Mineral Rights (Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington: sale, leasing, insurance)

[CzechGrazer]

Does anyone know how you can tell if you own the mineral rights to the land your house sits on? With the Barnett Shale under Fort Worth (among other places), I'd think this is very timely. Would it be on the title? What is the usual protocol when buying a house in Fort Worth? Do mineral rights usually transfer over?

Thanks in advance!

[loves2read]

if you have bought property in last 5 years and DID NOT request/argue/pay to keep your mineral rights--you probably don't have any
Think TAD (Tarrant Appriasal Dist) has started to show mineral rights on some of their new postings--
might be on your deed/title as well

[blueskies49]

All I know is that my daughter and family live in south Arlington by the Mansfield border. Last year a gas company set up a couple of drill rigs in the nearby community and sent them letters for signature to receive some, if any, of the profit of any natural gas found in the ground. I read in the paper last year that some homeowners in Fort Worth have received a small monthly amount for a period of time. My daughter received a one time payment of $200. Then the rig was pulled up.

[beowulf7]

A coworker who lives on the west part of FW (White Settlement area) has a house sitting on natural gas, as do her neighbors. She receives periodic checks for that gas, but I don't remember for how much.

[tailoma]

As Bedford reviews the city ordinance on drilling, The BedfordCitizen.com, an online news center for Bedford did a couple of stories on drilling. The one which follows (August 6, 2007 issue)tells of one person's journey to Fort Worth to find out if they owned the mineral rights for their property.

In an earlier article, they suggested finding out who else in your neighborhood received the same mailing and band together to find an attorney to help get you the best lease.

[SIZE=3]WHO OWNS MY MINERAL RIGHTS?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=3]The easy answer to this question was given at the July 23 Town Hall Meeting [/SIZE][SIZE=3]regarding the gas drilling ordinance: check your deed and check your title insurance document. If there is no mention of the mineral rights having been retained by the seller, or leased or sold, then you probably own them, but if you would like to have a little fun, you can search your own records.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]It is important to remember that we are all amateurs and there is no guarantee. If you find your mineral rights have been transferred away, then you know, but if you do not find that they have been transferred, the probability is very good that you still own them.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]When the staff of The Bedford Citizen asked ourselves who owned our mineral [/SIZE][SIZE=3]rights? We did the natural thing and called the Tarrant County Clerk's Office and [/SIZE][SIZE=3]asked how we could find out. The clerk told us that we could hire a lawyer, or we could come down to room B30 in the basement of the Tarrant County Courthouse and do it ourselves. So, off we went.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]It turned out that there were some steps we needed to take before we went to B30. The first step you can perform before you even leave home if you have an Internet connection. Go to the Tarrant Appraisal District web site at:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]http://www.tad.org/default.asp[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]From the menu selections on the left side, select Property Data Search. Enter your name to start the search and select your name from the resulting list. Then, your property information should display. Write down the "georeference" number. It will be in the form #####-##-## where the first five will locate your folder; the next group is your block number; and the last group is your lot number.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Now that you have your georeference number, grab a roll of dimes and head[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]downtown. You will not be able to carry scissors, pocket knives or other weapons [/SIZE][SIZE=3]into the Courthouse, so leave them at home.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Your first mission is to go to the Tarrant County Administration Building, which is [/SIZE][SIZE=3]across Weatherford Street from the Courthouse. When you come through the [/SIZE][SIZE=3]front door, follow the right wall around to the right and you will come to a door with a sign-in sheet on a clipboard. Sign in and go through the door. On your immediate left is the copier. Just in front of you is a single stack perpendicular to your path, which houses the "abstracts". Behind the abstracts, there are four parallel stacks. In the parallel stacks, locate the folders with your georeference number. Just to the left of them, there will be a manila folder with the "master cards" in it. Locate the master card that has the plat of your subdivision on the back and copy it.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Now go to the folder that has your georeference number and block number on [/SIZE][SIZE=3]it and find the card inside that has your lot number on it. This card should record the sale of your house to the person who sold it to you. Copy this page.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Now go to the front of your master card and you will find a line that looks like:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]"ABST. 202 BBB&C RR CO., SUR TR 1B1, 1C1, 1E1 ..."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]In this example, you would now go to the abstracts, locate folder 202, and pull the cards that have 1B1, 1C1, 1E1 ... in the "Tract" box in the upper right corner. These represent the tracts that were brought together to make up the land that your developer subdivided. Copy all of them. After you return your cards to their folder and the folder to the stack, you are ready to go across the street to the basement of the Courthouse.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Once in B30, you will want to search the documents referenced by each volume and page number on each of the pages you brought from the earlier search. In most cases, the volume number represents a microfilm cassette number. Most of these are located in the cabinets in the middle of the room with the microfilm readers. There are two different types of microfilm readers, two different types of microfilm and there are computers, so we will not go into how to use each device, but we found that the other searchers were very willing to help when asked.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]After you have reviewed all of the documents referenced on all of your cards, if you have not found any reference to your mineral rights having been retained by the seller, or sold or leased, then you probably own them. On the other hand, if you do find that a transfer has taken place, then you can be pretty sure that you don't own them.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Remember, this was just for fun and there are no guarantees.[/SIZE]

