Mineral Rights Question?

[th3w01f]

As many of you know we're still working on our offer for a house in Elizabeth (on 10 acres).

I wouldn't have even thought about it but the fact the seller wants this specifically added to the contract makes me nervous, is this anything to be concerned with our is it pretty standard?

"EXCEPT OIL AND GAS AND ALL OTHER MINERALS AND MINERAL INTEREST, EXECUTIVE RIGHTS, BONUSES, DELAY RENTALS, SHUT IN GAS ROYALTIES, OIL AND GAS LEASEHOLD INTERESTS, ROYALTY INTERESTS, OVERRIDING ROYALTY INTERESTS, PRODUCTION PAYMENTS, AND ANY AND ALL OTHER INTERESTS OF ANY KIND OR NATURE WHATSOEVER IN THE MINERAL ESTATE"

[Irving]

I think it is common for people to hold onto mineral rights now a days. If you can get them, that would be fantastic, but I wouldn't count on it. Someone with more first hand knowledge should chime in. You are getting any water rights though right?

[th3w01f]

I think it is common for people to hold onto mineral rights now a days. If you can get them, that would be fantastic, but I wouldn't count on it. Someone with more first hand knowledge should chime in. You are getting any water rights though right?

I don't believe there are any specific water rights but again I've never dealt with a property like this. There is a residential well that was installed at the time the house was built and per the permit it allows, 1 single family house, 7000 sq feet of irrigation and 4 large animals.

Is there something else I should be looking for on the water side?

[thvigil11]

It could be that the seller does not own the mineral rights and the contract is specifically stating as such. Very common for mineral rights to be owned by a seperate entity. Either sold off by previous owner when things were tough or kept when property was originally deeded. Around here in NM, most of the land was a part of an original land grant from the King of Spain. As a result, many such rights were split off and now under different ownership. More info should be available at the County Clerks Office.

[thvigil11]

I don't believe there are any specific water rights but again I've never dealt with a property like this. There is a residential well that was installed at the time the house was built and per the permit it allows, 1 single family house, 7000 sq feet of irrigation and 4 large animals.

Is there something else I should be looking for on the water side?

Some property may have additional water rights, in general surface water. Check to see if the property is a part of any local irrigation district.

[th3w01f]

Some property may have additional water rights, in general surface water. Check to see if the property is a part of any local irrigation district.

Do you know how I'd go about checking to see if it's part of an irrigation district?

There is a small 'drainage' pond on the property but according to the builder and people who have livered there for 8 years, it has never been empty. I'm trying to figure out how to get more info on that as well.

Unfortunately, I only have until 11pm tonight to respond to the counter offer.

Attachment 57913

[thvigil11]

Assessors office and Clerks office should have that info.

[thvigil11]

Just looked and Elbert Co, does have an online property search.

http://elbertco.tyler-esubmittal.com/assessor/web/

Local State Engineers office could help as well.

[th3w01f]

Just looked and Elbert Co, does have an online property search.

http://elbertco.tyler-esubmittal.com/assessor/web/

Local State Engineers office could help as well.

I've pulled it up on the assessor page but there doesn't seem to be any useful info there for what I'm trying to find. It could be that I'm just missing it. As soon as I'm off this conference call I'm going to make a couple of calls.

[james_bond_007]

Correct me if I am wrong, but even if you don't own the mineral rights, you would still own the property.

Thus a 3rd party owning the mineral rights would have to lease/buy permission from you (the property owner) for egress/ingress, equipment storage (oil derrick, etc. ) , and anything else they needed that required access to your property so they could extract their minerals located under your property.

So if oil was found on your property, you could likely work out a deal for you to lease them access to your property, let them deal with extracting the oil, and perhaps require a royalty per barrel.
In a way, they do all the work, and you collect a check.

However, if they had access to the bordering property, I think they could drill from there, at an angle, and extract oil from under your property.

(I ask that someone with more first hand experience please comment on this...I don't want to mislead the OP.)