A gas and oil company leased my gas rights 4 years ago. About 5 months back they showed up very late in the day to take the well apart, so I told them no, that I had to give the people in the rental property some kind of notice that they may be cooking or drying clothes. One of the workers told me I was not allowed to have cookstoves, water heaters, etc. The next day he showed up with a lease that was not anything like I had signed (keep in mind this is a 2 page lease), so I took the copy he had to compare to mine, well I could not find mine! So the next step was to call the clerk’s office to look at the copy they recorded, well come to find out they don’t have to record it, so I call Frankfort, they don’t have to there either. So just by chance my daughter-in-law noticed my wife’s signature was not hers, so I talked to her she said she never signed a gas lease she did not know she had to so the next step was to see my lawyer, he caught on the copy that the front page did not read into the back page, which tells us they have probably changed the front page. So when I get to thinking back, how would the worker know right then and there what was on my lease, out of who knows how many they have? So they try to tell me a man that had worked there had done some dirty dealings while he worked there, the problem I have with that is he did not work there when my lease was signed, so there’s a lot more to the story. Also they are dumping oil out on the ground when they dip water out of the wells. So is there anything I can do about all of this?
I have no idea what state your lands are located in, but in most cases, forging a document and placing it of record is a felony. Contact the District Attorney.
Have your attorney draw up a Stipulation of Fact and place it of record.
Then meet them with a shotgun and get them off your property.
Thank you for your commit Mr. Cotten. I have locked out my wells but I really don’t know if this is legal. Can you commit on that for me? And by the way, I’m in Kentucky.
Buddy Cotten said:
I have no idea what state your lands are located, but in most cases, forging a document and placing it of record is a felony. Contact the District Attorney.
Have your attorney draw up a Stipulation of Fact and place it of record.
Then meet them with a shotgun and get them off your property.
Buddy Cotten