Does anyone know how long it usually takes to receive the lease bonus money? I think the offer letter said 90 days but I don’t remember there being anything in the leave, I’ll review that. We are coming up on 60 days here.
What have been other people’s experiences with the time you received the check from the time you mailed in the signed lease?
Thanks Kyle for the response. I will take your advice into consideration.
Side note to all this; this past weekend I visited my mother (the other owner in my family’s mineral interest) and she showed me all the paperwork she has on this stuff. She has the original deed and all the documents from the transfers on down to us. I thought that was really neat seeing my great-great-grandfather’s signature on the deed that I now part own.
Thanks again for this website and community. Hopefully everyone else is getting good advice too.
Look at the Order of Pay. The number of days they have to make payment will usually be there, somewhere. In my experience, they’ll often take the entire amount of time they have to make the payment. If it doesn’t get to you on the last day, call them the next day and tell them their lease isn’t valid, and if they want to discuss it, they can talk with your attorney. Then call your attorney and tell him they’ll be calling. Make sure he has a copy of all the paperwork so he can be prepared when they call. You don’t have to invalidate the lease if you don’t want to, but that will get them moving quick on making the payment. If you don’t really want the lease invalidated, make sure your attorney understands that, too.
I received the lease bonus over the weekend. They want me to sign an acknowledgement that includes the language:
“Furthermore, Lessor does hereby ADOPT, RATIFY AND CONFIRM the lease, and declare that same is in full force and effect to date, and do hereby further GRANT, LEASE, DEMISE AND LET unto the present owner and holder of said lease.”
This is greek to me. Is this normal and is this anything for me to be concerned about?
That language is saying that you agree that the lease is in effect, and that you’re leasing to whoever currently holds the lease. I don’t know enough about your particular situation to say whether it’s something to be concerned about.
Cynthia, do you know how this property is listed with the Tyler County Assessor’s office? If the full 35 acres is still listed together, it sounds like “family” would mean the heirs of your grandmother’s father. If this is just 1/5 interest, it would be the heirs of your grandmother: your cousins and your sister, niece and nephew. I’m not an attorney but that is my understanding of it. I think the first step is to find out if this is the full 35 acres or 1/5 of it. Do you know if any of these people (your father, his siblings, your grandmother, her father, etc) had wills?
There is a West Virginia law about inheritance when there is no will; shouldn’t be hard to find in a Google search.
Yes, the other acres are accounted for family/wise, with the exception of one of her sisters, whose family seems to have vanished. My great-grandfather had six children, but one died before him and the 35 acres were divided among the other five. From what I understand, the others are already leasing (with the exception of us, naturally, and the missing sibling of my grandmother). My sister has already been looking at the Tyler County Assessor’s office, but that was to confirm that there was indeed a property and to also confirm that this was “real”. And none of us knew about this until a week ago.
I just found out this past week that my grandmother, who died in 1966, had inherited one/fifth of her father’s 35 acres and that, as my dad and his siblings are gone, my sister and I (and various others) had the heirship to the mineral rights. The gentleman researching Elsie’s part of the family had managed to find me, and I was able to provide him with the information on the rest of the descendants (more or less). I’m expecting my paperwork sometime this week, but he advised that the family agree on some things like sharing the property taxes etc. However-- I’m wondering which family he means. If it’s just my sister, my niece and nephews (my other sibling died earlier this year, so they inherit her tiny bit), it would be easy-- but should I also be in contact with my one set of cousins (whom I’ve not seen nor heard from in 30 years)? Also, I’m concerned about three other cousins of another aunt (deceased)-- concerned as in whether I’m supposed to “team up” with them. I’ve got a bad feeling about the one son, he’s already talking as if his adopted sister is not eligible though the gentleman I was talking to said she did qualify as my aunt’s heir. Should Linda and I just take care of our immediate part in all of this and let the cousins deal with their own?
