My nephew has inherited mineral rights from his late mother, my sister . I have the same minerals which were conveyed from an earlier equally divided will. I know how to send affidavits to the various County Clerks, but what else should be sent or filed by my nephew to prove his ownership as legal heir? He is the executor of his mother’s estate.
Thanks for any advice–Amy
This depends wholly upon where the state where minerals are located and the probate procedures for that state. He should check with his attorney. If the minerals are in a different state than the probate, then an attorney licensed in that state should be consulted.
All minerals are in Oklahoma counties.
Following up on what Richard Winblad said, in Oklahoma, if your nephew wants good marketable title without any concern as to title, he will have to have your sister’s estate probated in Okla.
He would need to send an order from an Oklahoma court that includes the legal descriptions and the heirs’ share of the inheritance. Thereafter, he would need to contact each of the companies producing to update the ownership information. If the initial probate took place in another state, the process would be fairly simple to complete in Oklahoma.
After doing all the above, he would also have to file the probate documents in each country where the minerals are located with the specific description of the minerals for that county.
By the way, hope you have done the same thing. The counties have a particular form with how they want the margins to be, etc. The county courthouse is also where landmen go to find mineral owners, so very important to be properly on file.
Martha is correct, the probate can be completed in one county. Then the order or a document describing the order with the legal description must be filed in every county where property is located.
Thanks Richard, my nephew’s legal residence is NYC where his main inherited estate will take place.
Thanks, I do recall specific details required when filing in various counties when I was updating addresses .
If the probate is in NYC and the minerals are in another state, you would need to file an ancillary or summary probate in at least one county in the state where the minerals are located. Once that is completed, then a notice can be filed in the remaining counties. I wasn’t sure that I was clear before.
Hi Amy, I had the same happen with my daughter being the executor and inherited mineral interests from her grandmother. Simply file the Will with all included probated info in each county where the minerals are. Call the courhouse of each county, they are very helpful. If there are existing leases send them to the O&G companies via the owner relations department. They will send a transfer ownership paper to your nephew. Good Luck!
My humble suggestion is to check with the division order analyst for producing minerals to determine whether this would work in the jurisdiction where the minerals are located. I’d bet a dollar to a donut that it wouldn’t work in Oklahoma. The clerks can tell you how to file but cannot tell you whether it would be legally sufficient.
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