When a Landman or a Title Attorney is researching the title for mineral rights what resources do they use ? If it is properly recorded at the court house along with the amount of mineral acres, is that enough or do they check further ? What other documents would they check
Thank You,
/Fay:
The records critical to the ownership of mineral rights are located on record at the County Clerk's office. The process to conduct this research is sometimes lengthy. One must study the property description via the current deed of ownership. This applies to the surface ownership but what the landman or researcher looks for is any minerals mentioned in this paperwork. If no minerals are mentioned, it's obvious the surface owner is not the mineral owner. Additional property records including mineral deeds are researched in the County archives. They will attempt to use the patent deed (first deed of record) to learn the first mineral owner. From this point, it is following the trail of transactions (which maybe many years), learning who purchased or inherited these minerals. In the end, the current owner, on record is verified. Keep in mind, through inheritence, many times the mineral owner is split into %'s to various family members which lengthens the process. Sometimes when a lease is negotiated, the lessee will request a period of time before making any payments and usually this gives their side time to verify ownership of these minerals.
Thank you . Charles . Do they go through all that even if the current mineral owner's deed is properly recorded at the county clerks office ? Is that office the first place they look ? When you say the property description is that the Township, Range and Section number?