Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Oil and Gas nightmare on September 17, 2010 at 6:17am

PS I really should spell check more...sorry head moves faster than my hands and then i just click send ha :)

Permalink Reply by Whitt on September 17, 2010 at 6:23am

If you pay a lwayer out of the royalties you are looking at possibly paying about $100,000 for their service which takes them about 10 minutes because they have done this so many times and already have a contract negotiated. Pay your attorney hourly for the work they do if you don't want to get ripped off. The fact that they are even thinking that it is acceptable for them to take off the top of something they have no idea how much it could be is ridiculous. I have no idea how much acreage you own but if they take from the upfront that is fine because you can at least see what that figure is going to be but the royalty is a whole different beast. They are taking advantage of you if they say otherwise. The upfront looks great but the royalty of being produced can be a much larger amount and they know this and will look to snake there way into it. I don't even think that it is legal for them to do this but it has for some reason become acceptable because people don't understand what they are giving up.

Hope this helps but I would stray away from anything like this.

Permalink Reply by hootie on September 17, 2010 at 7:03am

Our lawyer is charging us 10% percent of the bonus money above the original offer. for example if the o&G co offered us 1000.00 an acre and the lawyer gets us 2500.00 an acre, we pay him 10% of the 1500.00 an acre increase he got us. He doesn't get any royalties if they drill.

Permalink Reply by Oil and Gas nightmare on September 17, 2010 at 7:35am

INTERESTING here I was thinking this is normal...NOw he is bringing the oil and gas company to the table, and the coal company as well. we do not have to do anything but read and sign contracts. We have 100 acres, so i dont really know how much of that is "produced"(any idea?). I was figuring IF that means(and I will clarify) but IF that mean he handles all the problem,s that could come up, with the state, or environmentalist, or the land owners(we are the mineral rights owners) then it maybe worth it to have a lawyer in our pocket, if you will. I guess I am looking at the fact that gas companies really dont return calls, and they seem to have all kinds of people trying to get them to lease there land, I figured its worth it if he can get us a higher percentage rate, bring the O&G to the table, same thing with the coal, and then he handles all other problems associated with the land and leases? so if all of that is true, its still too high? We got a contingent fee agreement which said if we dont make money, we dont owe him anything, he is also probating an estate for us as well. So if he shops it for hours and never finds anyone interested, it doesn't effect us. I think he may have someone in mind already however. There was gas wells already on the land from back in the 50's 70's and 80's, plus a coal mine that had shut down. I am wondering if those things make my land a more favorable location(proven resources available) to him and his potential clients? Because is it normal to have the lawyer say, he you dont pay me a dime for anything until you get money? everyone else is saying that the lawyers wont even look at it without $1200 upfront? I thought I had got lucky in that sense...what do you think theses things mean having been down this road before :)

Permalink Reply by Tom on October 6, 2010 at 5:02am

$1200 sounds like a lawyer that is not too busy, you want busy. 5% of down sounds suspicious to me as well. Take your time Lynn. There is power in competition.

Permalink Reply by Oil and Gas nightmare on September 17, 2010 at 7:41am

also...can you guys recommend lawyers that are good and fair in this area..or email me that info Joe30290@yahoo.com or tell me who to stay away from :)

Permalink Reply by Oil and Gas nightmare on September 18, 2010 at 1:13am

Man this site is very helpful.. after all of your advice yesterday, I looked around and found a recommended lawyer from this site..and he charges 5% of bonus only and nothing of the royalites...so thank you guys..so I am going to post a discssion about this but..do we have a unit in greene county...i heard its a bt 640 acres, is there a land group, how do you feel about that? Can we all work together for the greater good?

Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on September 22, 2010 at 2:45am

Depending on the size of the property and expected windfall, i would never pay a % to an attorney. I always pay hourly for contract review and closing the deal. Now if we are talking about a small parcel, then it may not make a difference.

