Ive been reading your forum and thats helped with a little of the confusion but not all. heres my problem.
I got a call from my little brother 2 weeks ago wanting to know if i would quitclaim him some mineral rights that our Mother had. I had no idea she had them or that I was the soul owner of them. He came to visit next day saying he wanted to explain what was happening. Seems somehow he found out about Antero wanting to lease the mineral rights from 73 acres. He had a copy of my Mothers will and it stated i was the soul owner and he felt that since i hadnt done anything i wasnt interested and he was. There wasnt much you could get for the rights he stated since my share was only 0.30417 but he would like to have them. I told him to send me the paper work let me read it over and i'd let him know. That's when the trouble started. After reading the lease and talking with my sister seems a lot was left out of the discussion. I said no to the deal and since then have lived to regret it. Antero landman has been contacting me saying they HAVE to have my decision. She keeps contradicting herself. I finally agreed to meet with her Thursday and she was very rude in my opinion. When i pointed out places in the lease I wanted changed if I was to sign she told me in a very nasty tone, NOPE, CAN'T DO THAT. THE LEASE STAYS AS IS. WE WON'T CHANGE ANYTHING AND WE WONT GO ANY HIGHER ON BONUS OR ROYALTY. THE TIME FOR NEGOTIATIONS ARE OVER. The boss wants all the signatures in by Monday. The bonus she is talking about is 750.00 and 14% royalty. When i pointed out that i needed time to decide she went out on me. She told me i had til Monday to let her know. After that she wouldn't contact me again. They would simply file a LOST HEIR PAPER and i would not receive anything. She had told me in the beginning there was over 300 heirs but Thursday she said that they have 37 heirs signed up and that gives them enough legally to start drilling and they wouldn't be waiting around for me. That didn't sound like a correct number. i said fine considering i only have known about this deal for 2 weeks that is very unfair of you all to push me like that. she got up said well by Monday or nothing, its your choice. i walked away. I cant afford an attorney on my fixed income have no where else to turn. I really hope someone can give me a little advice on this. I do know from talking to a few other heirs that they were told this is a prime piece of property and they looked to make a lot of money. We don't own the property just the mineral right, but still NO ONE should be treated like that woman treated me. If my husband hadn't been with me I really feel that she would have gotten an earful. I'm not one to sit and take crap from people but from what i read in the forum one of the things in the Leasing: Mineral Rights 10 things to do was to BE NICE. Sorry to rant on and on but this is all new to me and she doesn't make it easy to deal with or understand. BTW thanks for letting me be a part of the forum. At least I am finding little things that seem to make since.
Charlene, First thing Monday call Antero Resources in Denver 303-357-7310, lay in on the line with them, no one should be treated as you have. Other members of this forum will have a lot more to say on this matter, and will offer more suggestions I am sure. I have signed several leases with Antero and have always been treated with respect. The rep you are dealing is crude and in my opinion should lose her job. Hang tough on this one.
Good answer Arnold. Charlene, First of all, your brother should not be invited to dinner anytime soon with his handling of this. The agent you talked to is being just as we have posted before in our topics. If you go down and read some of the posts and some I have posted you will get some answers. These threats are what makes people want to back off from dealing with these companies. The figures you were given are way too low and I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 per acre 20% gross no deduction royalty would be a good starting point. When they call tell them those figures and wait. They will jump stiff legged so just say sorry about that. They will get back with you eventually I would bet. Post any questions and let us know when they do. This mineral rights stuff is a process and matters not if you have a half acre or 100 acres, it is still your property. Those comments that were made by that agent are just tactics. There is no time table and do not let them make you feel like you are holding them up. They only want your signature so they can move on to the next "victim".
Don't regret saying "no." That was a very wise first step. Charlene, I've only been part of this forum for 3 weeks. When I found out that my siblings and I were heirs to mineral rights, I felt your confusion, uncertainty, and frustration. I started out by reading all of the posts and comments here and joined the forum less than a week ago. I found it helpful to jot down the posts that pertained to my situation, and am taking the advice of many. There is a TON of help here by caring folks that have been in your shoes! I have a long way to go (just got my lease modification from Antero yesterday). I'm glad you were able to contact other heirs for their input, that is one of the things I'm trying to do now. Good luck and I hope you will post updates often. If you don't mind me asking, what district is the property in?
DT when you say 3000 per acre do you mean 3000 times 73 acres? cause she said with all the heirs they cant go beyond the 762 flat bonus. thats not per acre just a flat 762.00 dollars. is it possible to get the whole 3000 per acre for my share of the mineral rights?
Charlene, 3000 per acre would be for one acre. If you have a half acre it would 1500. If you owned all 73 you would be sitting pretty. Every heir to that 73 acres has to sign a lease whether it would be one person or 73 people. The agent is full of non truths and do not believe all that stuff. They are looking for those such as you who are uninformed of their minerals. Then they try to get you to sign for an amount that is very low. The minimum royalty started out a couple years ago at 1500/12.5% and she was offering half of that for your bonus. If you have 0.30417 that would be a little over 912.00 @3000. As far as being nice you gave them the opportunity to be nice and they failed miserably. Nice goes out the widow when dealing with most of these land agents after your first contact with them. There is no forced pooling integration bill in Wv and it is costly for these companies to file to try to force your hand and let them pursue your minerals. Just take it day by day and do not put up with any more of the treatment they have dished out on you. They love frustrated mineral owners. They think if they can break you down you will cave in and sign anything they put in front of you just to get rid of them. This your property not theirs and it was left to you by a family member. Patience is the key and don't believe too much on what those agents tell you . Keep us posted.
