Dear friends, if you not a owner of the Land can you be the owner of the mineral rights?
No. The mineral estate can be severed from the surface therefore having an owner of the mineral rights & a different owner of the surface land.
Hello Joel!, can you rewied our case and determine what is the real situation? how landmen is it possible?
Roberto, thanks for the request but I'm not qualified to help you in this situation. You would be better off to get an experienced Landman or oil & gas attorny.
Joel
Roberto Lozano Lopez said:
Hello Joel!, can you rewied our case and determine what is the real situation? how landmen is it possible?
So, if I have 80 acres that I own both the land and minerals, I can sell the land, keep the minerals and lease the minerals and if the oil company I lease to wants to put down wells on the 80 acres, who gets the signing bonus? Me or the land owner? I would imagine the land owner would be entitled to land damages - right?
If you live in Texas you can sell the land and keep all or a portion of the minerals. There are landowners reserving the wind rights, water rights in west Texas when they sell the land. In Texas it’s a good idea to separate your mineral rights from your surface rights. Only the mineral owners have the right to lease the minerals, not the surface owner unless he owns a portion of the minerals. In Texas there are sometimes over a 100 separate mineral owners on tracts of land both large and small.
The surface owner is entitled to damages and has to deal with the oil company for his/her surface damages. I leased some of my land prior to selling the surface and negotiated a no surface use lease since I knew I was selling the surface. It is a good thing that I did this because the buyer wanted a surface exclusion regarding my mineral reservation. The sale might not have occurred otherwise. My minerals can be pooled into a non-drill site unit.
Susan Nolen said:
So, if I have 80 acres that I own both the land and minerals, I can sell the land, keep the minerals and lease the minerals and if the oil company I lease to wants to put down wells on the 80 acres, who gets the signing bonus? Me or the land owner? I would imagine the land owner would be entitled to land damages - right?
Walter Stewart wrote: In Texas it's a good idea to separate your mineral rights from your surface rights.
What is meant by "separate" your mineral rights from your surface rights ... and why is it a good idea?
Thanks
Ray, You make and file in the county courthouse where the property is located a “Mineral Deed” separating or severing the minerals from the surface, this can also be done with your water rights depending upon the county you live in, and depending upon if your county is burdened with a water district. Every time I have bought land that has mineral rights I file a separate “Mineral Deed”. If you then borrow money against the surface you reserve and excluded the mineral rights from the Note and Deed of Trust. Don’t borrow money against your mineral rights. This is relative to Texas and some other states. In Louisiana I am told you can only reserve the minerals for 10 year’s, unless production occurs.
Well, I have no intention of ever selling any portion of my land - it’s information I want to know about for future generations when I am gone and have no control over what is done - I want to be able to educate my heirs.
It’s called “running it from the grave”! I’m 61 year’s old and have been doing this all my life and I am still being “educated”. Tax laws change, real estate laws, oil & gas, water rights. Everything is in a constant state of change as always. I would still consult with an attorney and get a separate mineral deed drawn up. This will help on property tax if you get production.
Also,
You can deed and divide your mineral rights to whom ever you want a whole lot easier than you can the surface. Each heir you choose will have their own separate part and the other heirs can't effect their interest. They can't bet and cheat each other as easily and this cuts down on a lot of "hard feelings" later. If mineral rights are not producing They can't be taxed in Texas. It's better to do something with them while their value is less than it is if it is in production.
Walter Stewart said:
It's called "running it from the grave"! I'm 61 year's old and have been doing this all my life and I am still being "educated". Tax laws change, real estate laws, oil & gas, water rights. Everything is in a constant state of change as always. I would still consult with an attorney and get a separate mineral deed drawn up. This will help on property tax if you get production.
After a drill site was prepared on my parent's land, they got their attorney to draw up a royalty deed to us three children with a life estate (each of our royalty interests passes to our children upon our death). We had a non-participating royalty interest, meaning no rights other than a royalty on production. Our parents kept the minerals and executive rights to lease. We received an undivided 1/3 royalty interest out of their 3/3. When the well was brought in, my two siblings and I shared 1/3 of 1/3 = 1/9 each of the royalty and were paid by the oil company.
Our parents also deeded us some land and kept a life estate in the minerals. They leased the minerals under our property, received the bonus, and their 2/3 of the royalty as part of their life estate. Upon our parent's death, 100% of the mineral interest went to us three children as an undivided interest. We also received their remaining 2/3 royalty in an executor's deed.
I have a question. Would our parent's 2/3 undivided royalty interest have passed to us anyway as a result of the termination of their life estate in the minerals, or was the deed necessary because of the initial royalty severance?
I still don't know who gets the signing bonus if I don't own the surface but just the minerals.
Also, though I understand what you are saying, I am not trying to be "running it from the grave" - what I said was that I wanted to be able to educate my children as to what the consequences might be to them if they did sell the property and only kept the minerals. They already know to see an attorney before they negotiate and sign anything about business transaction. If I were trying to run anything in the grave, I'd have to do a lot more than just passing along information I learned -wouldn't I?
The mineral owner receives the signing bonus. The surface owner has zero interest in the mineral estate.
Thanks Laura.