Imagine owning a savings account. You don’t touch it for twenty years because you want to leave it to your grandkids. Then, one day, the bank calls—not to give you interest, but to tell you the account now belongs to the bank manager because you didn’t make a deposit recently enough.
That sounds insane. In banking, it is. But in Ohio mineral rights, that is essentially the law.
We spend a lot of time talking to families who own minerals in Texas, Oklahoma, and North Dakota. In those states, once you own the minerals, you generally own them forever unless you sign a deed. But Ohio is different. Ohio has the Dormant Mineral Act (DMA).
This law allows surface owners (the people who own the land above your minerals) to legally take your ownership away from you if you haven’t been “active” enough. They don’t have to pay you for it. They just have to follow a process.
If you own non-producing or “sleeping” minerals in Ohio, you need to understand this immediately. We aren’t lawyers, and this isn’t legal advice, but we are mineral buyers who have seen people lose valuable assets for $0 because they didn’t know the rules.
Here is the plain-English breakdown of how the Ohio DMA works and how to keep your property.
The “Use It or Lose It” Clock
The core of the law is a 20-year lookback period.
The Ohio legislature decided years ago that they didn’t like “cluttered” title records. They wanted to make it easier for surface owners to develop land without hunting down heirs of a mineral owner who died in 1940. So, they created a mechanism to merge the minerals back with the surface rights.
To take your minerals, a surface owner has to prove that you haven’t done anything with them in the last 20 years.
They are looking for the absence of a :Savings Event. If you have done one of these things in the last 20 years, your minerals are generally safe:
- Title Transaction: You sold a portion, gifted them, or transferred them via an estate that was recorded in the county where the land is.
- Production: There is an actual oil or gas well producing from your minerals (or lands pooled with them).
- Underground Storage: The minerals are being used for gas storage.
- Drilling Permit: A permit was issued to you or your lessee.
- Separate Tax Parcel: This is a big one. If the county has assigned a specific tax parcel number to your mineral interest, that counts as “use.”
- Claim to Preserve: You simply filed a piece of paper saying, “I still want this.”
If you haven’t done any of these in two decades, you are in the danger zone.
The Process: How They Take It
Let’s say you inherited some rights in Belmont or Monroe County. You live in Dallas. You haven’t thought about them since 2005. The surface owner wants to clear the title. Here is the process they follow, based on the revised code.
Step 1: The Investigation They check the records. They look for any of those savings events I listed above. If they don’t find any, they move forward.
Step 2: The Notice They have to tell you they are about to take your property. They must send a notice by certified mail to the last known address of the holder.
Here is where it gets scary for out-of-state owners. If they can’t find you—maybe the address on the old deed is from 1980—they are allowed to publish the notice in a local newspaper.
Be honest: do you subscribe to the local newspaper in a rural Ohio county where you don’t live? Probably not. This happens all the time. The notice runs in the paper, you never see it, and the clock starts ticking.
Step 3: The 60-Day Window Once that notice is served (or published), you have exactly 60 days to react. If you miss this window, it’s usually game over.
Step 4: The Affidavit of Abandonment If you stay silent for those 60 days, the surface owner files an “Affidavit of Abandonment” with the county recorder between 30 and 60 days after the notice.
Step 5: The Final Nail If you still haven’t filed anything, the surface owner files a “Notice of Failure to File.” Once that is recorded, the minerals vest in the surface owner. The record shows they own it, not you.
How to Fight Back
If you receive a notice—or if you’re just worried you might be at risk—you have a specific shield you can use. It’s called a :Claim to Preserve.
You (or your attorney) file a document in the county records that states:
- Who you are.
- The nature of your mineral interest.
- The deed volume and page number proving you own it.
- A clear statement that you do not intend to abandon the minerals.
Filing this document stops the abandonment process cold. It resets the clock. It effectively tells the county, “I am here, I am watching, and this is mine.”
If you catch the notice in time (within those 60 days), you can also file an affidavit proving that a savings event did happen. For example, maybe there was production five years ago that the surface owner missed.
The Risk of Being Remote
This law highlights a brutal truth about owning minerals: it is an active business, not a passive investment.
We talk to families who view their mineral rights as a lottery ticket tucked in a drawer. They think they can ignore it until an oil company calls with a check. In Texas, you can mostly get away with that. In Ohio, that mentality can cost you the entire asset.
The burden is on you to make sure your address is current in the county records. The burden is on you to check if a tax ID number has been created. The burden is on you to file a claim to preserve every 15 or 19 years just to be safe.
Why Some Owners Choose to Exit
We often look at deals in Ohio where the ownership situation is a mess. The family is spread out across three states, nobody has filed a probate in the local county, and the 20-year clock is ticking loudly.
Sometimes, the best move is to fight. If you have a massive position in a hot county like Jefferson or Harrison, get an Ohio lawyer, file your claims, and hold on tight. The legal fees are worth it.
But for smaller interests, or for families who just don’t want the anxiety of monitoring county recorder filings in a state they rarely visit, selling becomes a rational option.
When you sell to a group like ours (or any reputable buyer), we take on the title risk. We handle the filings. We have the staff to monitor the legal notices and the production reports. You trade a risky asset—one that requires defense—for cash today.
What You Should Do Today
If you own minerals in Ohio, do not wait for a letter in the mail.
- Check your timeline. When was the last time anything was recorded regarding your minerals?
- File a Claim to Preserve. Even if you aren’t under threat right now, filing this claim acts as a savings event. It buys you another 20 years of safety.
- Update your address. Make sure the county tax assessor and recorder know where you live.
The Ohio Dormant Mineral Act is strict, but it isn’t a secret. The worst thing you can do is assume your property rights protect themselves. They don’t. You have to protect them.
If you aren’t sure where you stand, or if you just want to know what your position is worth before you go down the rabbit hole of legal filings, we are happy to look at it. We’ll give you a straight answer on what we see in the county records.
Knowledge is the only leverage you have. Use it.
:savings-event
In the context of the Ohio Dormant Mineral Act, a “Savings Event” is a specific action that proves you haven’t abandoned your property. Think of it like checking in. This can be a title transaction, a drilling permit, actual oil and gas production, or simply filing a legal notice that you want to keep your rights. You need at least one of these every 20 years to stop a surface owner from taking your minerals.
:claim-to-preserve
This is a legal document filed in the county recorder’s office by a mineral owner. It is essentially a formal declaration that says, “I have not abandoned these mineral rights.” Filing this document counts as a savings event and protects your ownership from being claimed by the surface owner for the next 20 years. If you receive a notice of abandonment, filing this immediately is your primary defense.