Letter received from Landman, no idea what I should do...

Hello all,

I've received a letter from a landman indicating that I have interest in Marion County as I am an heir. I have no idea where the interest is, how much, etc.

I am not in the area, is there a way to find out what this interest is before contacting the landman?

I have no experience with mineral rights, and it appears no one that is alive has any idea where this interest came from.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa McKenzie on September 6, 2013 at 1:19am

Hi, Deb.  I am in the same position.  Mom passed in 2011 without ever knowing that her grand-father had mineral rights in Marion County and she was the only heir. 

My sister and I chat up the land men when they call.  I would absolutely call the land man and see what info you can get from him.  They will often tell you what they know, so that you can fill in any gaps and help them earn a commission.   We have read the leases that they send when you give them your address. 

Many of our interests were never entered on the tax rolls, so the assessor's office knows nothing about them.  We will have to enter them on the tax rolls and pay some tax to "redeem" them even though they have not been sold for unpaid taxes yet.   Marion's unclaimed property web site is useless.  Everything we investigated that was on it had been sold for taxes more than 25 years ago.

I hear that American Shale Development and XTO/Exxon Mobil are the only companies actively drilling in Marion County.

This gentleman is a genealogist working for XTO.  You might just call him and see what happens.  When I phoned him last year, the people in his office were very happy to get the heirship info they were lacking.  He has several properties he is researching that involve my great grandfather.

Chad Joseph Stumph
618-578-8440
Rely on their title work.  They found you, so have reason to believe you own what they say you own.  If you sign a lease, do not warrant title or give any general warranty.  You can give a "special" warranty that says you haven't leased the interest during your ownership or that you haven't received any royalties, but nothing more.  If you sign a lease, the company will have a couple of months to complete their title work before they pay you anything, so they will have a lawyer certify the title work.  No reason for you to spend $$ on that too.  We have had an attorney do some title work because we had some 1880's deeds and lease documents in a box.  It is WAY too expensive to send a paralegal into the county courthouse records if you don't already know what you are looking to find.
Happy hunting!

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