Mineral deed questions
What if the fraction on my deed looks wrong?
A fraction that does not match your check, your division order or the family story usually has an explanation in the chain. Here are the common ones and how to work through them.
Common reasons
- The fraction is of the grantor's interest, not of the whole.
- An earlier owner reserved part, and this deed excepted it.
- The deed conveys royalty, and the check pays royalty under a lease with a different rate than you expected.
- The land is in a pooled unit, so your share is spread over the unit's acres.
- Older wording such as "1/2 of 1/8", which courts have read in different ways.
- A deed in the chain conveyed or reserved more than its grantor owned.
Check it against your division order
A royalty decimal is usually your mineral fraction, times the lease royalty, times your tract's share of the unit. For one-half of the minerals, a 3/16 royalty and a 40 acre tract in a 640 acre unit: 1/2 times 3/16 times 40/640 is 0.005859375.
The royalty stub check on Mineral Tools works that arithmetic from your own numbers.
Work through the chain
List every deed from the earliest you can find to yours: date, grantor, grantee, what passed, what was kept. Work the fraction forward one deed at a time.
What to check on your deed
- The exact words of the fraction in each deed, not a summary.
- What each fraction is of: minerals, royalty, production, the whole or the grantor's share.
- Every reservation and exception along the way.
- The lease royalty and, if pooled, the unit's acres.
See the interest conveyed on the sample deed
Related
We are landmen, not attorneys. This page explains how mineral deeds are usually read. What your deed means can turn on its exact words and on Texas law, and a title opinion comes from an attorney.
Want us to read yours?
Tell us what your deed says and what you want to know. We can read the deed and explain what it conveys, or pull the chain of title in the county records and show how the interest reached you. We read every request and can reply by email.
For a lease, a division order or a check you cannot read, Landman Help works for owners. For a full runsheet or title packet, Landman Services runs the county records.