[michigan highrider]

Our grandparents recieve mineral right royalties on 40 acres along with about twelve other relatives. Our great grandfather left the property to all of his heirs making the transfer of this property very difficult.
Our grandparents pay the total taxes as none of the other relatives want to even though they all recieve royalty checks. In the case something ever happens and they pass away and no one pays the taxes and it goes for tax sale.
My question is: Can the mineral rights be saved someway before the property goes for tax sale? I know if the property sells that the mineral go with it.
How can we find out everyone that is listed that gets a mineral check and would it be filed within the court house or the lease company holding the lease?
Any info will be greatly apprieciated. Our grandparents did hire an attorney and tried to straighten everything out, got took for a lot of money and nothing was solved.

[Sparrow_temp]

Why don't the royalty checks go to the tax payment before anything is distributed??? That's what should happen. The property should never simply go for tax sale.

How did the original great grandfather's estate get settled? The property should have been sold and any profits distributed to the 13 heirs. Why didn't the executor of the estate do this? If one of the 13 heirs had wanted the property, he should have had the option to purchase it. It wouldn't have been complicated if this had been done as it should have been when the great grandfather died.

It sounds like there's a lot of selfish people in your greater family if this property is going to be sold at a tax sale. Maybe it's better to finally have the property sold in this manner if you all couldn't agree to do it earlier or to have at least seen that the taxes were paid by all.

[Mountain Valley Research]

First off, as long as your grandparents are still alive, and paying the taxes on the property/mineral rights, everything is ok if they don't mind footing the whole tax bill. Once they pass away, you should take a copy of their Will, whereas it states that you are a heir, and take it to the county assessor's office and request that you begin receiving a tax bill for your proportionate share of your mineral rights that you inherited. They will begin sending you a yearly tax bill, and your mineral rights will then be safe from tax sales as long as you pay your bill. The assessors office may in addition, begin sending all the heirs a tax bill too. The heirs will not know why they are beginning to get a tax bill unless you tell them. As long as they pay their tax bill from then on, they won't lose their share of mineral rights at a delinquent tax sale. Until that time you would not be able to find out at the courthouse everyone else's name that is getting a mineral rights royalty check. The courthouse does not keep records of that. Right now, only the leasing company would have the list of heirs they mail checks to, and they may or may not give you a copy of the list. Just ask or write a letter, sometimes they will. Once your grandparents pass away, and the assessors office taxes everyone separately, at that point the courthouse would have a list of all heirs, based on the Will. If you don't have a copy of the will, check to see if your grandparents have one on record at the courthouse. Depending on Michigan law, in other states, the surface land of 40 acres can be sold by itself (severing the surface and mineral rights), but the mineral rights would have to be excepted and reserved out of the surface land sale. It would have to be written that way on the new surface owners deed if Michigan law allows the severing of the two. Hope this helps.