Living in the heart of Appalachia, my general understanding is that almost nobody owns their "mineral rights" unless they've owned family land for many generations, and even then, in most cases, the mineral rights were "sold" (for ridiculously little money) many generations ago to the mining companies.
Owning the mineral rights DOES mean that the mineral rights owner can access your land within reason to extract said minerals (usually gas these days). I have seen (and now continue to see) endless examples of friends and acquaintances whose property has been damaged by extraction and many whose homes are ultimately condemned due to subsidence, generally after years of the extraction company doing poor patch jobs every so many weeks or months as the house falls down bit by bit.
That said, it likely won't be an issue in small holdings / dense developments (house density more than one an acre for sure) since the cost of damaging those properties would likely discourage underground work that is likely to harm the property. The extraction related subsidence and other damages that occur all over the place here in Appalachia are generally in areas where parcels are large and housing not at all dense. (Say one home per 30 acres or so, with large tracts of totally undeveloped land all around as well.)
Owning the mineral rights DOES mean that the mineral rights owner can access your land within reason to extract said minerals (usually gas these days). I have seen (and now continue to see) endless examples of friends and acquaintances whose property has been damaged by extraction and many whose homes are ultimately condemned due to subsidence, generally after years of the extraction company doing poor patch jobs every so many weeks or months as the house falls down bit by bit.
That said, it likely won't be an issue in small holdings / dense developments (house density more than one an acre for sure) since the cost of damaging those properties would likely discourage underground work that is likely to harm the property. The extraction related subsidence and other damages that occur all over the place here in Appalachia are generally in areas where parcels are large and housing not at all dense. (Say one home per 30 acres or so, with large tracts of totally undeveloped land all around as well.)
Statistics: Posted by ZWorkLess — Thu Aug 15, 2024 12:44 pm — Replies 29 — Views 2731