Mineral rights screw up/Marshall County

Hello!

I inherited mineral rights from a piece of land in Marshall County, WV. I received a summons in March stating that an outside company had bought part of the lease due to property taxes not being paid (it is divided between several descends). I paid the fine thinking it was directed at me, but when I called to find out how to catch up on the taxes since I have a certificate of redemption I was told I paid for someone else! I didn’t realize I got the summons because my name is on the property, not because I owed them the amount. I called the state auditor office and they told me to call the Marshall Co clerk office to see if I can place a lien on the individual to recoup the money I sent to the state. I called the Marshall Co clerks office and they told me I need an attorney to write up the lien and they really couldn’t give me anymore information. I’m thinking that’s going to cost more than the money I lost to this mess. What would you recommend? Thank you for any advice you might have. This thing has been more of a pain in the rear.

Yeah, you’ll probably need to get an attorney to take care of that lien. Trouble is, it’s probably going to cost you as much in attorney’s fees as you would get back IF the person pays the money back. I’m an attorney, and I figure it would take at least a few hours to research the law and then a couple more to put together a lien on this. That’s up over $1000 right there. Now, you might do some calling around up there in Marshall County and see if any of the attorneys up there has done something like this already (I haven’t). If they have they won’t have to charge for research, just putting the document together, and that’s fewer hours. Good luck. I’m sorry this happened to you.

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