I was divorced in 2005 and I was assigned 50% of oil, gas, or other minerals, whether mineral interest, royalty interest, working interest, or overriding royalty interest, wherever located, standing in the name of my ex husband. At the time of the divorce there was no proper discovery done or mineral deed of assignment. I was going through cancer and didn't care.
I would like to claim the mineral rights and move forward with receiving 50% of proceeds. I know the locations and counties of the leases (TX and OK) but have no idea how to begin. With VERY limited funds I have to do it myself. I have located some documents at the Co. Clerk but do not know what to do next. My question is: what documents are required to be filed with the counties to enter a division order (?) and how to proceed??? Can anyone help?
If they are already leased and producing, I would think you need to contact the operator for each lease and they will request a copy of your divorce decree, since no deeds were filed. That should suffice to prove your interest. However, if you were supposed to receive proceeds from the time of the final divorce, you may have other issues regarding past royalties and would want to speak with a legal professional for specific options.
For properties you acquired an interest in that are not leased or producing, forum members with more experience in this situation could probably recommend possible ways to file affidavits or other documentation. I personally wouldn't want to file my divorce as a public record in each county where the minerals are located unless it was required by the lessee for a new lease.
If there are mineral rights being taxed (producing or not) you would need to contact each county and they would want to see a copy of your divorce to change their record of ownership and split the minerals / royalties.
Thank you for your reply. I just joined today and was not aware that my full name is going to be displayed. Had to change it for obvious privacy reasons.
The way I see it there could be two parts to it: one being moving forward with the division (s) which possibly I could do myself and another being recovery of past payments.
Why would you have problem with filing your divorce decree in the co. clerks office?
How do I find out which mineral rights are taxed? Railroad Commission?
Thank you again!
Unfortunately, your divorce decree is not going to serve as constructive notice to anybody checking the records, or anybody who should check the records. Therefore, in Oklahoma, you are going to need to get as many legal descriptions as possible and file an affidavit, with or without the divorce decree attached. The affidavit will need to contain the legal descriptions so the decree can be indexed against the tract index of the section involved. If you don't do that, the ex can sell or lease the interest and the buyer would be protected because he/she would have no reason to know of the existence of the decree awarding 50% to you.
As to producing properties, I agree with Mr. Kitchen above, you will need to send the decree to the respective operators and purchasers.
Further, you may be able to figure out a decent number of properties by searching okcountyrecords.com
I would not want to publicly file my divorce decree for privacy reasons. An affidavit should suffice as constructive notice for anyone searching the ownership of those minerals. In Oklahoma you don't have to worry about property taxes on mineral interests. In Texas we typically assess property taxes on producing minerals only. So if you have any interest in producing minerals in Texas, you would need to contact the county appraisal district to get started on changing the ownership, as well as contacting the operators of those leases, as previously mentioned.
Great! I just prepared affidavit based on the custom form from docstock.com I just recounted what the divorce decree said. Do I need correct legal description with the tract index and section in this affidavit? And do I need this for both Texas and Oklahoma (as above mentioned by tim dowed)?
You will need an affidavit for each county that your minerals are located in. Each affidavit should list the legal description(s) for each property in that county you own. So what you file in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma will not be the same as Cleveland County, Oklahoma, or Denton County, Texas, etc. Form is same but legal descriptions are specific to properties only located in that county in which that affidavit is being filed. If you only had three properties you could probably list them on all one affidavit and file the same affidavit in every county. I don't believe that is the case here. Make it simple, create an affidavit for each county where you own property, and only describe property for that specific county. Less chance it gets indexed wrong at the county by doing that as well.
It will cost you a few dollars to file those affidavits but less than a tank of gas probably. You are on the right track. The affidavits are more important for properties that are unleased / non-producing. Contacting the county and the operator is what you need to do for transferring ownership of minerals that are being produced/taxed. Although it never hurts to file affidavits on those properties either, but just filing alone won't get you paid royalties or guarantee that you the tax bills when they are due.
If your mineral property ever starts producing, most likely during the curative process, the title attorney will require a certified copy of the divorce decree be put of record.
Susan Moore said:
Great! I just prepared affidavit based on the custom form from docstock.com I just recounted what the divorce decree said. Do I need correct legal description with the tract index and section in this affidavit? And do I need this for both Texas and Oklahoma (as above mentioned by tim dowed)?