# landman.help - Landman Help | Lease, royalty and easement help for owners

> Got a lease offer, a division order, a pipeline easement or a royalty problem? Independent landmen read it for you, the owner, and tell you what they see.

## Overview & Scope
- **Canonical Domain**: https://landman.help/
- **Contact Email**: hello@landman.help
- **Phone**: (307) 263-8515
- **Privacy Policy**: https://landman.help/privacy.html
- **Terms of Use**: https://landman.help/terms.html
- **Access Policy**: Public browser calculators, checklists, and reference guides on this domain are free and ungated. Tract-specific courthouse deed, probate, unit, or division-order record verification is requested through the site inquiry form.

## AI & Structured Data Endpoints
- **Extended Markdown Corpus**: https://landman.help/llms-full.txt
- **AI API Index**: https://landman.help/api/ai/index.json
- **Site & Page Metadata**: https://landman.help/api/ai/site-info.json
- **Canonical FAQ Corpus (5 Q&As)**: https://landman.help/api/ai/faq.json
- **XML Sitemap**: https://landman.help/sitemap.xml

## Pages, Calculators & Guides
- [Got a Division Order (TX): What to Check Before Signing](https://landman.help/got-a-division-order-texas): What a Texas division order does under Natural Resources Code section 91.402, how to check the decimal interest against your lease and unit plat.
- [Got an Oil & Gas Lease Offer: What Is Missing From the Form](https://landman.help/got-an-oil-and-gas-lease-offer): What printed oil and gas lease forms leave out: written bonus payment terms, gross proceeds royalty wording, horizontal and vertical Pugh clauses, shut-in caps.
- [Landman Help | Lease, royalty and easement help for owners](https://landman.help/): Got a lease offer, a division order, a pipeline easement or a royalty problem? Independent landmen read it for you, the owner, and tell you what they see.
- [Pooling & Unit Amendment Letter | Landman Help](https://landman.help/pooling-and-unit-amendment-letter): Why an operator asks you to sign a pooling amendment, Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), or lease ratification in Texas, and what to check before you sign.
- [Royalty in Suspense Letter: Why Checks Stopped | Landman Help](https://landman.help/royalty-in-suspense-letter): Why an operator holds oil and gas royalties in suspense, how to ask for the exact curative requirement on your owner number.
- [Surface Damage & Pipeline Easement Offer | Landman Help](https://landman.help/surface-damage-and-pipeline-easement-offer): What a Texas surface use agreement or pipeline right-of-way easement should state: single-pipe limits, width, depth of cover, double ditching, water rules.

## Key Questions Answered on This Domain
- **The company's landman says I have 14 days to sign or lose the bonus. Is that real?** (https://landman.help/)
- **Can they drill and produce my minerals if I don't sign?** (https://landman.help/)
- **What's a division order, and does signing it change my lease?** (https://landman.help/)
- **Who do you work for, and what happens with fees?** (https://landman.help/)
- **Are you lawyers?** (https://landman.help/)

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## Full Page Summaries & Sections

### Got a Division Order (TX): What to Check Before Signing
- **URL**: https://landman.help/got-a-division-order-texas
- **Headline**: What should I check on this division order before I sign?
- **Summary**: What a Texas division order does under Natural Resources Code section 91.402, how to check the decimal interest against your lease and unit plat.
- **Sections**: In one paragraph; How to check the decimal math; Pooled units vs. allocation and PSA wells; What the Texas statute allows and forbids; Line-by-line checklist before you sign; What to do if the decimal looks wrong; Ask a landman about your division order; Contact
  - A division order is the company's sheet stating your decimal share of a well and where to send your payment. In Texas, signing a statutory division order does not amend your oil and gas lease, and the company can require one before paying you, provided the form stays within what the Texas Natural Resources Code allows.
  - Last checked October 13, 2026. General information for mineral and royalty owners, not legal advice. We are independent landmen, not attorneys.
  - Before you sign a division order in Texas, check five things against your lease and county records: (1) whether your decimal interest equals your net mineral acres in the unit divided by the total unit acreage, multiplied by your lease royalty fraction (or, for an allocation well, your tract's share of the productive lateral length); (2) whether the property description and well or unit name match the unit designation or Railroad Commission P-16 and plat; (3) whether your name, interest type (`RI` for royalty interest or `ORRI` for overriding royalty), and mailing address are right; (4) whether the form follows the statutory model in Texas Natural Resources Code § 91.402(d) or adds extra language about post-production deductions, marketing, or title warranties; and (5) whether any non-participating royalty interests (NPRIs) burdens on your tract were subtracted the way your deed requires.

