Hey All, I’m speaking with a buyer who wants to keep their mineral rights, ie oil or helium (or whatever). Minerals would be accessible via horizontal drilling, ie. other than via the sellers property. Has anyone done a “severed mineral rights” deal? Does it cloud the Deed in a way that prevents a buyer from owning the land even if not the mineral rights?
@helloland this is very common. It’s rare to buy most properties and still get the mineral rights along with it. Even if the person you’re buying from doesn’t sever them, chances are, they were already severed decades ago. What you really care about are the surface rights. As long as you an do what you want on top of the land, you should be fine.
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@charlotteirwin thank you! Great to know that ‘surface rights’ are the key and severed mineral rights don’t cloud the deed, i.e. prevent the new owner to build or do whatever they intend to do as the rightful owner of the property. I suppose owning the surface rights also can prevent the owner of the mineral rights from drilling atop the property, requiring instead that they must access those minerals from elsewhere i.e. via horizontal access, unless the surface rights owner grants vertical access for a fee etc. Thanks again!