Mineral Rights

Garrett Fulton

New Member
Jurisdiction
North Carolina
When I bought my property in 1985 with a VA loan, the VA refused to loan the money due to the mineral rights on the property I wanted to buy had been severed and owned by a person who lived locally. It was no problem at all getting a waiver from the VA and I got the loan. I sold off 7.65 acres of land to a couple 13 yrs. ago and they recently put their place up for sale due to job relocation. They had a good offer the 1st day it was on the market, but the buyers cannot get a loan from any bank due to the mineral rights still severed from the property. There are 2 families with adjoining land in addition to myself and the couple I sold the land to who are affected by this mineral rights reservation. The people who own the mineral rights refuse to sell them. Effectively, this prevents any of us from selling our land due to no buyers being able to get a loan to buy any of our properties. Do I have any recourse here legally? Their is no fracking at all in this area and any fracking is hundreds of miles from this location.
 
You have no recourse be because at the moment you have no damages. You might check with a local lawyer and see if there is any sort of reversion clause in either the deed or NC law. I can't find one in NC law and obviously don't have access to the deeds.

It surprises me that this is causing a problem. Though I'm not familiar with NC on the issue it isn't unusual for them to be severed in states that I am familiar with.
 
I understand your reasoning, sir. But my neighbors and myself feel we're suffering damages due to the way this mineral rights severance has effectively canceled any marketability for any of our properties. I just talked to the neighbor trying to sell his place and he's located a local attorney who is familiar with NC mineral rights issues. All of us have an appt. with him in a few days. Hopefully, we can get this resolved.
 
I don't understand the problem. You bought the property knowing about this and you dealt with it at the time. What has changed?
 
I just talked to the neighbor trying to sell his place and he's located a local attorney who is familiar with NC mineral rights issues. All of us have an appt. with him in a few days. Hopefully, we can get this resolved.

That is a good thing. But I'm willing to bet that unless there is a NC reversion law or reversion clause in the deed that transferred the rights you will be out of luck.

The same may not be the case for your neighbors if they purchased the land after a 2014 (I think) NC law was put into place that required notification that mineral rights had been severed and that notification wasn't given.

Again, I think these potential buyers aren't doing their due diligence because severed mineral rights are not in any way unusual. You can't find a piece of land within 100 miles of where I am that hasn't had the mineral rights severed and haven't been for 50+ years but I'm not in NC.

Do let us know what the lawyer says.
 
Mineral, oil, & water rights on MOST privately own land were purchased decades ago by railroad, telephone, telegraph, and oil companies; to name a few.

The owners of those rights vary state by state.


A mineral owner has the right to extract and use minerals found beneath the surface of a particular piece of land. What minerals are included depends on the terms of the specific conveyance (the document within which someone bought or sold the rights). The conveyance might include all the minerals under the land, or be limited to specified minerals.
The most commonly extracted minerals these days are natural gas, oil, and coal (although a mineral owner might also own and extract gold, silver, or other minerals). Occasionally, a mineral rights transfer also includes surface rights. If so, the mineral owner also has the right to extract minerals on the surface of the land, such as clay or gravel.

Who Owns the Minerals Under Your Property


Mineral rights are automatically included as a part of the land in a property conveyance, unless and until the ownership gets separated at some point by an owner/seller. An owner can separate the mineral rights from his or her land by:
Conveying (selling or otherwise transferring) the land but retaining the mineral rights. (This is accomplished by including a statement in the deed conveying the land that reserves all rights to the minerals to the seller.)
Conveying the mineral rights and retaining the land. (In this case, the seller will issue a separate mineral deed to the purchaser of the mineral rights.)
Conveying the land to one person and the mineral rights to another.
Since a seller can convey only property that he or she owns, each sale of the land after the minerals are separated automatically includes only the land. Deeds to the land made after the first separation of the minerals will not refer to the fact that the mineral rights are not included.
This means that in most cases, you cannot determine whether you own the rights to the minerals under your land just by looking at your deed. Owners are sometimes surprised to find out someone else owns the rights to the minerals under their land.
 
I don't understand the problem. You bought the property knowing about this and you dealt with it at the time. What has changed?
What has changed is banks in NC will no longer loan on property without the mineral rights. The real estate agent for my neighbor who's trying to sell his property can find no bank that will give her buyers a loan on the property due to the mineral rights being severed. In 1985, when I bought my property, I had no idea the mineral rights had been severed. It was_not_disclosed by the R.E. agent or seller and was only found when the VA did a title search. It was a simple procedure for me to get a waiver from the VA to get the loan in 1985. I'm hoping to find out from the attorney we're going to see just exactly what_has_changed in NC on this issue. And will report it here if I find out.
 
What has changed is banks in NC will no longer loan on property without the mineral rights. The real estate agent for my neighbor who's trying to sell his property can find no bank that will give her buyers a loan on the property due to the mineral rights being severed.
That's not YOUR problem, that's theirs.
In 1985, when I bought my property, I had no idea the mineral rights had been severed. It was_not_disclosed by the R.E. agent or seller and was only found when the VA did a title search. It was a simple procedure for me to get a waiver from the VA to get the loan in 1985.
In other words, you DID know about it prior to buying the property, because you had to get a waiver to even get financed for it.
I'm hoping to find out from the attorney we're going to see just exactly what_has_changed in NC on this issue. And will report it here if I find out.
Who do you think you would have recourse against? I'd love to hear what the attorney says.
 
The site wants me to subscribe or turn off my ad-blocker
 
I know. It annoys me as well but it is a legit paper so I just pause my adblocker and reload.

ETA: According to the article the idea of fracking has scared the banks.
 
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