Lease Enforcement

So I negotiated a lease with SEP on a 25% interest in mineral rights parcels I own in WV about a year and a half ago. They were slow to pay the lease amount and eventually a guy reached out to me and said that they weren’t sure if I owned the land or not. He sent me a workup from Purple Land Management showing some probate work on everyone who owns the land. For my portion it only had the wills from my father and my grandmother, which was not as complete as some of the other owners, but Purple Land Management stated that I did own the land.

However, the guy from SEP was saying that their lawyer said this wasn’t good enough for them. He was very reasonable over the phone and said that he had already invested a lot of money in determining my land ownership. He offered to pay $5,000 to me for any lawyer I hired to verify that I owned the land.

I told the guy that I had a bunch of documents already and that I would call our probate attorney to demonstrate the ownership, thinking this would not be a huge deal. The same probate actions had already transferred several other active leases where I clearly had ownership and received regular royalty checks.

My probate attorney unfortunately had retired at this point though. His firm connected me to another attorney who had worked on my file at the time, but he told me they would just have to outsource the work and alluded to some pretty high estimates for the cost.

I’m not sure what I should be doing at this point and I need to enforce this lease. Is anyone familiar with a situation like this? Can a company that signed a lease with you just say we aren’t sure like this and refuse to pay?

Hi @mpleasants I recommend exploring two paths, one is to sell as that would rid you of this burden of proof, and the new owner would be tasked with showing ownership via chain of title, this is a cost free option for you and even PAYS you. The other option would be to retain a O&G attorney. I know of Kyle Nuttall in Buckhannon WV. Great guy that only represents individuals. He has a few title landman at his disposal and would be a good asset. I am NOT affiliated with him, just know of his work.

Did you sign a lease without being PAID at the time?

Ownership can start and stop in the tax office. My Dad’s will was written so long ago, the county tax office said it wouldn’t suffice to prove ownership of his mineral rights ( I am an only child). We never probated his will (he lived out of state and really had no assets, other than these rights, which at the time he died wasn’t really paying anything). Even though they denied his will as proof of ownership, they suggested probating as if he had no will. It cost very little to do that ( basically the cost of running a notice in the paper) Once time had passed, judgement was they were mine and ownership changed to me. Now, I don’t know but perhaps this same can be done with land ownership. Who is responsible for paying the taxes - who is on the tax bill ? Are you talking about the rights themselves? What I found funny was the gas company had no trouble paying me with just an affidavit signed by me that I was who I was and that I am his only heir. But we wanted a clear title to the rights and that’s what led us to the tax office (sheriff of Harrison Co)