EDIT: It’s Aroostook County, ME. I haven’t bought the house yet, mainly because of this nonsense.
You might ask a local lawyer who knows your rights, not international nerds at Lemmy.
As an international Lemmy user, my biased, uninformed, misguided and objectively wrong perception is that Americans solve these things with guns.
Source: Never been to USA, but I’ve seen lots of Hollywood action movies produced in the 80s and 90s.
Sadly, the Americans who have seen those movies came to the same conclusion.
I noticed you modified the label from the original message. Are you suggesting you’re not a nerd?
edit: Also, if we’re talking about the nineties, don’t forget our deployment of ninjas.
I edit nearly all of my messages, because I swipe too fast, autocorrect does its own thing etc. Usually, it takes about two seconds to figure out a better way to say it, but those seconds start ticking after sending the first version.
That’s fine - I was just making a joke because the original comment referenced “international nerds” and you referred to yourself as an “international lemmy user.” I was joking that you were distancing yourself from the nerds, even though just being on lemmy makes it likely you are a nerd. All good!
LOL. Good catch. Maybe that’s one of the things I should have fixed in the fifth edit.
Less likely in Maine, but not too far off.
If I ever start a band, I’m calling them “International Nerds.”
Also ask ChatGPT. Always a solid move
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.
US, Maine, Aroostook County
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.
Yeah I reached the same conclusion and rescinded my offer.
Lol I love how you gradually gave up on censoring the company name
Yeah fuck those guys. Feel free to do whatever nefarious things you can come up with.
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.
Unless you can buy them out assume dump trucks in your backyard. I’d refuse to buy with those terms. Worse than a hoa.
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.
Landmines
For legal reasons that’s a joke.
Yes. This is NOT something that I would do. Because of how wrong it would be.
/s
They might have mining rights but do the have access? As in are they legally allowed to access the property?
Yeah, the deed says they can build roads to access
Then you’re in for a hell of a fight to stop them.
idk the economic feasibility but could you make an offer to the company?
I don’t have a scrooge mcduck money vault unfortunately
Ask a lawyer for an informed opinion. They’ll (hopefully) have the tools to determine what this easement means for you as a potential homeowner on the parcel. The Maine Geological Survey has an item in their FAQ of some relevance.
I don’t know how common these kinds of easements are in Maine, but I would not purchase any real property that could be used and abused at the whim of a corporation with a team of well paid lawyers.
Sell the land and keep the house
