How do I find out if the company that has leased my mineral rights has filed them with the county?
Caddo County, Section 17, Township 10N, Range 9W. Talked to County Clerk and she has no record of our lease being filed. Why would they hold off on filing?
Thanks for any info!
Some groups wait to file strategically. Others are just slow. You can call your agent and see if he/she knows. Hopefully you were paid. If you get a pooling notice, then you probably should answer it in the 20 days and choose which royalty you want. Add a line in that you signed a lease with XXX company and if the lease is not filed in a timely fashion then you want the pooling order to override it. (Not giving legal advice-just timing advice so you get something in writing before you are assigned the lowest pooling royalty if the lease is not filed). One of the OK lawyers can comment if that will protect you.
Thank you Martha! (again) I did get paid. My nieces’ and nephew’s contracts were rescinded as the company did not feel the title was secured. Will they be contacted if pooling occurs? They own less than 2 NMA each. I am considering buying them out but not sure how much is involved in settling the titles. Are oil companies committed to paying royalties to rights still attributed to an “estate”? If so, where do those funds accumulate?
I know these are probably dumb questions, please bear with me.
It’s common, and usually not a cause for panic. Here’s why landmen wait:
The “Batch” Method: Landmen often wait until they have signed 20 or 30 neighbors before driving to the courthouse in Anadarko to file them all at once to save on filing fees and travel.
Protection from Competition: If they file your lease immediately, other companies (competitors) can see exactly what they paid you and where they are focusing. They often wait until they have the whole area “locked up” before showing their hand.
Title Curative: They might be waiting to confirm your “heirship” or clear up an old mortgage before they officially record the document.
Call the Landman or courthouse all good I’m sure.
Bonus amounts are not public, just the royalty.
If your nieces and nephews are shown as owning an interest in the County Clerk’s records, they should be named as respondents in a pooling. If the interest is in an estate, the company will require a probate of the estate or may rely upon an affidavit of heirship (possibly).
Thunderbird has filed the first cases for that section. 2026-00126 for location exception and 2026-00127 for Location Exception. Looks like a horizontal well in sections 17&20. Keep an eye open for the multi-unit horizontal and the pooling. If you leased, you will not get the pooling one. Check the multi-unit case for the relatives’ names and addresses or the ancestor’s name. You would need to notify the operator of the niece and nephews’ names as the operator will have no way of knowing about them unless they are listed in the probate or have an affidavit of heirship with their addresses. Yes, an estate can accrue funds while the well is producing. The operator holds the funds for a certain number of years before turning over to the state.
Thank you! When I got the notification of the request to combine the two units, I got one addressed to me and one addressed to “All heirs” of my Father’s Estate. My sister Betty also got a notification in her name but not for all heirs like I did. My father died in 1980 leaving his rights to 5 daughters and a wife. Mom died in 1995. Both those deaths are recorded in the county files. Do I get in touch directly with Thunderbird to make sure they have all the necessary info? My nieces and nephew all filled out Affidavits and sent copies of the trusts, death certificates, etc. to the landman who handled our lease. According to him, the oil company was not satisfied with their documentation and they rescinded the offer to lease from all but my sister and myself. But I don’t think he filed any of these with the county. Can we ourselves send these records to the County?
I’m like a fish out of water here. Thank you so much for your patience!
Thank you Tim for your response! I am so grateful for this site and the willingness of people like you to help! I am 85 and this is a challenge! Is there such a thing as going through a paralegal to do some research before approaching a lawyer?
The younger generation needs to file their affidavits at the county courthouse for them to be official. The courthouses do have requirements about paper size and margins, so they need to contact the office and get the rules.
They also need to contact the landman and find out WHY the documentation was not sufficient and what they need to do to clear the title. They need to contact Thunderbird and notify them of their heirship and that they are in the process of getting their title fixed or they will not be included in the pooling since no one knows about them.
Not really. A paralegal acts as an assistant/aid to the attorney. Going to a paralegal without it being handed to him/her would essentially be the paralegal practicing law without a license. It is similar to calling the dentist office and making an appointment with the hygienist instead of the dentist. Many attorneys will hand down simple tasks to their assistant if it is something that doesn’t require heavy lifting.
Thank you Tim! I am at a loss as to why the Landman asked for Affidavits, death certificates, copies of trusts, etc., and then did not submit them to the County Clerk. Then came back to my nieces and nephews and told them their title couldn’t be substantiated! It does not make any sense to me at all. They are sick of dealing with this and would like to sell. (Was that the hoped-for response, I wonder?) I would like to buy their shares but can’t afford to pay big lawyer fees for small NMAs. Frustrating!
Well, at the risk of costing my fellow legal professionals money, find a reliable landman to help you.
Thank you for your reply, Tim. I so appreciate all of you on this site who are so generous to share your knowledge. So, if I’m thinking this right, and please correct me if I’m not, a landman might help me get this done so I could buy my nieces and nephews’ rights, if I then offered to lease the rights to him?
How does one know who’s reliable? I thought this guy was reliable.