Death of co owner. Texas law?

My brother and I own 3 parcels with mineral rights in Pecos Co. He was homeless and shot himself. He was never married had no children,no will, no nothing. All family left is me the joint owner with him. The county accepted the death certificate and changed ownership to me but Plains Marketing and Apache are more difficult to convice. Because the county records show me as sole owner is this not enough for the oil producers. Thanks in advance

I’m very sorry about your brother. I know how hard it is to lose a loved one like that.

In regards to your question, in cases where there is no administration of an estate, a death certificate is not enough to transfer title. You will need to get an affidavit of heirship stating the above information and have (I believe the rule is two) disinterested parties who have personal knowledge of the information execute it. If there is no one else who knows this information personally, you can do it yourself. It’s just that companies prefer affidavits of heirship that are not what is called “self-serving”. Once you have the affidavits, file them of record in the county and send a copy with the recording info to the company. You will most likely want to have an oil and gas law attorney draft the document for you to make sure all bases are covered. Good luck.

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Ok that makes sense. They did send me the affidavid form so I will file it with Pecos County…