You may own something under the ground. Here is what it is.

What did I actually inherit?

In West Virginia the minerals under a piece of land are often owned separately from the land itself. A great-grandparent may have sold the farm and kept the oil and gas, or sold the oil and gas and kept the farm. That ownership is called a mineral interest, and it passes down like any other property: by will, or by state law when there is no will, usually in fractions. One half becomes four eighths, then twelve twenty-fourths. What you inherited is one of those fractions, under one or more named tracts, in one county.

Three things follow from that. The surface owner, the person farming or living on the land, is probably not you and has no claim on your minerals. Your share may be small, and it may be shared with cousins you have never met. And nothing about it is written anywhere except the county records, which is why finding out what you own starts there.

How it can pay you, and the fifth possibility

• A royalty check, if a well producesThe operator of a producing well pays each owner a share of what it sells, every month or quarter, for as long as the well produces. Many heirs discover a well has been paying a dead relative, or holding the money, for years.
• A bonus, if a company wants to leaseA company that wants the right to drill pays a one-time signing bonus per acre and promises a royalty if it drills. You keep the minerals.
• A price, if you sellA buyer pays once for the interest and takes every future royalty and bonus. Permanent, and only worth doing from a written offer you understand.
• Nothing, for yearsMost mineral interests pay nothing most of the time. No well, no lease, no offer. That is normal, and the interest is still yours.
• The fifth: it costs a littleThe county sends a small property tax bill every year. Heirs who never see it can lose the minerals at a tax sale. Mineral taxes explains what to check.

Do I own it now?

Probably, in the sense that West Virginia law passes property to heirs when someone dies. But the county records, the operator that might be paying, and the assessor that sends the tax bill all still show your relative’s name until something is recorded that connects you to them: a probated will, estate papers, or an affidavit of heirship. Until that is done you cannot be paid, cannot lease, and cannot sell, and nobody should ask you to sign as if you could. The free screening tells you what the records show and which document would close the gap.

This month

1. Gather what exists

   Deeds, old tax tickets, royalty check stubs, letters from companies, the will, anything with a county or a company name on it. You do not have to understand it. A photo is enough.

2. Find the tax bill

   Ask the county assessor whether a mineral tax ticket exists in your relative’s name and whether any year is unpaid. Here is how, and why it comes first.

3. Check whether a well already pays someone

   Look up wells near the tract, or search your relative’s name. If an operator is producing under the tract, its owner-relations desk may be holding money for the estate. Getting paid walks through it, including the state’s unclaimed property search.

4. Get the records read, free

   A free screening turns a name and a county into a brief: what the records say your family owns, where, and the one document that would settle each open question. Yours whether or not you ever sell.

5. Decide nothing yet

   Keeping is a decision too, and the most common one. Leasing and selling can wait until you know what you have and what it is worth to you.

What not to sign, and why

• A deed or lease from a letterAnything that transfers or leases minerals you have not confirmed you own, at a price nobody explained, by a deadline the sender chose.
• A division order you have not checkedIt states the decimal you will be paid on. Operators are usually right, but the decimal is yours to verify before signing.
• A fee to release moneyThe state’s unclaimed property search is free, and so is claiming from it. Operators do not charge to release suspended royalties.
• Anything on behalf of relativesEach heir owns their own share and signs for it. One cousin cannot sell or lease for the others.