Hi everyone!
I have been going through this interminable process of switching mineral rights into my name. I've been trying to get them to pay me for months. I finally have it recorded in Montague County, Texas. I have the instrument, volume, and page number. I sent all this information to the people who are holding my money.
I called and emailed them thinking it is all done. Wrong. Now they have to do new division orders and they are now telling me I have to give them a copy of the recorded document. Am I wrong to think this is the reason I went through all this recording? As long as they have the recording information, their Landman can walk into the courthouse and get it any time. Is this not correct? What am I missing here? Their Landman already told me once he is in that courthouse almost every day.
Do I really have to wait for the county to send me the document? Is this normal procedure? I live far away and I can't just go over to the courthouse.
Maybe I'm getting a little suspicious. Are these delaying tactics? These people have had a lot of my money for a long time. Since my husband died in January to be exact. Maybe they are unhappy with me because I turned down their offer to buy me out?
The bottom line is, I need to expedite all this and actually get the money. I have been doing without my regular income for almost 9 months now and this is becoming a real hardship for me. Any ideas? What should I do now? Just keep on waiting?
Thanks! All ideas are appreciated.
Patty:
Could you devulge the name of the company you are dealing with? By stating the name of the company, someone on this board might be able to provide a contact that could expedite your matter.
It's a small operator named Glen Gonzenbach. He works out of Henrietta, Texas.
Patty:
Is Glen Gonzenbach the operator or the landman you are dealing with? If this paper work is in correct order and the facts you state are correct, you have a right to be suspicious in regards to the delaying of processing your documents. It might be worth a trip to the County Clerk's office for copies of your paperwork and then to make a trip to this company office. This might be cheaper than hiring a professional to handle the matter.
Charles,
Since Patty lives in Las Vegas it might be cheaper for her to hire a landman to check into this matter. Does sound like someone is giving her the runaround. Good luck Patty.
Clint Liles
Patty -
Please allow me to express my most heartfelt condolences for your recent loss of your husband.
It is an industry wide, standard requirement that you provide whoever is maintaining the Royalty Division records and disbursing the royalty checks certified copies of any document changing ownership. Sometimes that is the company that drilled the well, sometimes it is the company(ies) buying the oil and gas.
It is not up to them to research the records and look for your records. No oil and gas company, not even Exxon, can afford to have Landmen watching for every change of ownership in every courthouse for every producing well in every oil and gas producing state. It is difficult enough just sorting out who owns what just to get the wells drilled!
You have to provide them with evidence of any changes, whether it be in ownership or address - anything.
Be patient, no one is stealing your money. At least I hope not. Order a certified copy of whatever documentation you have filed of record and send it to the company. They may also need a certified copy of a Certificate of Death - you'll need to ask them.
They'll send you a new Royalty Division Order and when they have received your signed copy back, release the funds.
Montague County is bustling with drilling activity - you should have a nice income for many years to come.
If you would like to entertain offers for all or part of your minerals, I know of several people here in the Dallas - Fort Worth area that might be interested.
Hope this helps -
Charles Emery Tooke III
Certified Professional Landman
Fort Worth, Texas
He is the operator. And as someone else said, I live in Las Vegas so a quick trip to the courthouse is out of the question. It would be much easier to take care of all this if I did live there.
Mr. Gonzenbach has the Affidavit and I sent him the instrument, volume, and page number the county clerk gave me.
charles s mallory said:
Patty:
Is Glen Gonzenbach the operator or the landman you are dealing with? If this paper work is in correct order and the facts you state are correct, you have a right to be suspicious in regards to the delaying of processing your documents. It might be worth a trip to the County Clerk's office for copies of your paperwork and then to make a trip to this company office. This might be cheaper than hiring a professional to handle the matter.
I wish I could hire a Landman. Until a few months ago, I didn't know what a Landman was... Or an attorney would be good too. After what I went through to get to where I am today, these people are worth every dime they get paid. I am going through a huge learning curve.
