In September of 2010 my two sisters and I each signed a three year lease with an oil speculator on a property in North Dakota. Each of us received a signing bonus for the lease. As we have mineral interest on several properties in North Dakota our legal council advised us to form a mineral trust for all our properties which we did in July of 2011. In the course of recording the formation of the trust at the county courthouse it was noted that the September 2010 lease was never recorded. I am the Trustee for the trust and have since been approached by another oil company about leasing the property previously leased in September 2010. The oil company wanting to lease the property indicated that North Dakota is a "rush to record" state and that I can re-lease the property to them as the original lease was never recorded and we have since rolled our individual holdings in to the trust and as such the Sept 2010 lease is null and void. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? The new offer is a good one but I don't want to do anything that would be considered outside the law or general leasing protocol.
Thank You
Ed