### Got an Oil & Gas Lease Offer: What Is Missing From the Form
- **URL**: https://landman.help/got-an-oil-and-gas-lease-offer
- **Headline**: What is missing from this oil and gas lease offer?
- **Summary**: What printed oil and gas lease forms leave out: written bonus payment terms, gross proceeds royalty wording, horizontal and vertical Pugh clauses, shut-in caps.
- **Sections**: In one paragraph; The bonus, the net acres, and the sight draft; Why "free of costs" can fail without overriding "at the well"; Horizontal and vertical Pugh clauses (retained acreage); Shut-in limits and continuous development; Title warranty and surface protections; Ask a landman about your lease offer; Contact
  - An offer letter usually quotes three numbers: a bonus per net mineral acre, a royalty fraction, and a primary term in years. The printed lease form attached to that letter was written for the company, and the clauses that protect the owner are almost never in the printed form unless you add them on an Exhibit A addendum.
  - Last checked October 13, 2026. General information for mineral and surface owners, not legal advice. We are independent landmen, not attorneys.
  - When a company landman mails you a printed lease form, the headline bonus and royalty fraction are only the starting point. Six things are usually missing from the printed form: (1) a written bonus agreement stating your net mineral acres, the total bonus payment, and whether you are being given a live check or a sight draft that lets the company walk away before paying; (2) gross-proceeds royalty language that expressly overrides any `"market value at the well"` or `"amount realized"` wording in the printed form; (3) a horizontal Pugh clause releasing acreage outside a producing unit at the end of the primary term; (4) a vertical Pugh (depth-severance) clause releasing depths below the deepest producing interval; (5) a strict cap on how long shut-in royalty payments can hold the lease without actual sales; and (6) deletion of the general warranty of title, plus surface and water protections if you own any share of the surface.

### Landman Help | Lease, royalty and easement help for owners
- **URL**: https://landman.help/
- **Headline**: A landman on your side of the paper.
- **Summary**: Got a lease offer, a division order, a pipeline easement or a royalty problem? Independent landmen read it for you, the owner, and tell you what they see.
- **Sections**: What did you get?; Five paragraphs to read twice; Does your decimal add up?; Pipeline and power line easements; Words in the paperwork; Questions owners ask us; Ask a landman; Contact
  - For landowners and mineral owners with a lease offer, a division order, a pipeline easement, a pooling notice, or royalty checks that stopped. Tell us what you got. We'll read it and tell you, as landmen, what we see in it and what we'd ask for.
  - Who we work for. The landman who brought you the paper works for the company. If you hire us, we work for you.
  - Not sure what you have? Pick it from a short list and see what a landman checks first.

### Pooling & Unit Amendment Letter | Landman Help
- **URL**: https://landman.help/pooling-and-unit-amendment-letter
- **Headline**: Why is the operator asking to amend my pooling clause?
- **Summary**: Why an operator asks you to sign a pooling amendment, Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), or lease ratification in Texas, and what to check before you sign.
- **Sections**: In one paragraph; Why older Texas leases block modern horizontal units; Pooling Amendment vs. Production Sharing Agreement (PSA); Why NPRI owners get Unit Ratification letters; The hidden lease ratification trap; What to check before you sign; Ask a landman about a pooling or PSA letter; Contact
  - Guide · pooling · ratifications & PSAs
  - In Texas, an operator's authority to combine your lease with neighboring tracts comes from the pooling clause in your lease. When an operator mails you a Pooling Amendment, a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), or a Ratification of Oil and Gas Lease, it is asking for a contract right that your existing lease does not already give it.
  - Last checked October 13, 2026. General information for mineral and NPRI owners, not legal advice. We are independent landmen, not attorneys.

