My mother (and her sister) inherited through a life estate, mineral rights from my grandmother. My mother passed away earlier this year, at which time I reached out to Chevron to transfer ownership to me. They sent me information on what they needed, this was back in May. In the meantime I can’t get any answers from them of where it stands. I’ve even gotten my lawyer involved and he’s not hearing from them either! My aunt is still receiving her royalties. Does anyone on this forum have any advice, or someone at Chevron that will answer?
Laurly:
I am uncertain what it is that you are seeking from Chevron, but you will likely need to conduct some sort of probate of your mother’s estate to transfer the interests into your name. It sounds as if your mother and her sister (your aunt) each had an interest. Thus, your aunt’s interest would not be affected by the passing of your mother and therefore she will continue to obtain her royalty payments.
Typically, when an oil company is informed that a royalty owner has passed, the company places all further royalty into suspense pending obtaining legal transfer of title to the appropriate beneficiary. If your lawyer is a probate lawyer, your lawyer will simply need to conduct the probate. If, however, you do not have sufficient legal descriptions of the interests to do so, you may need to run some title searches to accomplish this. If your aunt holds interest in the same property, however, her legal descriptions would be the same as your mothers.
Hope this helps.
Ms Pledger: Thanks for replying to my post. There is a trust set up for me which my mother’s attorney (now mine) did not file in California as it was not needed. Unfortunately this is one requirement of Chevron to transfer to me. My attorney has gone ahead and recorded the trust in Kern County. We are waiting for those docs now. My frustration is the lack of communication from Chevron. I (and my attorney) just want them to communicate! I was hoping perhaps someone on the forum had success getting Chevron to communicate.
I certainly understand the frustration in attempting to get the attention of a large corporation. I wish you well in your endeavor.
You will need to make sure that you talk to the Division Order department for your particular area. Once you get the right person that covers the field or tracts that you own, that will make it easier to get the trust transfer information to them and get you set up properly.
Thank you for the information. Everything has been directed to the Land Department. I guess things move very slowly in big Corporations . This has been going on since May!
This has been a very difficult year in the oil patch. Covid has caused drastic changes in the working situations in offices with many people working from home, layoffs, etc. Once you have the documents, you need to contact Chevron again and try the Division Order department as well as the land department. They are waiting on you.
Although I am not a lawyer, my understanding is that you won’t have to go through the whole probate hassle if she held her interest in trust. If you give Chevron a notarized Certification of Trust, showing that you now are the Trustee and/or beneficiary, that might get the job done. Since laws governing such matters vary among states, and since mineral law itself is a specialized part of the legal world, you might save some money going to one of the local outfits that provide “landman” service to oil companies and owners. They aren’t lawyers, but they know their business inside and out, and will most likely be able to tell you just what to do. I’m not going to name any company here, but if you look for “land services “ in Bakersfiled, you’ll find at least three, all with excellent reputations.
This topic was automatically closed after 90 days. New replies are no longer allowed.