advice about how to lessen or even zero-out the taxes you are going to potentially owe.
And I would suggest asking for advice from trusted individuals over Investment or Tax Professionals - they all work on commission or by the hour…
Either way, be careful about what you do with it: That $200k can disappear in a heartbeat into new toys and new girlfriends and leave you stranded, owing the IRS big time.
Charles
Ian,
I would suggest the first thing you do is take it easy, take a breath, take your time.
Now, go back and look carefully at the questions you’ve been asked so far. Perhaps list them out and then provide simple answers in your reply/post. Just keep in mind, you are not under any pressure at the moment and there is no need to rush. Do not let anyone make you feel like you have to act immediately.
It seems that you have known about this land for a long time because you say you signed a gas lease many years ago. Actually, I am not sure how you executed a lease as a teenager, but that is another story.
So you have a lease, so you must have some mineral rights and per your posts possibly 160 acres. Yet the County Clerk cannot find your deed. Can they find your gas/oil lease? It should be on record as well (be sure you are talking to the County Recorder). We need to understand how you acquired the acreage, but it would appear an inheritance that you received as a teen.
It also appears you are under lease to the same gas and oil company you leased with as a teen. Is there a well on your property? Are you part of a drill unit? Perhaps neither of these and that is why they are sending you documents about drilling and spacing - maybe they are trying to put your land in a drilling unit. Are the documents coming from the company that you are currently leased with?
The more I type, the more of a mess this is. It is very hard to communicate in this fashion since what you have provided is not clear.
But it seems as though you inherited land when you were a kid and you leased that land. Perhaps there has been no drilling activity and now they want to drill so they are sending you information about that. Others may be getting wind of this activity (drilling) and hope to buy your land and mineral rights so they could get the royalties if a well was successful. But I am just rambling and speculating. So I am going to stop for now… you’ll have to provide more clear background about your situation.
Carefully look at questions that have been raised by Charles, MJ and myself and type a response listing our questions and your answer. That might be the best starting point.
But take your time, do not sign, do not sell, do not do anything until you CLEARLY understand what you are getting into. You say you want to sell the land, but is that because you’d get 160 x $1,200 = $192,000 - that isn’t anything compared to walking away from a well with future royalties.
A lot of people here would be happy to help you. Good luck.
Wilson
Hi there, thank you for your reply. The sell offers I have been getting are from a landman. I would have been 18 when I signed the lease. I was given the minerals before my mother died. She had all of the deeds and information but I was not given anything and it was all lost. I have been looking for the information for a while but these people will not give me the information so I have felt that they are not telling me something. I do wish to sell but I need to know everything I can before I go forward with it. I understand that there is drilling taking place on the land and that is why I’m getting these offers for sale.
I live in Christchurch, New Zealand, so it has been hard finding out any information. Even the oil company I have leased with can’t tell me anything? The information must be somewhere, as if it wasn’t I wouldn’t be getting letters. I will try and scan in the court document I have tomorrow. Thank you for your help.
Here is an example of one of the court documents I have been sent if it helps:
Ian
Ian, I would highly recommend taking Charles’ advice and slow down and contact him. We too have received many offers to purchase our minerals. If we had sold, we would have received about the same amount as our first year’s royalty that we received. I don’t know where your property is, but if they have contacted you to purchase, you may own something. You may be selling millions for pennies on the dollar. If there is already a well, chances are you will start receiving royalties soon. Depending on where your land is, your first payment may be more than the offer.
Ian Mark Douglas said:
Hi there, thank you for your reply. The sell offers I have been getting are from a landman. I would have been 18 when I signed the lease. I was given the minerals before my mother died. She had all of the deeds and information but I was not given anything and it was all lost. I have been looking for the information for a while but these people will not give me the information so I have felt that they are not telling me something. I do wish to sell but I need to know everything I can before I go forward with it. I understand that there is drilling taking place on the land and that is why I’m getting these offers for sale.
I live in Christchurch, New Zealand, so it has been hard finding out any information. Even the oil company I have leased with can’t tell me anything? The information must be somewhere, as if it wasn’t I wouldn’t be getting letters. I will try and scan in the court document I have tomorrow. Thank you for your help.
