Ask Lemmy

Where I live they would have the right to buy your land at market rate plus ~25% before they were allowed to mine the area. They could apply for the right to prospect on land you own but have to pay for any significant impact on your ongoing use of the land.

I'd not worry so much about getting a bad deal. Sentimental value in a home on the other hand is something you could not get back.

Consult someone familiar with the law where you live for information that is actually accurate for you.

You might ask a local lawyer who knows your rights, not international nerds at Lemmy.

Don't buy land with an easement you don't want on it. You can tell the seller to talk to the company and have them negotiate the removal of the easement as a condition of sale. They might be willing to buy back the mineral rights.

But barring that if this is a non-negotiable for you don't buy it.

Lol I love how you gradually gave up on censoring the company name

The general recommendation is to plant endangered plants on your land or get rare animals to nest there.

That can make it really hard to develop on. Bonus points if you can get it to spread to your neighbors.

Knowing your state/municipality would probably help, but as someone whose family member was involved in a similar situation, there's literally nothing you can do. And for that matter, if you do anything in developing that land that might impact the mining company's access, you're going to be paying for those damages, too.

You need to find a local lawyer. The level of connection between land ownership and mining rights differs wildly across the world. Plus the seller might have been obligated to disclose the situation before the sale.

What rights do they have. There is a big difference between they have (or plan to have) a tunnel under your house if the vein of whatever they are mining happens to go that way, and they have rights to knock down your house. Different states have different rules.

Oil is a liquid so if they have a well on your neighbor's land they are taking "your" oil so it makes sense to make them buy out the entire neighborhood - but they are don't need to access your surface, the pump elsewhere is enough. Similar for underground mines, they follow the vein of mineral wherever, and don't care what you do on the surface.

However there are other cases where their pit mine gets bigger and they need to take your land and your can do nothing about it since they have those rights they give you notice and a check (they probably have to buy your house, but maybe not!) and you have to leave in a few months.

In between they can put a well or ventilation shaft in your backyard, but other than having to look at it forever, and the time when they build it there isn't much loss of your yard (some loss, but not much).

The good news, in places where this is done all the time the courts and law have worked out all the details. The contracts tend to be 1 page that just refers to the hundreds of pages of legal documents saying how things are done. (by contrast if you lease land for a wind turbine it will be hundreds of pages - the legal details are not known so they have to cover all the details) You can go to a local cafe and ask a stranger and probably get reasonably good advice since everyone will know what really happens based on what happened to someone else. Or half an hour with a lawyer and get real information.

The bad news, different states have different rules. Sometimes cities or counties also have rules. As such there is no way anyone can say anything without knowing exactly where you live.

Landmines

For legal reasons that's a joke.

They might have mining rights but do the have access? As in are they legally allowed to access the property?

idk the economic feasibility but could you make an offer to the company?

Mineral rights and land ownership rights are legally distinct. How they are handled varies by location...

The concrete company, by owning the mineral rights, will own any minerals beneath the land surface that are enumerated in the mineral rights deed. (This could be a blanket deed covering any mineral of value, or it could specify only for a certain mineral known to exist there). You, by owning the property surface, own the surface and any buildings, utilities, and infrastructure such installed.

It is a two way street that from both parties. You cannot dig for the minerals yourself, as those are the right of the concrete company; the company also has a right to the minerals under each if they choose to start extracting, and you may or may not be able to legally stop them. But there are legal avenues to restrict how much damage to the land they can do, local environmental and right of way codes, and they can't just demolish existing developments if there's a house, roads, or other improvements on the land.

Source: my mother's family used to own a ranch in Southern California that was long ago sold off and developed. Her family retained the mineral rights to a few hundred acres of that development, under which was found some oil in the early 2000s. A smaller local oil contractor formed separate agreements with the landowners of the surface and to lease the mineral rights from my mother. This ensured them access to agreed upon locations inside the development to set up pump jacks on the surface to extract the oil.

The real answer is going to be "get a lawyer". You need to do a proper deed search to determine who owns the mineral rights and what they enumerate, and if there are any legal restrictions in your jurisdiction that can apply to the extraction of those rights. Once you know who and what, contact the owner of the mineral rights PRIOR to purchase and see if they have future development plans that might impact your decision to purchase, and ask for their legal department so you can draw up a specific contract that controls development of the mineral rights to eliminate future confusion.

Sell the land and keep the house