Do mineral rights transfer when property is divided?
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Do mineral rights transfer when property is divided?
I’m buying a home where during the title search there was a document from 117 years ago, stating that seller of 50 acre tract was keeping the mineral rights. The parcel has been divided into smaller parcels now. Does that document still stand or is it no longer valid because it is no longer the same parcel.
Asked on September 14, 2018 under Real Estate Law, Washington
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
If the seller kept the mineral rights, they stayed with the seller regardless of what happened subsequently to the parcel he sold: whether it was sold or inherited as is, or subdivided by sale or inheritance, the rights stayed with the seller and would not go to the successors in interest on the parcel that was sold without the rights. By now, presumably the seller is dead and he sold those rights, or they were inherited, etc., but they stayed with him to do with as he pleased.
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