[krislang]

In Texas, ownership of the mineral rights is sold with the land UNLESS stipulated otherwise. Mineral rights that have been severed from the surface land however do not have to be mentioned as the land is sold down the road. This is why oil and gas companies hire landmen to research pieces of property back to the inception of the state of Texas at time to determine if any mineral rights have split from the land. If none have, they approach the owner of the land asking to lease the mineral rights from this for a portion of the profits. Access to the surface of the property is optional.

[loves2read]

actually ownership of mineral rights brings with them the right of access --which implies access to the surface--
in other words, if I own the mineral rights to a section of property, the surface owner cannot prevent me getting access to MY mineral rights--as long as I stay within the rules of the TX Railroad commission and any other city/county zoning issues...NOT just the wishes of the surface owner--which is why some people are so ticked off at the Barnett Shale drilling going great guns now...
I could not demolish your house to access my mineral rights--but I can legally lease my rights to an oil company that can drive on your property and set up a drilling rig...
depending on the rules governing oil/gas drilling--

so access to the surface of the property is not exactly "optional"--

sometimes people who own surface AND mineral rights of property will be part of the "pooling of property" for a well/lease and they will share in the profits of the drilling venture (if there are any) and do not have to have the well on THEIR property to benefit from its presence--so in that way, the access to THEIR surface is a non-event.

[DFF]

This is a good response. Generally, land developed in recent years (after 1995 or so when the Barnett play burgeoned) were likely to have had the rights retained at least in part by the seller. Before that it was more common for mineral rights to be sold with the land. Few even thought about retaining rights in this area before then.

Leases generally will not be made unless the operator has done his homework and has validated the mineral ownership.

Before leasing just beware. Your minerals are VERY valuable. Some estimate that in Tarrant county, up to $2 million per acre is located in the Barnett shale.

If you sign over your rights to control that $2 million an acre for less than $20k per acre and a 25% royalty, that's like leasing your new $20k pickup for the next 10 years to someone that will pay you $200 plus about $500 per year. If you would do that, I also have some swamp land in Florida I want to sell you.

If you can, wait to you know the value of your minerals and have a lease that you know you want. They are not going away and in TX, operators are not allowed to "drain" unleased land.

[5stones]

most likely IF you are buying a house in a development that is under 10 years old you don not have the mineral rights. Either the original land owner (farmer/rancher) does OR when the Deveopler does.

Also they are using Eminent domain laws to acess acreage that is privately own and the owner has the mineral rights. There was an article in the Dallas paper not too long ago about a couple that this is happening to. The Gas company has bulldozed trees and tore up the land to put a rig on. They used Eminent doamin and did not need the owners permission.

So, also realise that that nice little "ranchette" behing your house might be nice now...but it could have a gas well put on it in a few years and then that would be your view. Just something to keep in mind. (also the owner could sell and a costco could be put as well) Buyer beware.

[DFF]

I just found a blog that is focused on Barnett Shale gas and its issues. Take a look.

Enjoy Gas