Hello all, my family inherited this block of land. Sec 46 lot 41 blk 34 htc ward county, tx I have done a title search it does not say anywhere in the the title or former owners (Marc Tedoff, Lara Miller, Dave Pardun, reserve the mineral rights. So would anyone have any idea if we have mineral with this property? We just want to sell it and be done with it. 7.79ac
To fully determine mineral ownership, you need to research the deeds back to sovereignty. However, Dave Pardun acquired a lot of surface in Ward County which he divided into lots and sold. If you look at the deed from Miller to Tedoff, the description notes that the lot was not surveyed by a licensed surveyor. It would be unusual for a lot through Pardun to include the minerals, but you should make sure. It is fairly quiet in that area and there are no producing wells in Section 46.
If this were me, I would want to follow the chain of title back to at least 1919 (couple of reasons for that date, but won’t get into that here) to make sure there was no mineral rights reservation in any deed, or outright conveyance of mineral rights, in any transaction prior to the Tedoff et. al. owners. Since no one can convey more than they own (Duhig Rule), any conveyance or reservation of mineral rights by a previous deed doesn’t necessarily have to be mentioned in a later deed.
As a work-around to doing the cost and time consuming title search, you might talk to your attorney about putting a catch-all reservation clause in the deed when you sell the land. A clause that says something like “reserving unto Grantor herein any and all mineral rights not previously reserved or conveyed in and under the lands described.” I’ve worked with lots of deeds (as a division order analyst) with that kind of language in them, but only an attorney can advise you about that. Talk to the attorney preparing the deed.
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