The mineral rights were just part of my income for years and when my husband died, all the payments just stopped. Immediately. No time to sort things out, no grace period. Now I've been without that income for almost 9 months and honestly, it's hard. I can't afford to hire anyone for anything. I was in the middle of remodeling my house when all this happened and I can't finish it. So I've also been 'camping' for all this time.
In the future, after I finally get some money, I do plan to hire someone to research what I actually own. I've learned enough to know it was mismanaged by the family. I will do everything I can do first to get what I do know about in some kind of logical order. I have piles of plats, tax statements, and contracts all over the place. I started with Montague County because the folks holding most of my money are there. I think!
Clint Liles said:
Charles,
Since Patty lives in Las Vegas it might be cheaper for her to hire a landman to check into this matter. Does sound like someone is giving her the runaround. Good luck Patty.
Clint Liles
Patty:
I was unaware that you lived such a distance from your mineral area. Mr. Tooke offers you good advice in that certified records along with a Death Certificate should suffice in sealing your deal with this company. If this does not work, you might begin locating someone to represent in this matter but as Mr. Tooke advises, be patient for the time being. Good luck and I know that being long distance is a disadvantage as I am in the same boat.
Thanks Mr. Tooke!
I have lots of questions about selling mineral rights. I think I will probably go read everything here about it. Start learning.
I know I have quite a bit of acreage that's not being used now that could be leased.
Over the years, we got literally hundreds of offers. I saw many of them. My husband and his father before him always said, "You don't ever sell mineral rights."
I have to eat the 800lb elephant in my living room one bite at a time so all this has to be considered in the future.
Charles Emery Tooke III said:
Patty -
Please allow me to express my most heartfelt condolences for your recent loss of your husband.
It is an industry wide, standard requirement that you provide whoever is maintaining the Royalty Division records and disbursing the royalty checks certified copies of any document changing ownership. Sometimes that is the company that drilled the well, sometimes it is the company(ies) buying the oil and gas.
It is not up to them to research the records and look for your records. No oil and gas company, not even Exxon, can afford to have Landmen watching for every change of ownership in every courthouse for every producing well in every oil and gas producing state. It is difficult enough just sorting out who owns what just to get the wells drilled!
You have to provide them with evidence of any changes, whether it be in ownership or address - anything.
Be patient, no one is stealing your money. At least I hope not. Order a certified copy of whatever documentation you have filed of record and send it to the company. They may also need a certified copy of a Certificate of Death - you'll need to ask them.
They'll send you a new Royalty Division Order and when they have received your signed copy back, release the funds.
Montague County is bustling with drilling activity - you should have a nice income for many years to come.
If you would like to entertain offers for all or part of your minerals, I know of several people here in the Dallas - Fort Worth area that might be interested.
Hope this helps -
Charles Emery Tooke III
Certified Professional Landman
Fort Worth, Texas
Patty:
You have the right idea in that you should do your homework before deciding to sell your minerals. I have been a mineral owner since 2004 and since that time, had many offers to sell my minerals. In each case, after hours of research, the majority was low balling on their offers and it became apparent that most was just fishing for someone who wanted instant cash whereas the mineral owner would not actually realize what the long term value of the minerals would be.
patty laird said:
Thanks Mr. Tooke!
I have lots of questions about selling mineral rights. I think I will probably go read everything here about it.
Over the years, we got literally hundreds of offers. I saw many of them.
Charles Emery Tooke III said:
Patty -
Please allow me to express my most heartfelt condolences for your recent loss of your husband.
It is an industry wide, standard requirement that you provide whoever is maintaining the Royalty Division records and disbursing the royalty checks certified copies of any document changing ownership. Sometimes that is the company that drilled the well, sometimes it is the company(ies) buying the oil and gas.
It is not up to them to research the records and look for your records. No oil and gas company, not even Exxon, can afford to have Landmen watching for every change of ownership in every courthouse for every producing well in every oil and gas producing state. It is difficult enough just sorting out who owns what just to get the wells drilled!