Here is an example of one of the court documents I have been sent if it helps:
Ian
Charles Emery Tooke III said:
Ian -
Don’t sell anything - especially if you are receiving unsolicited offers. Such unsolicited offers indicate to me that they know something that you don’t.
If you can scan in and send me a copy of your lease(s) and what documents they are sending you about drilling and spacing, I will review them and let you know what I see going on. Hopefully I will be able to explain the purposes of the documents to you as well.
Oh, and it would not have been legal for any company to have papers of any kind signed by an underaged teenager (I would imagine in Texas that would be under age 18) unless they had been declared an adult by the courts. How old were you when you signed the lease you spoke of?
For the sake of full disclosure, I am a Certified Professional Landman with more than 30 years of experience in representing companies in the field, addressing the concerns of mineral and landowners. If I cannot adequately address your concerns, I will try and direct you to someone or some organization who can.
One other thing: I have not yet asked around about what is being paid for leases in your general area, but 167 mineral acres x $1,250.00 = $208,750.00 in Bonus payment.
Are you used to receiving that sort of money? If not, you might want to consider consulting someone who is. Ask their advice about how to lessen or even zero-out the taxes you are going to potentially owe.
And I would suggest asking for advice from trusted individuals over Investment or Tax Professionals - they all work on commission or by the hour…
Either way, be careful about what you do with it: That $200k can disappear in a heartbeat into new toys and new girlfriends and leave you stranded, owing the IRS big time.
Charles
Ian Mark Douglas said:
Hello there, people are sending me court documents for drilling and spacing. I don’t understand these documents. I’m getting buy offers. The minerals are currently working, so I already have them leased. I signed a lease many years ago when I was in my teens with the same company now. I have no education on this, so quite confused really. Thank you for your help.
Ian
Wow, giving financial advice to someone like they are still a teenage kid and you’re their dad.
Ian,
If you’re wanting to know how many mineral acres you own, simply call the operator of the well who you leased to or holds the lease now and ask them what they show on their deck that you own as for net acreage. Like Wilson said, call the County Clerk in Kingfisher and get a copy of the lease you signed and then tell us the royalty decimal in your lease along with the decimal on your royalty check statement and we can look up the spacing and tell you how many acres you own that way also but I’d call the operator first. If you’re going to sell, make certain it doesn’t say all your interest and only states what they pay you for like 160 acres. Also, I would never send a signed deed prior to payment, use an intermediary. Don’t listen to anyone who says never sell as they cannot predict the future and if a well will ever get drilled, price of oil and if a well is drilled how good it will be, but do consider keeping 1/2 rather than sell all. Your relative or mother may be the person on record as owner (last conveyance of ownership) and then your name on the lease is how they found you but there may not be a deed to you on record, maybe you signed an affidavit of heirship also when you leased and it is on record.
Ian,
Don’t ever, ever sell your mineral rights. You may sell the land but never sell the mineral rights. That’s your bread and butter. Just my opinion.
Sounds like you need an Oil and Gas Attorney in the worst of ways. Good Luck.
Ian -
This type of declaration is to give the land and/or mineral owners notice that a Unit is being formed and that a well is about to be drilled in it. This is a very good thing, as most people’s minerals end up never being developed. Look how long your family has waited, for example.
It would be ill advised for you to sell the minerals before at least the first well is completed. A good well could bring you much more than $1,250 an acre and very possibly that much money every month for 30 - 40 years.
The notice you sent the link to was in Logan County, Oklahoma. Do you own minerals there as well?
Charles
Something that just occurred to me:
It might not be that the Clerk was not able to find any of your papers filed of record. It could be that their staff is so busy that they are not able to provide research services for the public.
That’s what Landmen and Abstracters do.
Charles
Really,
a good well in Kingfisher County could bring you $1250 per month per acre and produce that for 30 to 40 years? Yes, and he could win the lottery 100 times next week; both are probably as likely to happen. So why would someone want to tell someone something that just isn’t true? Being helpful is one thing, but that is beyond exaggeration and could hurt or cost someone a lot. At least be rational when trying to help someone.
Ian,
Sounds like you need an attorney to look into this situation. Good luck. Don’t give up.