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Permalink Reply by Alan Bowers on March 27, 2014 at 10:46am

Unless the contract states the Lessee has to file a copy of the Lease or Memorandum of Lease they do not.  However, if they don't file then no one else would know that a lease exists.  If you have an existing contract with a fixed time limit that is approaching you can negotiate with another company for a lease with the start date beginning immediately after the expiration of your existing contract.  CHK did this with a few of the ALOV members that participated in the first signing back in 2011.

You MUST be UPFRONT about your existing Lease to whatever new company you are trying to negotiate a new Lease with if the old lease has not expired yet.  There are many O&G companies that will still negotiate with you even though you have an existing lease.

Check your existing contract for a clause that allows your current Lessee the option for first right of refusal. 

Also, check your Lease for what constitutes Default of the contract.  You may want to engage an attorney draft a letter to your current Lessee about terminating the contract for non-payment.

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Permalink Reply by adam sorell on March 27, 2014 at 12:45pm

original lease said 150 days and if not paid send a letter 30 days to pay but is had addendum page that is 120 days if not paid send 30 day letter.

I already missed out on some better deals and now that company isn't leasing anymore.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Bowers on March 28, 2014 at 5:13am

Sounds like you need to be sending a Letter or Letters. If you have a physical address and not just a PO Box then you can send the letter via FedEx or UPS as opposed to Certified Mail.

Make sure you require a signature for accepting delivery.

FedEx and UPS will cost you more money ($20-$25) but the Oil company won't be expecting bad news from those carriers whereas if you get a notice for a Certified Letter that you were not expecting it is usually bad news in which case the Oil Company just won't sign for it.

If you are not familiar with drafting such a letter it would probably be a good idea to have an attorney draft the letter so that you can make sure you have basis you need to move forward with a lawsuit. 

You should ask yourself if you are up for a fight. The Oil company is probably betting that you are not.

Do you know if the Oil company has money/assets to be able to pay for a damage claim arising from you being denied access to the better deals?

Are you up for that fight?

You are not the first person something like this has happened to.  There are other companies that have done this in the past several years to multiple people and have been sued.  Patriot is one company that comes to mind that had been doing leasing in Columbiana County Ohio and wound up in court.  I have not been following the case closely so I don't know what to tell you about the disposition of the case but you can look it up via the web on the courthouse web site.

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Permalink Reply by adam sorell on May 9, 2014 at 6:43pm

Great River no assets no address no phone no website to office  nothing but a po box.

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