You have to provide them with evidence of any changes, whether it be in ownership or address - anything.
Be patient, no one is stealing your money. At least I hope not. Order a certified copy of whatever documentation you have filed of record and send it to the company. They may also need a certified copy of a Certificate of Death - you'll need to ask them.
They'll send you a new Royalty Division Order and when they have received your signed copy back, release the funds.
Montague County is bustling with drilling activity - you should have a nice income for many years to come.
If you would like to entertain offers for all or part of your minerals, I know of several people here in the Dallas - Fort Worth area that might be interested.
Hope this helps -
Charles Emery Tooke III
Certified Professional Landman
Fort Worth, Texas
Patty -
Organizations like the National Association of Royalty Owners may have information you can download about mineral and royalty ownership. They probably have a list of qualified Oil and Gas Attorneys as well.
If you have questions about a specific topic, I may have something I can send you on it.
And I'd be happy to sort your papers out for you and tell you what you own, but you'd have to bring them all down to Texas. If it's not too many, maybe you can scan them in.
If you have trouble getting the certified copy from Montague County, let me know and I'll run up and get one for you. It's only about 90 miles from where I live. I can even mail it to the company on your behalf.
Above all, calm down. It will all be OK, I promise. And I've never lied to a woman.
Charles
Patty -
With everything that's been happening in your life these past year, I think this is just what you need.
You might remember receiving this link several years ago to a funny-as-can-be website, where a guy showed us all how to "Dance Properly": http://www.zefrank.com/invite/swfs/index2.html
Ze Frank is the goofy guy in the video. Total Lunatic. He made the thing up and sent it to a few friends of his as an invitation to his birthday party. His friends apparently thought it was worth sharing and it ended up scoring some gazillion internet hits within just a few days or something. He has be doing internet stuff ever since.
He has developed a website of various internet art projects he has created, which I need to invest more time in exploring: http://zefrank.com
But it is his "Video Choir" concept that I ran across while watching one of the TEDtalks on Netflix (highly recommended) that is what I want to share a single song from with you.
I don't know if this was his first effort at such a thing, but in compiling a response to a young woman's request for a song when she was in a bad way, he sent out a simple, basic little song to his then website fans - asking them to submit "sing alongs".
I think the result is quite moving and I sing it to myself quite frequently.
You can link into the entire song at either the top or the bottom of the page below and parts of it as it was being constructed in the middle (Very enjoyable - the little girl really killed it).
But before you click on any of the song links inside the webpage, I urge you to read the story of the song in the two columns to the left of those links first.
Hope you find it enjoyable. If you make a donation, he will let you download it to your computer. I gave him $10.
Go to: http://www.zefrank.com/chillout/
Hope this helps -
Charles
Sounds like to me you have provided him with everything he needs. If he is not responding or can not give you some estimated time of payment, I would send him a demand for payment letter by certified mail. It puts them on the clock to have to respond or make payment within 30 days from my understanding. I think I have seen somewhere on the sight the specific wording needed.
Ms. Laird, I think you need to look up Texas Natural Resources Code - Section 91.402. Time for payment of proceeds. I think it will tell you most of what you need to know on the subject. If it helps you can thank Buddy Cotten, he showed me and I am just passing it on. When you scroll down far enough you get to the part that appears to say that you may send the operator your own division order. I think that would trump the operator saying you must wait for him to prepare new division orders and send them out, as it may take him months to get around to it. I hope you have old check stubs and hopefully an old division order to assist you in making your own. I hope this helps. I am sorry for your loss and feel it is a shame that the operator seems to be trying to take advantage of you in this time. Robert Kennedy
I have an update. Posting this thread must have been good Karma. Finally it looks like something is going to happen. On Tuesday, three Landmen are having a meeting to do the division orders for me. I believe it's EOG, Pioneer, and Gonzenbach.
I am hoping this is good news. I keep reading that money always comes right after the division orders!