Cynthia - Nancy gave you some good advice. The law on intestacy (that’s the term for when there’s no will) in West Virginia is located at Chapter 42 of the WV Code. You’ll need to do some reading to figure out which part applies to your family’s various situations. I can tell you that an adopted child inherits exactly the same as a blood child. That’s very old and well-settled law.
We know it’s one fifth because I have already spoken with the parties in question. The only unsure one is the family of my great-aunt Lettie Bell, who died in 1949, and they’ve not managed to find her heirs yet. I get the paperwork this week. But thanks for the advice/info-- my sister and I will definitely be in contact with the Tyler County Assessor again.
Cynthia, I think the next thing is to see how it is listed with the Tyler County Assessor. Since you say the other part has been leased, maybe your grandmother’s heirs (you and your cousins) own 1/5 of the 35 acres. Or maybe it is still listed as the full 35 together.
If still together, and you wanted to separate your 1/5 from the other heirs, there are ways to do that. But first see what Tyler County says.
My property was part of land partitioned off after death of owner in 1929. Oil and gas rights were retained by heirs in common but leasing right for each of the five property’s was left with the owner of that property. Some heirs received more than 1 share making total of 8 shares in oil and gas. Each heir receiving only 1 share would only own 1/8 interest in oil and gas under their property. I have two tracts since one heir bought out another. Both only had 1 share. First sale between heirs nothing was reserved but when second heir sold combined property he reserved 1/2 of his interest in oil and gas. I think I should own some interest in oil and gas [maybe 1/8 in one section and 1/16 in other] plus at least half of leasing rights. Are there any thoughts on this?
Mr. White, I’m not exactly certain what you are asking about but I think you should look at executive rights, which is the exclusive right to lease. You could sell property for example and retain 1/2 of the minerals and 100% of the executive right to enter into lease for all the minerals. Theoretically all the bonus could be yours also if you wrote it that way and the other party agreed. The “bundle of sticks” of property ownership is a large bundle, far larger than most people think about, including the exclusive right to grant easements. The bundle of sticks may be something else you should search. I hope this helps.
I noticed something interesting in James’s post. What is the deal where someone owns/buys the mineral interests, but the seller retains the leasing rights. I have heard of this. Does that stop the owners of the royalties from attempting to lease their interests. How does that work?
Hello all. I have an offer from Precision Oil and Gas to lease mineral rights at $2,500 an acre and 3/20th royalty on Oil and Gas. Is this offer in the ballpark? Can anyone recommend an attorney with current knowledge of the market in Tyler Co? Thanks
Attorney here. I saw a post on another site from someone in Tyler County who had gotten $4,000/acre. I’d definitely go for more that 3/20 (15%). I’m trying to get people here in WV to drive up the price that is paid lessors. Other parts of the country get 25% royalties and thousands more for bonus. I’m sure they’ll say that the market won’t support those prices, but there’s no sense in not getting at least a little more. Try for 18% (ask for more when you start negotiating) and $3000 to $4000. If you want someone to review that lease for you, send me a message. No pressure though. I’ll still share what knowledge I can on a forum.
James, it looks like you probably only acquired the executory rights (right to sign a lease) with the purchase of the property. Unless the heirs specifically stated in the deed that their 1/8 share or a part of it was conveyed with the property, then it would have been a separate interest from the surface – that’s what r w kennedy was saying about “bundle of sticks” I think. Once a stick has been separated from the bundle it has to be separately dealt with unless it has been added back to the bundle. The executory right was kept with the surface, the royalties were separated out. Make sense?
Has anybody ran into the problem of paying taxes on mineral rights for a long time ( Over 50 years) to be told that you do not have the mineral rights to a property?
Kyle. . question on WV for you. . if an heir is left property but no deed. . is it necessary to probate in WV or can you do this by affidavit of heirship etc. . ??? specifically just talking about the minerals OGMs?
thanks!
OK thanks Nancy! I think the person who passed did so in WV but didnt have a will. Still trying to figure it all out.