can you own mineral rights if you still have a mortgage?
Anna:
Your question is somewhat vague but if you mean that if you have a mortgage (home,land, car), can you own mineral rights. The answer to this question is "yes", you can own mineral rights as this is entirely seperate from your personel debts. On the average, mineral rights are inherited but in some cases, an individual is able to acquire minerals via a straight purchase or as part of a surface deal. Lastly, if your question deals with the purchase of property with minerals and property was mortgaged, do you own the minerals. If the minerals were transferred over to you, then you would be the owner of the mineral rights. You would need to make sure that the minerals wete transferred over to your name at the County Clerks office. I would guess that very few land deals these days includes the mineral rights as most sellers maintain the minerals.
thank you for your thoughtful reply - it was helpful
My family has a similar situation. Our father, about 30 years ago, mortgaged his mineral rights to a private party. We have been getting conflicting advise on how to settle his estate. He past away 25years ago. Some people say we should file probate since the mortgage is no longer valid. Others are saying if we open probate, someone might file a claim. We do not know if our father past away with any debts still owning. Our mother did not file probate on our father as she got everything in the will and she has since past away too. We do not know what the mortgage was for or the amount. The land records reference some paperwork at a bank, but that bank is not in business and the bank that runs the location now, does not have the paperwork and we did not find anything in our father's papers.
Our questions are
Would a landman contact the family that has the mortgage on the mineral rights? The beneficary of the mortgage has past away too. We are worried that her family might true to make a claim if the landman tracks them down.
Is the mortgage even valid?
Should we probate my father's estate now or wait for some future landman to contact us about leasing the mineral rights and then get the mineral rights transfered to the kids?
Joe:
My advice in your matters would be to consult with an oil and gas or estate attorney who has dealt with oil and gas cases. I would do as much as possible in regards to record research and have the paperwork in order prior to consulting the attorney. By doing this, you may save time and money as the attorney may be able to inform you if the evidence is worth persuing.
Joe Jackson said:
My family has a similar situation. Our father, about 30 years ago, mortgaged his mineral rights to a private party. We have been getting conflicting advise on how to settle his estate. He past away 25years ago. Some people say we should file probate since the mortgage is no longer valid. Others are saying if we open probate, someone might file a claim. We do not know if our father past away with any debts still owning. Our mother did not file probate on our father as she got everything in the will and she has since past away too. We do not know what the mortgage was for or the amount. The land records reference some paperwork at a bank, but that bank is not in business and the bank that runs the location now, does not have the paperwork and we did not find anything in our father's papers.
Our questions are
Would a landman contact the family that has the mortgage on the mineral rights? The beneficary of the mortgage has past away too. We are worried that her family might true to make a claim if the landman tracks them down.
Is the mortgage even valid?
Should we probate my father's estate now or wait for some future landman to contact us about leasing the mineral rights and then get the mineral rights transfered to the kids?
HI Joe
We have the our mother's estate with an attorney. He has been giving conflicting advise. At first he said do not open our father's estate, but now he said we should thinking about it.
Thanks
Ted