Charlene, Do you have interest in all 73 acres, or a percentage of 73?? Never the less $3000 PER ACRE is what Dt is saying and if they want your interest bad enough, they will pay it.
Charlene, Do you have interest in all 73 acres, or a percentage of 73?? Never the less $3000 PER ACRE is what Dt is saying and if they want your interest bad enough, they will pay it.
Arnold, according to her initial post, she has 0.30417 of an acre but it is hers not theirs.
Charlene, you have several situations at once here. Arnold gave you good advice, I think, about calling the Denver office. They should know what their employees are doing. And, a lot of the landmen don't work directly for Antero (or the other companies) but either for another company who is contracted by Antero, or as independent contractors. They probably have some kind of quota or they are let go. I have had that happen a few times in dealing with companies. Then the new one doesn't know what the other one had found out etc. Read what DT wrote on some other threads. DT has given good advice about the $3000 per net mineral acre as a bonus price. It is not much more than they are offering, with your portion, but they should do that. They should be willing to come up a little on the % or give you a gross proceeds lease or both. Do what DT says on that as well.
About your mother's will: do you know if it is filed in Doddridge County? If not, I think you should call asap to Doddridge County Clerk and find out what is involved with filing a copy with them. Maybe they need some special version of it. My sister needed to get one with a judge's signature, from the county in NC where my mother lived and where her estate was probated, to file in WV where her minerals were. Then nobody could say you were "lost". I have heard of this before, where the company tried to pressure someone with the threat of filing a suit and taking the minerals. Unfortunately I think it can be done, but not that easily, and especially since you are found and can start the conversation with the Doddridge county clerk's office. One of the people I read about in that situation was able to take about 2 months getting all her siblings together, consulting an attorney, getting some changes in the lease, and ending up in a much better situation than the landman first said.
Thank you DT and Nancy. Im going to follow that advice about calling the Denver office. I will also make sure I go to Doddridge county court house and see what i gotta do to about having my Mothers will put on record. They are sneeky I can say that. But I am ever so glad I joined here. I have read a lot of whats on here and its very interesting. As I said before, I don't want to get rich but i don't want to be cheated either. To be truthful, Im not really sure I want to sign anything. Seeing what their sites look like from pictures my sister posted, its not a pretty site. Anyway, thanks again and i'll keep this updated as much as i can. :)
Charlene, you may not even need to record the will/ probate with the county, an affidavit of identity saying you own an unspecified interest in the minerals in question with your contact information, and I doubt they could say you were "lost". Use the description of the minerals from their lease.
Mr. Kennedy in West Virginia when someone inherits real property through à will the estate needs to be handled in a particular way including filing some special version of the will. The county clerk office knows what is required. Some state law. I think the company would need this done before drilling so it won’t be a waste of time to do it now.
Arnold L Stuart said: I have signed several leases with Antero and have always been treated with respect.
Arnold, if I may ask, have you signed any leases by meeting directly with Antero agents, or did you do your lease negotiations by phone or by mail? Reason I ask is, many of the negotiations that I have heard of when meeting and dealing locally, have not turned out that way for the mineral owner.
DT, To answer your question I live in Utah and I doubt that Antero is going to send someone 2000 miles to negotiate a contract. All my contact has been by phone and as I said before, I have always been treated with respect, Just received a call from Antero last Thursday about a lease to sign, we negotiated price, terms, royalty interest, wording of terms and besides waiting for the mail, we are done. One thing I might add, all the leases I have signed have come from the office in Bridgeport WV, I think that makes a difference.
Nancy, When my Mother died, several yrs ago I filled out an affidavit attaching my Mother's Will, Birth and Death Certificate, that I was the sole and only heir at law and that all indebtedness of her estate had been paid. I had the Affidavit notarized sent it to Doddridge County Courthouse and all tax forms, and records were transferred over to my name. Very simple, but of course I was the only heir to her estate, that made it a lot easier. The Courthouse sent me the Affidavit to fill out.
My information is from Ritchie County, the county directly to the west of Doddridge. I remember now hearing that things in Doddridge are a little more lax. I had heard about a mineral rights transfer in Ritchie, based on an affidavit of heirship prepared by a Doddridge attorney (the owner had inherited property in both counties). The Ritchie people said this would not work if there was a will involved so a purchase made using this as a title transfer device would not be recorded as a title transfer in Ritchie. I thought all the counties were subject to the same state law. And, Arnold, you said that you had attached a copy of the will so maybe that was sufficient to fulfill that part of the law. I think there is a particular affidavit form, and if it says there is a will, the affiant is supposed to file (or at least provide) a will. In the situation I am referring to, the affiant (heir) stated that there was a will but did not provide a copy and when pressed would not provide a copy.
Referring back to Nancy's comment re:..... " Then nobody could say you were "lost". I have heard of this before, where the company tried to pressure someone with the threat of filing a suit and taking the minerals. Unfortunately I think it can be done, but not that easily, and especially since you are found......" Does anyone have additional insight or experience? Wouldn't there be grounds for a fraud suit if they filed "lost" since they obviously have been in contact? If they did file, would they legally have to notify the supposed "lost" heir?
Charlene Crutchfield said:
Thank you DT and Nancy. Im going to follow that advice about calling the Denver office. I will also make sure I go to Doddridge county court house and see what i gotta do to about having my Mothers will put on record. They are sneeky I can say that. But I am ever so glad I joined here. I have read a lot of whats on here and its very interesting. As I said before, I don't want to get rich but i don't want to be cheated either. To be truthful, Im not really sure I want to sign anything. Seeing what their sites look like from pictures my sister posted, its not a pretty site. Anyway, thanks again and i'll keep this updated as much as i can. :)