My wife is inherited a small portion of the Sawyer Family mineral rights in Yoakum and Terry county. We are getting some checks from some producing wells, but looking at the mess of papers my mother in law left, I think we should be getting more. I see peices and parts of 25 sections in Yoakum county. Do I need to go to an abstract office in Yoakum county to trace all of the other parcels? Also should i send a copy of the wills and probate to the county clerk to put in the records?
Good question...you might want to call the clerks office and find out. An attorney might be able to advise you as well. What type of production numbers are you seeing in Terry County?
No production in Terry county yet, but we have had a request to lease one parcel.
Under par said:
Good question...you might want to call the clerks office and find out. An attorney might be able to advise you as well. What type of production numbers are you seeing in Terry County?
Robert: I have just finalized this process in settling my mother’s estate. We are in Texas also. It sounds like you may need an Estate Attorney to assist you. The Will/Probate documents are filed in the County where our mother passed away. As to surface estate properties and mineral properties, held by production, our Attorney crafted Distribution Deeds and had them filed with the County where these properties are located. Additionally, we contacted the oil and gas companies and advised of passing of our mother. They then held, in escrow, the accumulation of royalty income until we were able to get the distribution deeds filed. We then sent to the oil companies copies of the Will, Probate Order, Letters Testamentary, Death Certificate and a copy of the Distribution Deeds that had been filed. The companies then sent us new division orders to transfer the interests of the deceased to her beneficiaries. Simple enuff! Ha!
Mike,
Thanks for the info, the wills have been probated and the estate closed so the produceing wells I know about have already been divided. I have my own attourney and I will ask him about the distribution deeds and having them filed in the two counties where I know there are mineral rights. My concern is there are so many sections of land that we should have some mineral rights and are we really getting all of the royalties we should. My mother in law did not keep good records. I found many boxes full of papaerwork going back to the fifties and some of these were about the mineral rights. The newest is a division order from 1987.
Mike Igau said:
Robert: I have just finalized this process in settling my mother's estate. We are in Texas also. It sounds like you may need an Estate Attorney to assist you. The Will/Probate documents are filed in the County where our mother passed away. As to surface estate properties and mineral properties, held by production, our Attorney crafted Distribution Deeds and had them filed with the County where these properties are located. Additionally, we contacted the oil and gas companies and advised of passing of our mother. They then held, in escrow, the accumulation of royalty income until we were able to get the distribution deeds filed. We then sent to the oil companies copies of the Will, Probate Order, Letters Testamentary, Death Certificate and a copy of the Distribution Deeds that had been filed. The companies then sent us new division orders to transfer the interests of the deceased to her beneficiaries. Simple enuff! Ha!
Robert: You should have an inventory of your mother-in-law’s estate. It should have property descriptions of each property. Assuming an IRS Form 706 was filed, it should have a listing of all assets with an appraisal value. Whoever was Executor of the Estate should have this information also. Whether or not your mother-in-law owned 100% of the mineral properties is another issue.
Robert, if you do not know what your mother in law owned, and you truly believe she has a significant mineral estate in these counties, then you might want to hire a landman to search the records to determine what her estate does own. She may have mineral interests that are not under lease in addition to the producing properties. You also might run a quick check of the Texas Unclaimed Properties to see what might have escheated to the State. At the least, by filing the proper probate records in those counties, your ownership will be of record. If you know what parcels of land she owns, you can use the RRC website maps to find any wells and then look up production information on them....Just about everything is at our fingertips today with the internet. You can call them and they will walk you through the process. I am an absentee land/mineral owner and I learn lots from their website.