Hello, I need some advise please. My mother passed away 2 years with no assets whatsoever. She did have a will but nothing was mentioned in it regarding any mineral rights. We recently found out she had mineral rights in Garvin County Oklahoma. We were told we needed an affidavit of Heirship to get them put into our name legally. I went to the Court house and got the information on what she owned. My attorney sent us a Affidavit of small estate. Can someone tell me what the difference is?? Also, which county do we file it in? The county she died in, our the county that the land is in?
Susan, I am not an attorney. I was told by many folks on this forum that I would need to get my mother's will probated. It should then be filed in the county where the minerals are located. Some folks on this board have had problems with oil companies not wanting to pay royalties based on only an affidavit. Good luck. Here's a link for you re: title problems. This article was written by Timothy Dowd, an attorney based in OK City. Also, you might want to search on the Grady County board as there was an excellent discussion of this back in April (I think) of this year.
An Affidavit of Heirship is a document attesting to the marital history and heirs of a person who is deceased, signed preferably by a disinterested third party. It is used whenever a person dies without a Will that was filed in Probate Court to give some assurance to the public who the Decedent's heirs or heirs-at-law are, especially for real property (including minerals). The Affidavit of Heirship should be filed in the County where the Decedent, lived, died, or owned property (including minerals). I believe that the Affidavit of Small Estate is interchangeable with an Affidavit of Heirship, but I am not sure.
Hi Pete, The attorney that we are using assured me that they are basically the same thing. She stated that using it means we can skip the probate part. My brother had another party look over it and he said it would work. So we are filing it this week. Unto the next step! Thanks!
I'm an oil and gas division order analyst, so I routinely process affidavits of heirship and affidavits of small estate submitted with requests to change the records to start paying the new owner(s). The company I work for requires that such an affidavit be filed of record in the deed records (or official records, whichever type Garvin County uses for recording real property documents) where the land is located, and a certified copy of the recorded document be furnished to the company before the records can be changed.
If the mineral rights are not producing or under lease right now, it still should be recorded in the Garvin County real property records so that when some oil company decides to take a lease, they know to come to the new owners for it. Call Garvin County Clerk (deed records) first, though, to ask if an official copy of the death certificate must be attached to the affidavit before they are allowed to record it in their records.
If a death certificate is attached to an affidavit it then becomes a "proof of death and heirship". I prefer to use this form above all others. For most oil companies this will suffice. Just beware that at any time an oil company can require a probate be done in order to pay royalties.
An oil company can require that a Probate case be undertaken before paying royalties? I have never heard of that happening, but I have worked in only six states, not including Oklahoma. So can you confirm that is in fact the case in Oklahoma?
Darla Charlow Ragland said:
For most oil companies this will suffice. Just beware that at any time an oil company can require a probate be done in order to pay royalties.
I am a landman and not an attorney, but I have referred a lot of clients to attorneys due to this requirement from oil companies. It is usually when a large amount of money is involved, so it makes the cost of the probate worth it.
Interesting, I had never heard of an oil company making that requirement, although I have never worked in-house or full time in curative. I can see how that might be the case when one person or set of persons would inherit under the Will and a totally different person or set of persons would inherit under the laws of descent and distribution, and ALL of the persons involved are agreed on the latter course of action (intestacy). In those cases, and where alot of money is at stake, the oil company would be in a difficult position: should they pay out based on the laws of descent and distribution and trust all the family members that none of them is going to file the Will for probate and totally change the heirship? I sure would not trust them if I worked for the oil company and it was my decision to make.
I was also surprised. I guess the money amounts have been pretty large in Western Garvin County on these new horizontals and they can't take chances on paying the wrong people. I have a family right now that own 5 acres in a 210 acre tract. The mother willed it to one daughter and her children, but the will was never probated. They are having to decide whether it is worth doing a probate or to do an affidavit and share under the laws of descent and distribution, even thought that wasn't what Mom intended.
We were contacted that we are heirs to mineral rights in Marion, County Tx. How can I find out if I have actual royalties that I own from heirs that couldn't locate me