Hello, I have a question regarding a Deed without warranty. A group of 16 heirs are selling land in Corpus Christi, Texas. We are keeping 100% of our mineral rights and also should be keeping our surface rights. Is a Deed without warranty the document the lawyers should be drafting and also in the deed should it not clearly state we are wanting to keep our "Right to Develop" "Right to Lease" "Right to delay rentals" "Right to receive royalties" ? Any feedback on this will greatly be appreciated.
I am not an Attorney, but you appear to be describing a Quitclaim Deed, which is a document that conveys title with warranty. If you reserve your minerals, you would also reserve the rights of ingress and egress and the rights to test for, explore for and develop your mineral interests.
The Attorney that prepares the document should know what language to include.
Tina,
There are three basic types of deeds. A general warranty deed, a special warranty deed, and a quitclaim deed. It really depends on what they buyer insists on. If the buyer wants some kind of warranty, then try to limit it to a special warranty deed, where you are promising you have not done anything to convey the surface to someone else, but are not promising someone before you did not do something.
Yes, if you are retaining minerals, it needs to have language confirming access, etc. Your attorney should know what to put.
A quitclaim deed just says you are conveying whatever you have but there is no warranty.
Help!!!! I understand what you are saying and have read this from several attorneys on their websites. With that said our attorney is consulting with a oil and gas attorney who has stated this...in a email...."The rights are part of the bundle of sticks that comprise the mineral estate. When a party reserves all of the oil, gas and minerals in, on and under the [property], the party is effectively reserving the entire bundle."which I am not sure how he can state this after all the research I have read. Please tell me if this sounds correct.
Thanks
Tina Henry
Wade Caldwell said:
Tina, There are three basic types of deeds. A general warranty deed, a special warranty deed, and a quitclaim deed. It really depends on what they buyer insists on. If the buyer wants some kind of warranty, then try to limit it to a special warranty deed, where you are promising you have not done anything to convey the surface to someone else, but are not promising someone before you did not do something. Yes, if you are retaining minerals, it needs to have language confirming access, etc. Your attorney should know what to put. A quitclaim deed just says you are conveying whatever you have but there is no warranty.
We are selling the land and keeping mineral rights and not waving surface rights is how I should have worded the statement. Do you have any feedback on this.
Tina, I think you are looking for, not waiving the right to enter to produce your minerals?
Tina said:
We are selling the land and keeping mineral rights and not waving surface rights is how I should have worded the statement. Do you have any feedback on this.
Yes that is what we are wanting to do however the buyer is trying to put to many restrictions on us from what our lawyer has said.
r w kennedy said:
Tina, I think you are looking for, not waiving the right to enter to produce your minerals?
Tina said:
We are selling the land and keeping mineral rights and not waving surface rights is how I should have worded the statement. Do you have any feedback on this.
Tina, if I were buying the surface, I would want to own any minerals on the surface so that if the property became a gravel quarry, at least it would be my quarry. As surface owner, I would want the right to grant easements for pipelines and other easements. The water if any would belong to me along with any pore space underground. As surface owner I would own the timber and wind rights. Tina, are you giving all this in the sale?
In your place the dealbreaker for me would be if the buyer wanted me to give up the right of ingress / egress to produce my minerals. The buyer cannot become kingmaker, saying whether my minerals can be produced.
Sometimes you just can't come to terms and if you can't I would not waste or allow an intractable buyer to waste my time. At some point you have to call it quits.
It sounds to me like you are not negotiating in everyday language. However the lawyers render the contract of sale in legalese, in the negotiation I would state you get this and this I keep, in plain language and except for haggling over price, it's yes or no.
It seems like we are being pressure to sell we are being told that we went into a contract with the buyer and if we don't follow thru he can sue us, my thoughts are that we have the right to decided if we want to sell under his terms or sell under our terms this all has to be done by 9-26-14 less than a week and I am certainly feeling a great deal of pressure the two lawyers are still neg. over the surface rights and what we should or should not keep. We from the first were keeping all mineral rights and the last 4 weeks have been neg. over surface rights which to my understanding we prevailed with the surface rights, but the grantee's lawyer put to many restrictions on the form and our lawyer sent it back to him we have yet to see exhibit B and C of the warranty which deal with the mineral rights and surface rights. And remember I stated we are to close by next Friday....
r w kennedy said:
Tina, if I were buying the surface, I would want to own any minerals on the surface so that if the property became a gravel quarry, at least it would be my quarry. As surface owner, I would want the right to grant easements for pipelines and other easements. The water if any would belong to me along with any pore space underground. As surface owner I would own the timber and wind rights. Tina, are you giving all this in the sale?
In your place the dealbreaker for me would be if the buyer wanted me to give up the right of ingress / egress to produce my minerals. The buyer cannot become kingmaker, saying whether my minerals can be produced.
Sometimes you just can't come to terms and if you can't I would not waste or allow an intractable buyer to waste my time. At some point you have to call it quits.
It sounds to me like you are not negotiating in everyday language. However the lawyers render the contract of sale in legalese, in the negotiation I would state you get this and this I keep, in plain language and except for haggling over price, it's yes or no.
if your lawyers are still negotiating a contract to sell you don't have a deal yet, do what's best for you & don't get pressured into anything you are not comfortable with.
Tina, I would have to see the "agreement" to give you worthwhile advise as to whether you are bound or not. You could post the agreement as an attachment and I certainly would if your lawyer isn't helping you on this and allowing you to flounder around in the dark.
I would question whose side your lawyer was on if he did not advise you yea or nay on whether you are bound to sell and could be sued. It's a yes or no question.
I can not understand why he/she would leave you in limbo on that question, unless your lawyers fee is to come from the sale and he wants his money as quickly as possible and your best interest is not part of the equation.
You do not have to list the elements of the mineral estate (the bundle of sticks analogy) in order to reserve the minerals. We are talking about two different things -- the minerals themselves and the estate in minerals.
If you do not list the elements of the mineral estate, in my opinion, you have a better chance of not inadvertently creating a reservation or condition that you did not want to create.
My advice is that you follow your attorney's advice. If you do not agree with his advice, get a new attorney, board certified in Real Property Law.
Honestly, a little bit of research with Google can be a dangerous thing, if you are doing the interpreting. It is a good thing to become informed so that you can ask intelligent, informed questions of your advocate.