Timber Rights Contract

[Buckshotlee]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia and the county has no local ordnance about timber rights.

I purchased land and we did a deed search and the deed was clear. After the deed was recorded in our name and about a month later, a logging company wanted a key to my gate to timber my land. I asked him for a copy of the contract and if he had it recorded but we didn't record it. He said that he didn't get it recorded because the Notary's commission had expired and the court house would not let him record it.

Also the original land owner conveyed to me that logger was not up holding the oral obligations of the contract to maintain a road thru the property and she said that she told him to get off of her property about 2 years ago and never come back.

I believed her after we found no contract recorded against the deed.

Do I not have a leg to stand of against the logger or is it the other way around?

 

[justalayman]

You admit you were aware of a contract to log the land. The seller themselves told you about it.

there are no "oral obligations" of a written contract.


Just because a person tells another to go away and to not come back does not mean the contract has been voided.

even if the notary's commission had expired, it would appear the contract was ratified by action since the seller was complaining that the logger was not maintaining a road as part of the consideration to allow them to log the land



I think you are fighting a very steep uphill battle.

 

[Buckshotlee]

some details of the contract.

The original land owner has two properties and the logger's contract doesn't list either property or list acres to be cut, just a general location and the original land owner still owns part of the land that the logger is claiming rights too.

 

[strongbus]

So what this comes down to is the fact that what the timber guy wants is a key to your gate so he can drive across your land to get the former owners land to log. Some others can tell you more but if I was you I would tell the timber guy that if he wants to access that land then he can find another way to get to it.

 

[Buckshotlee]

general warrenty of title

What power do I have with a "general warranty of title" or General Warranty Deed?

 

[HomeGuru]

What power do I have with a "general warranty of title" or General Warranty Deed?

**A: that is really not the issue at hand.

 

[Buckshotlee]

**A: that is really not the issue at hand.

What do you mean? I found where a General Warranty Deed in VA protects the buyer best because it makes the buyer only responsible for liens, etc that are "of record".

 

[tranquility]

This has been a bad week for the forum. I might go with (emphasis mine):

§ 55-96. Contracts, etc., void as to creditors and purchasers until recorded; priority of credit line deed of trust.

A. 1. Every (i) such contract in writing, (ii) deed conveying any such estate or term, (iii) deed of gift, or deed of trust, or mortgage conveying real estate or goods and chattels and (iv) such bill of sale, or contract for the sale of goods and chattels, when the possession is allowed to remain with the grantor, shall be void as to all purchasers for valuable consideration without notice not parties thereto and lien creditors, until and except from the time it is duly admitted to record in the county or city wherein the property embraced in such contract, deed or bill of sale may be. The fact that any such instrument is in the form of or contains the terms of a quit-claim or release shall not prevent the grantee therein from being a purchaser for valuable consideration without notice, nor be of itself notice to such grantee of any unrecorded conveyance of or encumbrance upon such real estate goods and chattels. The mere possession of real estate shall not, of itself, be notice to purchasers thereof for value of any interest or estate therein of the person in possession. As to goods whose possession is retained by a merchant-seller the provisions of subsection (2) of § 8.2-402 of the Uniform Commercial Code shall be controlling. This section shall not apply to any security interest in goods under the Uniform Commercial Code except as provided in subsection (5) of § 8.9-302. Any bill of sale or contract for the sale of goods or chattels when possession is allowed to remain with the grantor shall be deemed to be duly recorded when it is filed in the same manner as Uniform Commercial Code financing statements are filed under the criteria and in the places established by § 8.9A-501 as if the grantor were a debtor and the grantee a secured party. A recordation under the provisions of this section shall, when any real estate subject to the lien of any such contract has been annexed to or merged with an adjoining city subsequent to such docketing, be deemed to have been recorded in the proper clerk's office of such city.

Actual notice will be the key. From the description, I'd say the OP has some due diligence to do before he has any rights against the seller, but, "Notice" does not require a person to do due diligence on what might be.