I read somewhere that if royalties have been placed into an account for rightful owner to collect. As I understand oil companies don’t look to hard for you either. That you lose those every ten years by default. Is this correct? I was left some by my grandfather years ago and I have little info on them. I believe that there might be an active producing well on one area in which I have an interest. I haven’t quite figured out as the lease has changed several times to different operators and the field was extended from what RR commission said but couldn’t get much else out of them. Please any help I would be great ful for.
The first place to check is the unclaimed funds for the state in which your grandfather lived, then the state that the oil company is domiciled and also Delaware as a default.
If you post the state and county, and abstract or section, township and range, folks can probably point you in the right direction.
I do believe i have found some unclaimed funds. I will need the certified copy to send of probated will. However this will was never moved out of trust. I believe from what I have researched is an affidavit of heirship. I am however confused as in past I have leased some of the mineral rights. Would the affidavit of heirship be filed in the county probated or in each of separate counties minerals rights exist. I am not sure how they were leased years ago. Could anyone help me to understand that. I can’t seem to get any answers without money up front for a lawyer which I don’t have on my income. Please any help would be helpful.
Quite often, a leasing agent will be able to use an affidavit of heirship in order to lease. However, in order to get royalties a much more stringent title opinion is required and many companies will not release funds without a very clear “marketable title”. In general, the will or intestate determination is made in the county and state in which the deceased domiciled. Then the documents have to be filed in every county where minerals are located. If they are out of state, then a foreign probate must be filed. Richard Winblad has made some excellent summary comments about this topic on the forum.