Permalink Reply by Mary j. Green on September 23, 2010 at 12:57am

Hi Lynn, We have had several lawyers in our area starting "Groups" of landowners that they will represent for either a percentage of the signing bonus or the royalties. My personal opinion, based on our own experience, is that, if you do your homework YOU can handle this without wasting money on a lawyer. Earlier this year we were approached by East who, presented us with their lease. We read...actually dissected...the lease and considering the offer. Just a footnote on the lease...some of these agents make it sound like the lease is sooooo generous and looking out for the landowner. Bull!!! That large percentage of that lease is LAW! Check with current EPA laws. Ok...After considering the offer, we wrote any and all concerns above and beyond what was in the lease...ei. storage, well sitting, rengotiatioin clause, etc....and wrote an addendum. We then took it to a lawyer who was listed on the Penn State Marcellus Shale site. From this point on, I can honestly say, that all he did was have OUR addendum typed by his staff (and incorrectly at that..."portable water instead of pottable water, one example of several) which I corrected. Weeks went by during which time we were in contact with our East agent but we had still not received the final addendum from the lawyer. When we mentioned that the holdup in our signing was with our lawyer, the AGENT produced an addendum from EAST that ironically covered most of our concerns. Three days later, we got the addendum from the lawyer and lo and behold, it was almost verbatim the same one that we had received from the agent. Needless to say that was the last we dealt with the lawyer.

There were still some sticking points but we held firm and were happy with the final result. We signed on Sept. 3. Now we'll see if we get a check, however there have been several in our area that have.

Your opinion of lawyers and mine are pretty much exactly the same. These guys are making a killing on individuals who, for the lack of better wording, just don't know any better. A percentage of the bonus?....c'mon! Considering the number of ppl they sign, that's a nice little chunk of change. Percentage of royalties????....ludicrous!!! These folks are making these rip off artists RICH!!!!!

Ok, so much for the rant. Let me say this...I find irony in the fact that both the gas company and the lawyers, two seperate entities, submitted addendums that were identical in verbage. My point, list any concerns you might have, talk to your agent, your neighbors, research the internet...if you still feel that you need legal advice, form a landowner group with other neighbors to defray the cost of a lawyer. We did and split all costs 3 ways.

I know hope this has helped you in some...any...small way. If you have any questions, please feel free. I'm more that willing to share our experiences with anyone.

Permalink Reply by DRP on October 6, 2010 at 2:38am

I would never pay a percentage.We negotiated a deal,did all the leg work and gave the agreement to a attorney to check the language etc.We had a block of 600 acres and paid him 150.00 hr to sit in with us on the signing and check the language etc.Our total fees were under 2000.00. You are making a mistake if you give a % of your bonus/royality ,just my opinion.

Permalink Reply by Oil and Gas nightmare on October 6, 2010 at 5:10am

Gosh thank you...I am so thankful for all of yo guys...this information is like GOLD to me... i am learning more and more every day...so hey guys...do you all mind putting your offers up? like company name amount offered, royalty, and amount of acres involved personally and then unit amount if you had that. If you dont want to put what you accepted I understand but I feel part of the power that all of these enties have is becasue we dont know what people are getting or being offered, so we feel(unsigned people) we need some other help to get a better price. Whereas, if we knew what they were offering evrybody we could say to them..hey you need to start with at least this number becasue we're not going any less than that. I know its personal, BUT i intend to do it myself becasue if we know whats the standard, we can keep the prices,hopefully up, having the shared knowledge of this is the standard,and we are not going below that..AT LEAST if the acreage is comparable... and the area its in..I know all the "factors" affect that but still knowledge is power and if we have the knowledge, we can have the power here!!!! thanks guys ALL OF YOU...thank you so much for sharing...Group hug!!!

Permalink Reply by Mary j. Green on October 6, 2010 at 7:37am

Hi, Lynn...just something else to think about when considering these "Lawyer Groups". YOU are still going to have to pay the taxes on the ENTIRE amount that you get from the gas company plus pay the attorney a percentage of the ENTIRE amount....C'mon ppl, open your eyes!!!!!! That's a good bit of ca-ching.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page