Thanks for your help everyone!
Hooray for you! You get an "Atta Girl!" and a Blue Star for today.
RW, thank you for giving credit where credit is due! Like Ms. Laird, I also have been learning on this monstrous curve for a few years now and Buddy Cotton's advice has always been sound. A voice of reason in what can be this most unreasonable world of mineral rights and oil production. I realize that unpaid royalty funds must be held for a period of time then, at least in North Dakota, paid over to the unclaimed property division of the state to be held until claimed, which should be reason enough for Ms. Laird to feel reassured that at least eventually she will recover her royalty payments should the same rules apply to Texas. There is one thing about this experience Ms. Laird is having that stands out to me as unreasonable in terms of not making sense. If the producers do not "keep up" with the records of the mineral acres they are producing from and have no responsibility to do so, how is it that they were current enough on the death of Mr. Laird to immediately stop the royalty payments? Is there some legal notice requirement or mechanism in place to make this happen? Or in the alternative would this be a result of the actions solely taken by the producer?
r w kennedy said:
Ms. Laird, I think you need to look up Texas Natural Resources Code - Section 91.402. Time for payment of proceeds. I think it will tell you most of what you need to know on the subject. If it helps you can thank Buddy Cotten, he showed me and I am just passing it on. When you scroll down far enough you get to the part that appears to say that you may send the operator your own division order. I think that would trump the operator saying you must wait for him to prepare new division orders and send them out, as it may take him months to get around to it. I hope you have old check stubs and hopefully an old division order to assist you in making your own. I hope this helps. I am sorry for your loss and feel it is a shame that the operator seems to be trying to take advantage of you in this time. Robert Kennedy
Mr. Glub, I have wondered about this too. It was like native drums in the jungle. All of a sudden everyone knew. All except for Merit Energy. Somehow they were the only ones out of the loop.
The Landmen started contacting me just a couple weeks after his death. I think it's very odd they found out that quickly. There was no funeral or obituary published either so it wasn't online or in the paper. One of my husband's cousins called me and said Landmen were looking for me and asked permission to give out my information.
Zeb Glub said:
RW, thank you for giving credit where credit is due! Like Ms. Laird, I also have been learning on this monstrous curve for a few years now and Buddy Cotton's advice has always been sound. A voice of reason in what can be this most unreasonable world of mineral rights and oil production. I realize that unpaid royalty funds must be held for a period of time then, at least in North Dakota, paid over to the unclaimed property division of the state to be held until claimed, which should be reason enough for Ms. Laird to feel reassured that at least eventually she will recover her royalty payments should the same rules apply to Texas. There is one thing about this experience Ms. Laird is having that stands out to me as unreasonable in terms of not making sense. If the producers do not "keep up" with the records of the mineral acres they are producing from and have no responsibility to do so, how is it that they were current enough on the death of Mr. Laird to immediately stop the royalty payments? Is there some legal notice requirement or mechanism in place to make this happen? Or in the alternative would this be a result of the actions solely taken by the producer?
r w kennedy said:
Ms. Laird, I think you need to look up Texas Natural Resources Code - Section 91.402. Time for payment of proceeds. I think it will tell you most of what you need to know on the subject. If it helps you can thank Buddy Cotten, he showed me and I am just passing it on. When you scroll down far enough you get to the part that appears to say that you may send the operator your own division order. I think that would trump the operator saying you must wait for him to prepare new division orders and send them out, as it may take him months to get around to it. I hope you have old check stubs and hopefully an old division order to assist you in making your own. I hope this helps. I am sorry for your loss and feel it is a shame that the operator seems to be trying to take advantage of you in this time. Robert Kennedy
Patty -
It certainly is strange that royalty payments were suspended before any information was sent to the companies. In more than 30 years in the industry, I've never heard of that happening.
Even if the companies knew of Mr. Laird's passing because he was in the industry, royalty payments shouldn't have been suspended.
I would be very interested to hear what the company(ies) tell you about that.
Charles