Need advise for lease getting landman to follow through with contract. They held the signed lease about 4 months, with inquired answered by promises about needing to do title search. The signed motorized lease was returned with no information at all. After about a week we were able to get thru to the President of the company. He said that the oil company who wanted it went bankrupt. The lease was not to the oil company but the landman company. How should I proceed? No bonus money paid (yes very dumb move on my part). I do have in writing the bonus offer.
Mr. Johnson- Chalk this one up to experience gained. Don’t turn over any legally binding documents until consideration paid.
Check to see if the lease has been filed, and if so demand release or payment of bonus.
If is has not been filed demand that it be returned to you.
Seek an attorney’s help if not resolved by the above.
There are so many games that these agents play, None payment, use of a draft (looks like a check) that isn’t honored.
Thank you Richard. Actually I want it to be enforced because the bonus is $1250 per acre. They want to back out and said they might get $500 to $700 per acre. My take is they received a signed lease document between me and them (Blue Chip Energy Partners). Their Client went banckrupt so they returned the lease after 4 months with no explanation. They kept telling us, when we persisted, they had not yet done the title search. I’m sure the lease has not been filed. It should be there loss not mine. We have documents of the bonus offer. Do we have a chance to collect on this?
The minerals are in Dewey County Oklahoma
Thanks for your input.
Bob Johnson
I did a quick check on Blaine County and it doesn’t look like the lease was filed.
I would like to see this prevalent practice of taking leases without payment ended. Corporations bleed money. They certainly put you in the position of not being able to lease to anybody else until they returned your lease. Two issue are involved, whether you have a valid claim. That is whether the company breached the agreement. You must also determine whether you have a viable claim, whether there is sufficient amounts at stake to justify pursuing remedies. Based upon the information, it certainly justifies having your claim examined, but not in a forum setting. There would be no attorney-client protections, etc.
Richard we signed a lease with Blue Chip Energy Partners without receiving payment which I now know was not the smart thing to do. They have filed the lease but we have not received payment and it is past the 60 days as specified in the lease agreement. Do you mind informing me of my best course of action now, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks, Jeremy