Hello. I’m new here to this forum. This is long, but I’m trying to put as much detail as possible so that we may get advice or be pointed in the right direction.
My husband and I sold a home in TX in 2013. It was in the purchase contract that we reserve the mineral rights. The buyers also signed the form. (We have a copy of that with their signatures). Fast FWD to now. BP is about to drill and has been contacting me. The field guy told me that BP has already paid money to the man who bought our home. They also state that when questioning him about mineral rights, he told them “somebody reached out to them (meaning us) and they didn’t want them”. Now that was not the truth! This was family land that had been leased by oil companies for years, so I knew not to let the mineral rights go when we sold the home and property. We live in a different state and couldn’t attend the closing. We were mailed the paperwork to sign and have notarized and returned to the title company…which we did.
BP has stated that they saw the Warranty Deed stated that the minerals were to be reserved. It was signed and dated by us and notarized. That particular page mentions that the Mineral Reservation Form was attached as an exhibit, however the Title Company failed to attach it and the only attachment/exhibit was the property description. To try to resolve this, the BP guy drew up a Quit Claim Deed for the buyer to sign. He had agreed to at first, but now refuses to sign it for them. BP then asked me to reach out to him to ask him to sign a Quit Claim and the buyer gave me the one-worded answers that he did BP, “OK”, “No”…and when I asked why he wouldn’t sign it, he gave the same explanation that he did to BP… “it was your mortgage lender who messed up. I shouldn’t have to correct anything.” This morning I learned that it’s actually HIS lender who messed up…between them and the Title Company apparently.
I contacted the Title Co. last week who agreed that there was an error made and was to get with their underwriter (whom they stated was an atty). They were to call me back last Friday, and if I didn’t hear from them, I was to follow up Monday, which was yesterday. I did call yesterday to follow up and the lady at the Title Co. said she had emailed explaining the situation to the underwriter and that she had just received a reply a few minutes prior to my call.
This was her email to them:
"We closed this transaction in 2013. We received a contract with nothing checking regarding the Mineral Reservation and later, before closing, received a signed Mineral Reservation form. Today we got a call from the (Seller) asking about their reservation of minerals on this sale. BP is getting ready to drill on this property and have advised the Seller that, while they have a signed Mineral Reservation form, there is a problem with the Warranty Deed.
Page 3 of the Warranty Deed states “Mineral Reservation Exhibit (with surface waiver) attached hereto and made a part hereof for all purposes”. The Mineral Reservations Form, unfortunately, was not attached and recorded with the Warranty Deed. I attached a copy of the complete recorded General Warranty Deed with Vendor’s Lien. The BP attorney told them he would just get the Buyers to sign a Quit Claim Deed, but they are now refusing to do so.
Is there a way we can correct the lack of Mineral Reservation Form not being attached to the recorded Warranty Deed? What can we do to correct this?"
Underwriters reply:
“At this point it looks like the Sellers need to get with their own attorney as we cannot advise them. The Deed has been of record for over 4 years and the Buyer is refusing to “co-operate”. It may require a judicial reformation of the recorded Deed or some other form of law suit.”
At my request, the lady at the Title Company I’ve been speaking to FWD this email to me yesterday.
We were not looking to be “advised”. We are looking for the Title Company to make a correction! It didn’t come to our attention that they made this defect/error until just recently when BP contacted us. BP agrees fully that what these people (buyers) are doing is not right (accepting money from BP fully knowing they signed the form to not have mineral rights and refusing to resolve this with a Quit Claim Deed). They also feel, as we do, that all of this problem should fall on the Title Company to correct and that we shouldn’t be out the expense of an atty…money that we don’t have to spend. It’s not as though the Warranty Deed mentions nothing about Mineral Reservation…it clearly has a whole page (signed/dated by us and notarized) stating our intentions to reserve the minerals and that the Mineral Reservation Form would be attached.
Should there not be a way for the Title Company to correct this problem without us having to retain an atty? Is there not enough evidence to show that a Deed correction should be done?! This morning when I called to discuss this more with them, the woman who, just last week, was nice, sympathetic, and admitted that things weren’t right and said it was an error on their part, was now cold and a bit upset that I should even call again! She said she was trying to talk to the buyers lender regarding the missing documentation “they didn’t send to us”. I felt at that point the Title Company is trying to place blame somewhere besides themselves. I expressed to her that as a Title Company, their duty…their FIDUCIARY duty…was to catch that there should have been an attachment to the Warranty Deed and retrieved and attached it before filing the W Deed. I’m supposed to get a call back from her tomorrow, though I won’t hold my breath.
This is very upsetting. This is probably the only inheritance I’ll ever receive from my dad who passed in '93. As a single mom, I worked hard as a city letter carrier to build that home on that land. I’m feeling awfully cheated at this point, and like due to the mistake of the Title Company, this buyer is wrongfully gaining at our expense.
Thank you for your time. Please tell me there is a simple solution to this problem that was of no fault of ours.