Solar · Storage · Gen-tie ROW · Surface and mineral title
Land for solar, worked tract by tract.
We're independent landmen who put solar projects together tract by tract. We screen the parcels, run surface and mineral title, work what's broken with your counsel and title company, lease the landowners, and negotiate the mineral waivers the lender will ask for.
Or call (307) 263-8515 or write hello@landman.solar.
- Leased
- In curative
- Mineral waiver needed
- Open
- Project boundary
From first parcel map to notice to proceed
Five pieces of work. Take one or all of them.
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1
Site screen
Parcels near the substation or transmission ROW, from county appraisal district (CAD) ownership, sales and parcel geometry. We flag severed minerals, existing leases, pipelines and small-tract owners before you spend on a queue position.
You get a parcel map, an ownership list and a first read on title risk by tract.
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2
Surface and mineral title
Courthouse title on the surface and the minerals for every tract in the boundary, run to sovereignty or patent where the lender needs it.
You get runsheets, a deed package, a flowchart and a mineral ownership report (MOR) per tract.
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3
Curative
Broken chains, unprobated estates, heirship gaps, old deeds of trust and dead oil and gas leases still of record. We work the commitment's Schedule B exceptions with your counsel and the title company.
You get affidavits of heirship and non-production, releases and subordinations lined up for your counsel and the title company to approve and record.
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4
Landowner leasing
Option agreements, ground leases and gen-tie easements, negotiated at the kitchen table. In Texas, Tex. Util. Code ch. 302 lists removal and financial assurance terms a solar lease must provide, for the leases it reaches. Here is what it says; ask your counsel whether it reaches your lease.
You get executed options and leases, memoranda recorded, owner contact log.
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5
Mineral waivers
Where the minerals are severed, we negotiate surface waivers and accommodation agreements, set drill-site islands and hold a subsurface window for directional wells, so the title company has what it needs to consider a T-19.4 or ALTA 35 endorsement.
You get recorded waivers and surface use agreements (SUAs), island exhibits, and an endorsement checklist for the title company.
Got a solar option in the mail?
A developer's landman works for the developer. If you want a landman's read of the business terms before you sign, tell us who is asking and what you were offered. We also work for developers, so we check first: on any one project we work for one side only, and we tell you in writing which.
Ask for a landman's readWe are landmen, not attorneys, and this is not legal advice. Have your own attorney review the legal effect of anything you sign. Or call (307) 263-8515.
- Option term and extensions. How long they can hold your land, and what they pay while they do.
- Rent and escalator. Per-acre rent, the annual bump, and whether it's on fenced acres or the whole tract.
- Decommissioning. Removal, restoration and the security behind it. In Texas, Tex. Util. Code ch. 302 lists what a solar power facility lease it covers must provide on removal and financial assurance. Read what it says and ask your attorney whether it reaches your lease.
- Your minerals. Whether the lease asks you to waive surface use, and what that could mean for a future oil and gas lease. Your attorney should weigh in here.
- Crops, grazing, roads and water. Damages, access, fences, and what happens to the land you keep using.
What changes by region
The ground changes by region, and so does what gets checked first. Other states by project, with local abstractors where it makes sense.
- West Texas
- Severed minerals and active drilling are common, so waivers and islands come first.
- Panhandle and South Plains
- Irrigated farm ground, center pivots and water rights in the lease.
- Central Texas
- Old family tracts, heirship and small-parcel assembly.
- New Mexico
- State Land Office and BLM ROW alongside fee tracts.
- Oklahoma
- Section-line roads, pooled minerals and forced-pooling orders to account for.
Rent model
A quick worksheet for either side of the table: capacity, 30 years of rent with the escalator, and the ground a drill-site island takes out. Planning numbers, not an offer. The rent, escalator and acres are examples: change them to the terms you are looking at.
| Year 1 rent | $640,000 / yr |
|---|---|
| Year 30 rent | $1,136,541 / yr |
| Drill-site islands (assumed) | 10.0 ac |
| Directional window (assumed) | Below 500 ft |
| Title work | Curative and waivers |
| Acres after islands | 630.0 ac |
Island sizes, depths and acres per MW are our planning assumptions, not standards. Acres are held to 50 to 10,000, rent to $0 to $3,000 and the escalator to 0 to 5 percent.
Send these acres with a requestTerms you'll see in the paperwork
- Accommodation doctrine
- Texas rule (Getty Oil Co. v. Jones; Merriman v. XTO Energy) that can make a mineral developer use a reasonable alternative where its use would preclude or substantially impair an existing surface use. It does not protect a planned use, which is why solar projects get waivers.
- Surface waiver
- A recorded agreement in which the mineral owner gives up the right to use all or part of the surface for drilling or production facilities.
- Drill-site island
- A drill-site island (DSI) is a tract set aside inside a solar project for future wells and facilities, so the minerals can be developed without touching the arrays.
- Option period
- The years a developer holds the exclusive right to study and then lease the land, usually for a smaller annual payment before construction rent starts.
- Gen-tie and transmission ROW
- Easements for the line that carries the project's power to the utility's substation or transmission system.
- T-19.4, ALTA 35
- Title policy endorsements that insure against damage to improvements from a mineral owner's use of the surface. Texas T-19.4 covers severable improvements (T-19.3 covers permanent buildings); ALTA 35 is the national series. The title company decides whether to issue one, and looks for the waiver or accommodation work first. The T-55 forms and the T-19.2, T-19.3 and T-19.4 endorsements, read from the forms.
Guides
Five explainers on Texas solar landwork, read against the statutes, title insurance forms, and county record practices they cite. General information, not legal advice.
Questions we get
At site screening. Title work on the target parcels comes before the queue deposit, not after it, so a broken chain, a holdout heir or severed minerals under an active unit show up first.
Surface title tells you who can sign the ground lease and grant easements. Mineral title tells you who can still drill under it. In Texas the mineral estate is dominant, so a severed mineral owner can use the surface as reasonably necessary unless a waiver or surface use agreement limits it, and the accommodation doctrine helps only an existing surface use. Oklahoma and New Mexico differ in the details, so we check each state.
Nobody financing a project wants a pad site or a flowline in the arrays. In Texas the T-19.4 endorsement (T-19.3 for permanent buildings), and the ALTA 35 series elsewhere, insure against that. The title company decides whether to issue one, and it needs to see the waivers, islands or legal analysis first.
Probate and courthouse research first, then family contact to find living heirs of record. Affidavits of heirship go on record in the county where the land sits, and we lease or get ratifications from the undivided owners.
A developer's landman works for the developer. If you want a landman's read of an offer, tell us who is asking and what you were offered. On any one project we work for one side only, and we tell you in writing which before any work starts.
Start a project
Tell us where the land is and what stage you're at.
We work as independent landmen. We are not attorneys and do not give legal opinions or legal advice; we work with your counsel and title company.