We own property in Texas, that has an oil and gas lease on it. The property is equally divided among the family. One family member has been designated to handle the payment of property taxes on behalf of the group.
One family member has consistently refused to pay their share of the taxes even though they cash their royalty check without fail. In order to avoid delinquency and potential penalties, family members have covered that portion each year. As might be expected, they are quite tired of doing this and are seeking a resolution.
I’m reaching out to ask: What legal or financial recourse, if any, do we have? Are there mechanisms under Texas law or mineral rights agreements that allow us to place a lien, adjust revenue distribution, or otherwise compel this irresponsible family member to pay?
Any guidance or direction to relevant resources would be greatly appreciated.
Is title separately listed so that you each receive an individual royalty check and also receive individual tax statements? Is so, then you can let that owner pay his own taxes or eventually have his share of the property go to a tax sale for nonpayment. Other family members can buy the interest at the sheriff’s sale. I do realize that this is a bigger problem if the property is both surface and minerals, which have separate taxes. Or is the property owned in an entity (eg partnership, trust, llc) which is issuing payments to the members and is not, for some reason, withholding the property taxes? Normally an entity would withhold funds for anticipated property taxes and other joint expenses (legal fees, postage, etc) out of distributions.
We have both surface and minerals and we all receive individual royalty checks and mineral tax statements from both the county and school district. Then I (ETAL) receive the Land tax statements for the family in which I evenly divide those up and send out copies asking for their payment which I collect and send to the tax office. This is the one that comes back marked Return to Sender.
If I am reading this correctly, the minerals are in individual names and taxes are paid separately by each owner. The surface is also in individual names but all the statements come to your address. Then you ask everyone to send in checks and forward them on. You could have the surface tax statements sent individually to everyone and make it their problem to pay, just like the minerals. If I am reading this wrong and surface is in a single individual or entity name, then you can provide the information to tax assessor to have the surface taxes sent separately. If there is someone in the family who is on good terms with the non-payor, perhaps that person could ask for the reimbursement or that person could take over from you. Or maybe you could all get together and buy out the surface from the non-payor.
You can contact the appraisal district for the county in which the surface is located - and submit a request to have the property record changed so that different parties can receive their own tax bills. In essence, the current account should become the “parent” account, and then multiple new “child” accounts are created based upon the division of ownership you provide the district so that each heir can receive and pay their own tax statements.
The only problem with this is that your relative who refuses to reimburse you can also fail to pay their share of taxes even if billed individually, resulting in substantial delinquent penalties and interest. That could be an issue long term that would have to be addressed by the other owners.
Can anyone in the family buy out the member who refuses to pay? That’s the simplest solution. Another option is to go through a partition suit and have the court split up the property or sell it at auction.