Nebraska Verified Claim of Severed Mineral Interest - practicalities

[rprastein]

My father inherited from my mom an interest in severed mineral rights of a handful of properties in northwestern Nebraska (Kimball and Cheyenne Counties) that were deeded to her by her mother. I, as durable POA agent for my father, am in the process of getting them transferred to all five of us kids. We all live in scattered regions of the US, none of them anywhere near Nebraska. A few wells have been drilled on some of these properties over the decades, but as far as I know, they have all been dry wells.

I understand that if we do nothing with these rights for 23 years, they may be considered abandoned and the owner(s) of the surface rights may file to take them. I want to give my siblings (and have for myself) a simple set of step-by-step instructions, with addresses and boilerplate text, for how to assert a claim of interest every 20 years or so, in case no oil company happens to come forth wanting to lease the mineral rights in the interim.

The Kimball and Cheyenne County web sites don’t offer a lot of information about how to record stuff if we are not local – do we need to hire someone local to walk them down to the Clerk/Recorder offices, or can we mail or FedEx them? If we hire someone, should it be a landman? An attorney? Is there an editable form we can use? Would we just copy the property and mineral descriptions off the deed? Is there specific legal language we need to use to assert the claim of interest?

Thanks for any help.

Rebeccah

[Kitchen]

You are on the right track. Most counties should let you mail the affidavit to them directly for recording.

I would call each county first and ask for their recording rules - how much space to leave for their stamps and on what part of the document to leave the space. Some counties / states require the typed named below each signature box, a minimum font size, etc. Also they should be able to calculate the fees so you can enclose payment with it.

As far as the language in the affidavit, in Kansas we just simply state that it is a mineral claim / affidavit of ownership. Include the legal descriptions and possibly references to earlier documents. As you mentioned, including current mailing addresses is very important so that your information is up to date in the record.

This needs to be done to protect your ownership rights. In Kansas we have to record an affidavit once every twenty years, unless you are being taxed on the severed interest, or there are other documents recorded, such as an oil and gas lease.