### Royalty in Suspense Letter: Why Checks Stopped | Landman Help
- **URL**: https://landman.help/royalty-in-suspense-letter
- **Headline**: Why did the operator put my royalty in suspense?
- **Summary**: Why an operator holds oil and gas royalties in suspense, how to ask for the exact curative requirement on your owner number.
- **Sections**: In one paragraph; Administrative holds vs. title holds; Common title holds and what clears them; Texas payment deadlines and interest under Chapter 91; When suspended royalties go to state unclaimed property; What to ask the division order department; Ask a landman about a suspense hold; Contact
  - When an operator places your royalty account in suspense, the well is still producing and your share is still being credited on the company's books, but the money is held instead of mailed. Suspense almost always comes down to one of two categories: an administrative hold on your account or a title curative requirement from the county records.
  - Last checked October 13, 2026. General information for mineral and royalty owners, not legal advice. We are independent landmen, not attorneys.
  - Operators hold royalty proceeds in suspense when they do not have a current address or W-9 (`administrative suspense`), when the accumulated balance is below the minimum check threshold (`minimum pay suspense`), or when the examiner who reviewed the county deed records wrote a curative requirement questioning who owns the interest (`title suspense`). In Texas, Natural Resources Code § 91.402(b) allows a payor to withhold payment without statutory interest when there is a reasonable doubt that the payee has sold or authorized the sale of its share, a reasonable doubt that the payee has clear title to the interest, or an unsatisfied requirement in a title examination that places in issue the title, identity, or whereabouts of the payee. To release the hold, write the operator's division order department with your owner number and ask for the exact text of the requirement holding your account.

### Surface Damage & Pipeline Easement Offer | Landman Help
- **URL**: https://landman.help/surface-damage-and-pipeline-easement-offer
- **Headline**: What should a Texas pipeline or pad agreement say?
- **Summary**: What a Texas surface use agreement or pipeline right-of-way easement should state: single-pipe limits, width, depth of cover, double ditching, water rules.
- **Sections**: In one paragraph; Does the company have to have your signature?; Surveyed corridor vs. blanket easement; Pipe size, product, depth of cover, and double ditching; Well pads, roads, caliche, and water on leased land; Abandonment, release, and assignment; Ask a landman about a surface or pipeline offer; Contact
  - A pipeline right-of-way easement or surface use agreement stays in the county deed records and binds your land long after the construction crew leaves. The company's first form is almost always a blanket, perpetual grant unless you narrow the corridor, the pipe count, the construction rules, and the termination clause in writing.
  - Last checked October 13, 2026. General information for surface and ranch owners, not legal advice. We are independent landmen, not attorneys.
  - Before signing a pipeline right-of-way agreement or well-pad surface agreement in Texas, check six things: (1) whether the company is operating under an existing oil and gas lease on your tract, a private midstream gathering contract (where you can say no), or common-carrier eminent domain (where Texas Property Code Chapter 21 and the Landowner's Bill of Rights apply); (2) whether the easement is restricted to a surveyed centerline plat with a fixed permanent width and a temporary workspace that reverts to you on a set date; (3) whether the grant is limited to a single buried pipeline of a maximum outside diameter carrying a named product; (4) whether the construction terms require at least 48 inches of cover, double ditching of topsoil, and bore crossings under roads and creeks; (5) whether all surface valves, launchers, and compressor stations are barred unless paid for under a separate surface site agreement; and (6) whether the easement automatically terminates and must be released of record after a continuous period of non-use (such as 24 months).

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## Complete FAQ Reference

### Q: The company's landman says I have 14 days to sign or lose the bonus. Is that real?
A: Sometimes a deadline is real, when a company is racing to put a unit together. Ask for the deadline, and what happens after it, in writing. If it's short, send it to us today.
Source: https://landman.help/

### Q: Can they drill and produce my minerals if I don't sign?
A: It depends on the state and on who else owns. In Texas, pooling comes from the lease, and the state's forced pooling law is rarely used. But if a co-owner of your minerals has leased, that lessee can still produce, and you share in the profits after costs. Ask us to look at your title. Oklahoma and New Mexico let the state pool unleased owners, with the choices set out in an order. Louisiana forms units by order and pays unleased owners under its statute. A pooling notice has a deadline, so read the date first.
Source: https://landman.help/

### Q: What's a division order, and does signing it change my lease?
A: It's the company's statement of your decimal and where to send your money. In Texas it can't change your lease (Tex. Nat. Res. Code § 91.402). Check the decimal, your name and your address, and ask about anything that isn't about how you're paid before you sign.
Source: https://landman.help/

### Q: Who do you work for, and what happens with fees?
A: The landman who brought you the paper works for the company. If you hire us, we work for you. We're independent landmen, and sending the form doesn't hire us. If it needs courthouse work, a negotiation or a title run, we'll tell you the fee before we start, and you decide.
Source: https://landman.help/

### Q: Are you lawyers?
A: No. We're landmen: we read leases, run title at the courthouse and negotiate terms. We can't tell you your legal rights under a lease. If your question needs an attorney, we'll say so, and we're glad to work alongside yours.
Source: https://landman.help/