Fort Worth (White Settlement) residential mineral rights (Dallas, Grapevine: leasing, house)

[OldDummy]

Hello everyone. My first post, looks like a great forum.

I purchased a 40+ year old house in December 2012 in far west Fort Worth (White Settlement). Where does one suggest I go (besides the fiery place) to get information on mineral rights?

I'm pretty sure I purchased the mineral rights with the house, but how can one ascertain for sure; appraisal district, deed, closing papers?

I have yet to get any payments (disbursements) from natural gas. Does the drill have to be on my property in order to have any royalties? Or does everyone in the area have royalties? How does, and with who does one register to receive mineral right payments?

I keep getting mail regarding lump sum checks from various organizations. Are those organizations looking to purchase my mineral rights? If so, it means I have mineral rights (or so they think) and I bet it would not be wise to sell to such, nor do I want to anyway, unless that's the only way I would get mineral rights payments.

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks.

[ChristieP]

If you got the mineral rights, it would be in your closing paperwork. If the paperwork does not specifically mention it, you do not have the rights. To get royalties, you have to sign a lease with the drilling company, and there has to be drilling under your property. If you haven't signed anything from a drilling company, then there isn't anything going on under your property.

We own our mineral rights in Grapevine, but there hasn't been any drilling under our property, so we have seen exactly $0.00!

[loves2read]

not drilling under your property--
your property's mineral rights can be "pooled" into larger grouping with other mineral rights owners in drilling projects--some can be the minimum size the RR commission requires and some can be much larger--
it all depends on who is doing the leasing/drilling...as long as the well drilled is productive, it can be drilled anywhere inside that lease area--
and your share is based on your % of participation in the well---
lease packages can cover hundreds of acres--so a suburban lot can be very small in overall % of everyone getting payouts...

Just because your closing might "say" you have the mineral rights doesn't make it so...
plenty of mistakes in who actually owns those have happened in past few years...

You can look on the Tarrant county appraisal district web site if your home is in Tarrant county and there is link to mineral rights ownership I believe...
maybe you can see there who the country says owns those mineral rights

IF a past well was drilled that was productive, AND the mineral rights for YOUR property are part of that production, someone is getting a mineral interest payout == the company might not know that mineral rights have transferred since it would be small %...
realistically--if you have a suburban lot of .25 or so--even for an acre lot--
the amount of money you would be entitled to from an ave well is not "Dallas-type" money--
maybe 100-200 a month for a GOOD well...sometimes smaller--
some companies that pay the mineral interests have rules about how small/large a check they need to pay--if amount per mo is under that limit--you might get checks each quarter...

[tunmire]

If you do not have your title information from when you closed. You can go to the county clerks office and get a copy of yoyr deed. It will have the mineral rights you own listed.