My wife understands that she inherited fractional interest of seven properties in Ellis County. How do I validate that she is shown as the owner? We are interested in disposing of them but need to understand that she is the owner. Thanks.
Hi Bob, does she have any paperwork about the interests, such as royalty check stubs, tax statements, etc.? Does she know the location of the properties? Those are good questions to get you started. Once you know the location, you can determine the oil and gas company operator and send them your inheritance documents to get them to transfer the interest to your wife’s name. Once that’s done, then you can explore selling the interests.
Hi Bob1. You don’t mention which state you are working in, but sometimes the county courthouse records are available on-line. You should be able to find the mineral deeds & property descriptions either under your wife’s name or the person she has inherited from. There may be some legal work to do to have the mineral deed(s) transferred or conveyed to your wife if this has not already been done. For any properties that are currently leased , the well operators would also have to be notified of the change in ownership to redirect any payments to your wife.
Bob: To try your hand at researching you can access the Ellis County Land Records here (assuming your talking about property in Oklahoma). https://okcountyrecords.com/search/ellis#advanced-search
However, trying to determine the exact mineral acreage she owns is rather involved. The paperwork received from the companies paying royalties is a good starting point. Often, their land department (division order analyst) can tell you how many net mineral acres are owned by your wife. If an inheritance is not completed for want of a probate, you may need to provide names of ancestors.
Bob1- The most important thing is to make sure the document granting these mineral rights to your wife are filed on record in Ellis County, assumed to be Oklahoma. There is no way to “validate” that she is an owner other than to do a complete title review of each of those 7 sections up to the date your wife inherited them. If any of the properties are under production you need to notify the operators of those wells of the change in ownership. They will have done the title and you should be able to trust that they did it correctly. But sometimes that doesn’t happen due to all of us being human and sometimes mistakes are made.
That said, if you haven’t done so already, a probate will need to be done to vest your wife with the interests. Mr. Winblad on this forum can assist you with that.
Good Luck.
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If a probate is needed, this can usually be done without the need to travel to Oklahoma or the court.
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