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With the recent increase in natural gas production in Texas, more and more property owners are interested in mineral rights. If you don’t already know that you’re a mineral rights owner, then you probably don’t own any. If you own property in a subdivision, for instance, the developer of the subdivision almost certainly reserved the mineral rights (if even he owned them himself) when he sold off the lots. If you have purchased acreage, there is a better than average chance that the minerals were sold off or reserved at some point in the past.

Title companies in Texas will not usually insure the title to minerals. Instead, we take exception on Schedule B of the title commitment, and the subsequent policy, to any documents that we find during our title search which affect or purport to affect the mineral interest of the property, and to “All leases, grants, exceptions or reservations of coal, lignite, oil, gas and other minerals, together with all rights, privileges, and immunities relating thereto, appearing in the Public Records whether listed in Schedule B or not.” In short, we do not guarantee minerals ownership, or lack of ownership for that matter.

Still, some buyers and sellers persist in asking title companies to tell them whether or not they own the mineral rights on their property. What I always tell them is that they probably do not own the minerals, but if they want to be absolutely sure, one way or the other, they can engage an attorney to give them a written “Title Opinion.” This usually means spending quite a tidy sum. In addition, it could take you a few weeks to get receive the title opinion. But, it is a sure-fire way to tell for sure who owns the mineral rights to a tract of land.

You can save a good bit of money if the property owned is in a subdivision. The attorney may be able to locate the minerals reservation by the developer quite easily and confirm that you do not own minerals. The cost for this negative determination could be relatively inexpensive. Still, I have not come across many people who want to pay an attorney to tell them they do not have mineral rights.