Oneok is putting the Sterling III Pipeline through my property. They have offered $208/rod. That's a lot less than I was expecting. It is going to cut clear across my ranch. We have a horse boarding/training facility and put clinics on most weekends. They say it will take about 3 months. This will cost me over $20,000 of potential income with our clinics that we won't be able to put on. Is it better to hire an agent or try negotiating ourselves?
I think you need help. You should also consider the dimished value of your property which could be great and you should be compensated for.
What were you expecting? How many rods is pipline, and how wide is ROW, figure up square feet convert to acres and compare that to price of land in your area. Usually figues out to be considerably more than you could sell it for and you will end up with ability to graze or hay over the land after they install the line.
Might be a difference in price for selling part of the center of your land and possibly some off the edge, also the property value as a whole is going to be diminished. Then there is the difference between wanting to sell a piece of property as to price and someone wanting to buy from you unsolicited. Also loss of income while they put the pipeline in should be considered as the OP stated. The OP should get help.
I certainly agree, having been on both sides of the fence, there certainly is no rule of thumb here for sure. I have seen some really crummy land for both farmimg and raching bring 25K plus per acre for the dirt that the pipeline is gonna run under. It does depend on whether it is your land or you are buying it.
I live in Liberty County, TX and I have been contacted regarding the Sterling III Pipeline as well. The line will run across the front of my property. There are two other lines across the property and I want to make sure I negotiate the best and safest deal possible. I have no experience in this field but have done extensive research on the internet and the county clerks office. If any one knows a good attorney in this field could you please send me contact information.
How many Rods do you have, a good OG lawyer can cost you more than you might receive. I guess it depends on distance, if that is interstate pipeline they will have eminent domain rights and will make you an offer if you don't accept they can condemn and go ahead.
Not sure. All I know is it will run across a two acre tract of land.
Seems to me like a lawyer will cost you more than they will pay you for the easement. See what they offer first. They may end up re-rerouting anyway and you will have spent a lot of money for nothing. They don't generally cross those small properties if they can avoid it, particurarly since if there are lines there already and the may have a multiple line easement where they are really only going to be paying you damages because they can add another line in there without buying more easement. Way too complicated to answer all of what can happen w/o seeing what they offer and knowing what the exsisting easements say.
Thanks for your quick responses. Just for grins, could you give me an estimate as to what a rod would go ususally go for?
If there isn't much money in it you need the maximum protection in the contract that you can get because it won't pay enough to sue them.
depending on where it it is and what the company is paying in an area it could be just about anywhere on the board. I would hate to quote a figure. I would say add up your total footage then convert it to rods and see how many you have. Then use different dollar amounts as multipliers and see what your total is. Certainly not going to make you rich
Dear Ms. Crow,
There is no way anybody on this board or any other can grant you an informed decision as to whether you would be better off or not with an attorney or professional negotiator.
I had a client - recently - who was ready and willing to accept $375 per rod and needed help with the agreement. We ended up at $600 per rod, a road use agreement at $1.50 per foot, a new surfaced road, a new cattle guard, braced fence, monitoring fee of $500 per day, etc., etc, etc, etc.
So was he better off? Sure, he had over 100 rods. Anybody can do the math.
What he said. I was not going to go as far as he did, but you should get the idea now on how to ask for what you want.
Thank you everyone for your input. After much research and discussion, I have decided to hire a land agent to help me wade through all this legal talk. What's most important to me is making sure the ROW is the best it can be.
Sell the pipeline easement by the "ACRE" of the permanent easement and also an amount for the temporary construction easement if there is one. If you do it by the rod, yard or foot you need to know the width of the easement. It's the actual number of acres with in the easement that you are selling. You are still going to have to pay property tax on the land in Texas and your county! These pipelines fall under both state and Federal laws. It is a real burden on your property to have one on it. If you go to sell the land it is a lot less valuable if it has a pipeline and Power Line Easement on it!
It might be 30 ft. or it might be 75 feet or more wide. It's to me the "acreage" in the easement. Also make sure that it will be for "one single pipeline easement" they might try to get an easement and lay several lines in the future and you get nothing for those.
The broker's that come to landowners to buy the easement work for the company and don't really have any authority. You might try to contact the main office of Sterling and not deal about the price with the broker or permitting agent.
Take a look at Buddy Cotton's website. Superior Oil and Gas lease forms and buy his pipeline easement agreement. Or better yet let him deal with them for you. When you sign it is too late!
Good Luck
I am still dealing with OneOK Sterling III pipeline over damages left over from their construction; literally the construction was held up by several months; they obliterated our watershed which we were to use for our livestock and made use of more land than was proposed in the agreement; please offer what solutions I might use here;
Was there a reasonable time set with liquidated damages if work was not completed within that time frame? If they used more land than what the easement allowed, you may have a case for a lawsuit but do you want one? How much is the potential damages worth? I certainly hope you documented everything. Did you have a clause that covered special damages such as to your watershed? You may be out of luck if damage to the watershed was not taken into account in the agreement, you were being paid damages after all, you should expect damage no matter how often they tell you you would never know the difference. I have one thought, possibly a state or federal agency may be interested. I don't suppose the area had been declared a wetland or the water drains into a wetland by any chance? Just some thoughts.
James said:
I am still dealing with OneOK Sterling III pipeline over damages left over from their construction; literally the construction was held up by several months; they obliterated our watershed which we were to use for our livestock and made use of more land than was proposed in the agreement; please offer what solutions I might use here;
Thank you for your response; This definitely helps. Will pursue this with state or federal agency as my property is located in the floodplain and water flow has definitely been disturbed causing erosion and the natural runoff.