Anyone reading my other posts know that we were denied our claim to the mineral rights on our farm of 130acres and after talking with lawyers that abandonment over 106 years should stand for something was told it didn’t. Well we spoke with 3 Ohio Rep.s they disagree. They believe landowners with proof of abandonment should be upheld and they are seeking to fix the loop holes to prevent this travesty happening to any one else. I guess we wait and see. The law says 40 years and rights are lost yet we have 106 years and it isn’t upheld. Cross your fingers we can get the law amended to be on the side of the surface owner. We believe that abandonment of mineral rights over 25 years should be upheld and rights given back to the surface owner.
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As a mineral holder, I do NOT believe that rights to any property should revert back to another unless it is a legal foreclosure of some sort. The properate is legally owned by the heirs of the person it was deeded to. You’d feel pretty different if yhe surface land had sat, seeming to be abandoned, and it reverted to the mineral ownership? Mineral rights are real property, just like surface property.
If there was no activity to develop the mineral property, why would any do a title search to inform the heirs? What are the circumstances under which a 40 year abandonment becomes effected? Is it correct that a new deed has to be recorded every certain number of years to reestablish ownership of minerals?
I don’t know. This is the first I heard of this requirement for mineral rights to be “reclaimed” every few years. At any rate I believe that back in 1919 when you bought land you bought the whole thing and people didn’t look at under the ground was any different then the surface. But now it has become an issue. I also believe if someone abandons their mineral rights over 100 years like in our case it should become part of the surface owners property. Period.