Greetings, I recently became aware of an inherited royalty deed for “one-sixteenth interest in an undivided 50 acres of section 194, block 13”. I was doing some research and noticed 5 wells in the section, one of which is a very prolific one. What does this mean for me and where should I go from here. Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond.
We had a similar situation and now collect royalty checks by doing the following:
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File and record a notarized Affidavit of Heirship in the county your interest is located in
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Have readily available a probated will (best) or include in the Affidavit that the deceased died intestate. You can get copies of probated wills from the county the deceased resided in at the time of death. You may need to also provide probated wills or proof of intestate for those who might precede you or your family in inheritance, such as spouse of the decedent, et al
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Have death certificates readily available, not only of the deceased, but you may need those of spouses, et al who would precede you or your family in inheritance
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After or coinciding with the filing of your Affidavit of Heirship, contact a representative of the company who has the Mineral Lease (you will most likely deal with the Landman representing the company) and you will need to send all of the above.
The process is not hard although it takes some research and document filing - I found the landman (a woman in my situation) was helpful, albeit thorough, in providing instructions on what her company needed to start the royalty payments. I am not an attorney but was able to handle this on my own based on my business experience - if you aren’t comfortable diving into this I advise finding a good real estate or mineral interest attorney.
Randy
Randy
Thanks for the quick response. The decedent passed on more than 10 years ago and the estate has been probated. We became aware of this through a purchase offer made by an interested party. The rights were deeded in 1927 and we do not know who has the mineral lease, or if it is leased at all…what is the preferred way to find out if the rights are leased?
Thanks again
Your situation sounds like ours except we already had direct inheritance on another producing parcel so had a connection with a Landman. (The situation I described earlier was a second property sold in 1928 where a small mineral interest had been retained and that I discovered in a title search of the inherited acreage) Someone on this site can probably help you determine if and/or who has a Lease on the property and if there are producing wells. In our case, our Landman did some research for me as a favor…The landmen I know have been happy to help out. If no one volunteers I can suggest a Landman who can probably help you determine if there is Lease and who to contact.
Thanks again Randy, I would be grateful for you to suggest a Landman that you have found reputable, that we can contact once we get the heirs recognized.
I am sure there are very good Landmen on this site but I’ve had very good success with Jack Richardson - his contact email information is below.
Jack A. Richardson, MBA, RPL
J Bar Cane, Inc.*
Email: jack@jbarcane.com