We didn’t receive our royalty check for November. After several phone calls that no one answered, lots of voicemail messages and a couple emails and a 24 hour wait, we finally received this email from the operator.
My question, has anyone else dealt with this? These royalty checks are our only income. I’m hoping to speak with an attorney tomorrow.
Based on this limited information, Robert Carman assigned some minerals to Om V Minerals LLC, perhaps around Nov 1, 2017. The associated royalties continued to be paid to Carman instead of to the new owner, resulting in an overpayment to Carman. The oil company is now paying the new owner all the back royalties. Generally, the oil company would be entitled to recoup the overpayment from Carman and most do this by deducting out of current royalties. Most royalty owners would not send a check back to the oil company. Your rights will depend on state law and possibly the issue of the signed division orders. You can ask the company for an accounting which shows the detail of the overpayment on a monthly basis to date.
I’m okay with them needing to recoup the funds, I’m just unclear on how it’s legal to take all revenue until it’s paid in full. It’s puts the hardship on us, where the error was theirs. We didn’t get the money in lump sums, they shouldn’t be able to either.
What Tim said is 100% correct. If you claim that the transfer to to OM V did not actually happen, then you have a legitimate complaint.
However, if the transfer did actually occur, you received payments you were not entitled to and the Company has every right to get that money back, even if it was their mistake that caused you to be paid.
I totally get that they need that $15k back, but they overpaid us over 2 years of monthly payments. How are they allowed to just take ALL of our revenue checks to fix their error? That’s literally our only source of income.
What would you have done without that 15k? Do that now.
Our checks are $8000 a month. The extra $650 or so they’d mistakenly been adding in wasn’t even noticed. The $8000 being kept entirely from us IS noticeable. We have house payments, car payments, insurance, etc as well as we just started a new business.
That’s unfortunate. Sounds like too many eggs in one basket. Good luck.
Not really all in one basket. We have two businesses but unfortunately we’d just put money into both because we always get paid. 
Have you contacted them to explain your financial situation and talk about a slower process for them to recoup the funds? Perhaps a lawyer could negotiate with them since it was their error.
Yep. Asked about doing payments instead and was told that while someone “could” make an exception, they likely won’t as this is “how they handle these situations”. An attorney would be helpful but without any money, I can’t afford the retainer. I’ve called 15-20 lawfirms and every legal aid society between here and Texas, but no one will help us.
You could always cash in and just sell the minerals. Effectively getting money now for future production payments. If your getting $8k a month in royalty those minerals are probably worth a large lump sum.
I suggest you be persistent and contact them again and ask for the name of the “someone” who could make an exception and contact that person to make your request.
We’ve called repeatedly but no one answers and they’ve yet to return a phone call.
Can anyone recommend a good oil and gas attorney? I just need someone that can review our Division Order, looking for info on how royalty overpayments are to be handled. What’s the rule of law in this situation? After threatening to go to the press, their attorney finally started returning calls and wants us to sign documents to get half of our checks. Just want to ensure we’re doing what’s right.
See out Mineral Services page for attorneys practicing in oil and gas. You’ll want one practicing in the state where your minerals are located.
