Senate Bill 445 needs our support! WE CAN GET OUR VOICES HEARD!

Are you a landowner who has paid the property taxes yearly, maintained the land, and supported the community in which the land lies only to find you own but a portion, or worse, none, of the sub-surface mineral rights?  Are the sub-surface reservations a 100 years old or more?  Do you consider this an outrage that heirs of an a party who owned YOUR land over 100 years ago can rob YOUR heirs and YOU of the full compensation due you for leasing your lands?  Do you know friends or neighbors who are in this unhappy situation?  I am sure you do as mineral rights reservations of 50-100% are frightfully common in Pennsylvania.

 

If so, please contact your senator asking them to support Senate Bill 445 that Senator Yaw of Bradford County is trying to get to the floor for a vote.  Please see his website where SB 445 is explained.  BTW, his is a terrific, information packed site, one of the best I have ever seen by a government official.  I urge you to explore it and to shoot him an email thanking him for his efforts on our behalf.

http://senatorgeneyaw.com/legislation.htm

 

In addition to supporting Senator Yaw we need to contact our respective state senators to ask that they support SB 445.  I have contacted my senator down here in Dauphin County and have emailed several landowners from my area asking them to do the same.  This is important for the state as well because much of the state forest and game lands have their mineral rights reserved by a family of lumber barons from a 100 years ago.  These heirs own mineral rights to 27,000 acres of Pa land.  A hundred years ago their forefathers stripped and raped the forests of its lumber and now they want to continue the practice beneath our feet!  Many land owners in Clinton Co. have zero sub-surface ownership rights and have O & G goons climbing all over their land without any compensation, or I might add PERMISSION, to the landowner who pays the property taxes and maintains that land!  Can you imagine how violated and helpless they must feel?

 

Here is a link where you can easily locate your State Senator:

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/i...

 

PLEASE, I URGE YOU TO INFORM AS MANY AS YOU CAN OF THIS BILL AND REQUEST THEY CONTACT THEIR RESPECTIVE STATE SENATORS.  WE CAN GET OUR VOICES HEARD!

 

 

 

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bernie Lombard III on December 3, 2011 at 10:27am

I agree any mineral rights that are fragmented up in estates should revert back to the current land owners.  Especially they have not been keeping up with their taxes on those mineral rights.  

Permalink Reply by Ireland on December 3, 2011 at 1:32pm

i own mineral rights under thousands of acres of land that my ancestors sold. They were smart enough to keep the rights to everything. If you buy land without owning mineral rights that YOUR fault not the mineral rights owner. ALSO I HAVE TO PAY TAXES EVERY YEAR TWICE A YEAR ON ALL OF THESE MINERAL RIGHTS, SO THEY ARE RIGHTFULLY MINE!!!!

Permalink Reply by Michael Omerzo on December 3, 2011 at 10:58am

No! No! No!  Alot of folks such as I sold our property much lower to folks because we held our minerial rights hoping to someday gain something from them.  This will raise property values out of reach of new property buyers.

Permalink Reply by Laurel on December 3, 2011 at 11:09am

Under SB 445 you may retain them for 21 years, thereupon they revert to the current surface owner.  However, if a well has been drilled and is producing you may retain your mineral reservation for the life of the well and any additional wells that are drilled, provided they are drilled within 21 years of your mineral rights reservation.  This bill is to protect current landowners who have their mineral rights reserved many generations ago in an effort to return their subsurface rights to them if no production has occurred in the past 21 years.  It is a good bill and a fair one.  The surface owner has protected and enhanced the land, enhanced the local community with their property taxes and should enjoy the full ownership of their property.  Yes, it will be a game changer, but one that simply should occur.

Permalink Reply by r telesz on December 3, 2011 at 12:13pm

so    you are saying that if i bought land over 21 years ago without gas or oil rights  and  no well has been drill yet,,,,,the mineral rights become mine ??

Permalink Reply by mark ayers on December 3, 2011 at 12:24pm

"If the subsurface landowner chooses to simply not develop the mineral rights, they could record a claim of interest with the county Recorder of Deeds within three months of the effective date of this legislation or 21 years from the nonuse, whichever is later. The 21year period is similar to current Pennsylvania abandonment law relating to adverse possession." 

Permalink Reply by James Kerns on December 3, 2011 at 9:31pm

NO NO NO, i vote no

0l1a6laz7smpfPermalink Reply by 0l1a6laz7smpf on December 6, 2011 at 12:49am

where in the bill Laurel is the sentence that the mineral rights inclusive of gas and oil are returned to the present surface owners?  I couldn't find any more info than what I read on the Senator's page with SB445.

Permalink Reply by DrWAVeSport Cd1 on December 8, 2011 at 5:05pm

Laurel,

In Louisiana, prescription runs for 10 years.  If no drilling/production occurs for 10 year, the minerals go to the current property owner/s.  In Texas, however...mineral rights/water rights/etc. can be severed forever.

Just a friendly FYI for GMShalers from a fellow GHShaler in Louisiana.

DrWAVeSport Cd1  12/8/2011

Permalink Reply by Laurel on December 12, 2011 at 9:42am

Thanks, Dave, Pa is as Tx and that is what is being address in this and other bills in the Pa legislature.

Permalink Reply by Michael Omerzo on December 3, 2011 at 12:32pm

i am only saying there are several ways of looking at this.  Is Ohio Utica worth $20,000. an acre? do you relize how many people will not seperate there mineral rights and inflate the price of there land.  I have land in Kentucky and Natural Gas under it. Is it worth $20,000 an acre?  The land values will skyrockey.

Permalink Reply by Billy Park Whyde on December 3, 2011 at 1:53pm
Interesting subject. Can you imagine what property would be worth if you could add a speculative price upon unknown minerals? Gee whiz another topic to look at is now lenders can block you as a land owner under a montage from signing a lease as it risk their montage loan! So what is it? Seems to me that if there is anyway the rich andand powerful cancan steal fromfrthe a working man they wil do it.
Case in point. Say your a landowner, laid off or medical bills have you in a bind. So you say ok i'll lease and pay the bank off. Sounds easy but the bank knows what's going on and could block the lease and run you into a foreclosure with a pre favored buyer to scarf up on the situation. The rich get richer the poorer get poorer.
By the way I saw someone state they pay taxes upon mineral rights. I have never heard of that, is it based upon what unknown value?

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