Recording: when the lease goes on the county record
After you sign, the company records the lease, or a short memorandum of it, with the county clerk. The clerk's stamp gives it a book and page or an instrument number and a date. From then on, anyone searching the county records can see it.
What it does
A memorandum of lease records that a lease exists without the full terms, which keeps your royalty and bonus out of the public record.
Timing matters. If the lease is recorded before the bonus draft is paid and the draft is then not paid, the record still shows your land as leased. Ask that the lease not be recorded until you are paid.
When a lease ends, the company should record a release. Without one, the old lease can sit in the records and get in the way of a new one.
What we mark on a review sheet
Normal
- A recorded lease or memorandum, with a copy sent to you.
- A recorded release when the lease ends.
Missing
- An agreement to wait to record until the bonus is paid.
- A duty to record a release within a set time after the lease ends.
Ask about
- A lease recorded before you are paid.
- No mention of a release at all.
Questions to ask the company
- Will you wait to record until the bonus is paid, and send me a recorded copy?
- Will you record a memorandum instead of the full lease?
- Will you record a release within a set number of days after the lease ends?
Common questions
Do oil and gas leases get recorded?
Usually, yes. The company records the lease or a memorandum of it with the county clerk, so the public record shows the land is leased.
What is a memorandum of lease?
A short recorded document that shows a lease exists, who the parties are and which land it covers, without the full terms.
Send it before you sign
Tell us what you got and what you want to know. We reply by email and tell you how to send the pages. A landman reads them and sends back a one-page review sheet.
Email hello@landman.review with what you got and your question, or call (307) 263-8515.