Retaining Mineral Rights When Selling Property
Convey Mineral Rights
Seller Has Severed The Mineral Rights From The Property
When a piece of land is transferred to your name, your ownership of that land is referred to as surface rights estate. This means you have the right to use that piece of land for building structures, farming, and other activities on the land’s surface. But for you to benefit from minerals that are beneath the surface of the land you need a type of ownership referred to as the mineral rights estate.
In Texas, you can own the surface rights while another individual holds the mineral rights. The law refers to this as severance of the estate. You should get in touch with a trusted Houston Residential Property & Real Estate Lawyer who can better answer your questions.
Understanding The Severance Of Surface And Mineral Rights
Sellers Mineral Rights Convey
The execution of a deed or lease is what establishes the severance of surface and mineral rights. In the deed are the names of the seller and buyer and the rights given or sold. The party that gets the mineral rights still relies on the party that has the surface rights.
That means that the party that has the surface rights can sue the owner of the mineral rights for any damages. Usually, severance of surface and mineral rights occurs in a situation where the owner of the land decides to convey the land but retains mineral rights. The owner states this clearly in the deed.
The owner of the land may also sell the mineral rights while retaining the surface rights. They may also convey the land to one party and the mineral rights to another party. All these situations are only possible if the seller owns the land together with the mineral rights
You can find any information about ownership at the time of purchase during title research.
Why You Need To Review The Chain Of Title
What Are Mineral Rights
All you need to do is review a property’s chain of title to see if the deed conveys mineral rights. A property’s chain of title shows how the property was transferred from the original owner to subsequent owners. It shows you whether the mineral rights were severed and helps you find the identity of the current owner of the mineral rights.
The chain of title can help you trace the current owner of the mineral rights as far as possible.
How To Retain Mineral Rights When Selling Property
How To Transfer Mineral Rights In Texas
You should always try to negotiate with the buyer and discuss your intention to only sell the surface rights while retaining the mineral rights. In your discussion, the buyer may buy only the surface rights or withdraw completely from the purchase. Another way to retain the mineral rights is by offering to sell the mineral rights separately from the property.
In this case, the buyer may only buy the surface rights. You will need to create a mineral deed that you can transfer to the buyer. A mineral deed gives the buyer rights to oil, gas, water, and other minerals. You could also just retain a percentage of the mineral rights such as retaining only 25-75 percent while the buyer owns the rest.
Some owners retain the right to first refusal, which means that in the future when the buyer wants to sell the mineral rights, they have to offer those rights to the previous owner first.