I inherited some oil and mineral rights from my mom and she just found out about them right before she passed before she got her back pay on it so I’ve been trying to get it switched over into my name.
But having problems with the oil company it’s sad but I still need my mom’s back pay. After she passed the day of her services my great aunt came to me and told me about some more oil and mineral rights that we inherited also from my great grandpa. But I lost the papers that she had the place send me and now I don’t know how to go about finding them. They are in a different county than I live in.
So how do I go about finding out the description of the property? The oil rights are in Gaines County, Seminole, Texas. And what can I do about getting my back pay and how do I find out how much is truly owed to me?
I’m extremely new to all this, my mom was also, the same way clueless. I have no clue what I am doing here but I know I am owed money here and I really need it. I’m going through so much and I really don’t want to have to sell my childhood home because I need my money.
Dear Shanna: You can perform a deed search in Gaines County under your mother’s name to find the deed to her for this property. Then you can go to the Texas Railroad Commission website and look at their GIS maps and locate the specific survey where your mother’s property is located. The maps will show all oil and gas operators who have wells in that survey. You can then contact those operators to see if they show your mother as an owner. Once you find the right well operator, you will then need to have these mineral interests transferred into your name. There are a number of ways to do that, depending on whether or not your mother had a will and whether or not that will was probated. You may need to consult with an oil and gas attorney about the best way to accomplish the transfer to be sure it is done correctly. Then you or your attorney will send the appropriate documents to the well operator to request the transfer so that back royalties and future royalties will be sent to you.