My wife's great grandfather owned some property in Colorado Cty, TX. Either he, or his children after he died, sold the property but kept the mineral rights. We don't think the transfer to the children was specified in any will but apparently per law, it was passed down to the grandchildren (all of whom are now dead). The landman of a company wanting to lease the property has determined that my wife and her brother each own 1/24th of the original 10 acres. A previous lessee (nothing came of the lease) came up with her and her brother owning a percentage (not sure whether it was the same as it was many years ago and we lost the info they provided).
In any case, is there a simple way to update the legal records for the mineral rights to show ownership so my wife can then add her share to our trust and/or will it to the children? Would it be worthwhile to do so? Expensive? At this point a company is interested in leasing.
I agree with Cliff, but will add that if the company does lease your tract, they will need to file all of the affidavits of heirship and other curative documents for your family members. You may want to wait on them to do that on their dime and then pick up the copies.
As Cliff said, I would make a deal with the company that turning over the land title information to you is part of the deal before you lease. Most companies are more than willing to do this because they already have that information and it isn't much trouble to turn it over to you and as Cliff stated, you may be able to help them find some family members.
They will have a list of all the owners and may have a flowchart showing your family tree. In a situation like yours, I usually provide the family tree to the lessor just because it’s something that I would want.
Great help and good advice. Thanks to both of you.
Yes, get an attorney to fill out this form. See attached. We are doing the same thing right now. Hope this helps!
2854-NoticeofIntenttoPreserveMineralRights.doc (29 KB)