From
The KDDK Advantage - June 2007
Do Underground Minerals
Always Belong to the Landowner?
When
Jed Clampett aimed his shotgun at a squirrel and instead
of dinner got bubblin’ crude…oil that is…black gold,
I wonder if he stopped to think whether or not he actually
owned the minerals underneath the surface of his property.
Did he in fact own ALL the minerals — coal, gas, and
that bubblin’ black oil? How would he know? How could
he find out?
In today’s fast-paced
way of transferring property almost as often as we transfer
title to an automobile, we must be cautious of issues such as these. Your deed
may not mention coal, oil, gas, or any minerals at all, so you might assume
that you own your property in “fee”, which means “everything
that is below the surface,
to the sky above, and whatever is in between.” Your deed may not say, “except
the coal,” or “reserving unto the grantors all the minerals and mining rights.”
And if it doesn’t, you own it all, right? Well, not necessarily.
Without a title search,
either with the benefit of an abstract or by a competent
title examiner, the ownership of underground minerals cannot be determined
from the face of your deed. Deeds often simply state, “exceptions and reservations
of record.” Aha! There we have it. Everything
ever recorded about the property, or “of record,” is part of your deed —
even if it’s not written on the title you have in hand. That includes all
easements,
rights-of-way, restrictions, reservations, exceptions, taxes on the minerals
and subsidence rights (subsidence in this context means the affect on the
contour of the land during mining operations). Only the examination of the
records
all the way back through the chain of title will uncover any strings attached
to
your property.
If a title search concludes
you do not own one or more of the minerals found beneath
the surface of your property, that means the minerals
have been “severed,”
and that someone else, or many others own the minerals as a separate estate.
Further, this separate mineral estate carries with it the legal right to
use a certain amount of the surface of the land to extract, remove and
benefit from these minerals.
So, what if Jed Clampett
owned the oil underneath your property? Would you be
exposed to his daily expeditions in pursuit of reaping
the benefits
of
owning the minerals under your ground? What rights would Jed have? What
rights would
you, as the surface owner, have? Will Jed ever get a squirrel? Find the
answers in part two of this series.
Next topic: When someone
else owns minerals on your land < Environmental
Crimes and Corporate Officer Liability Defined
June 22 Property Tax Seminar >
Attorney Notes>>
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