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.
problem with solving things with guns is that you will just be outgunned if you have to hold ground.
But in those movies Mr Giga Chad Protagonist never runs out of guns, ammo or one liners. Taking a few hits will only make him angry.
As long as you run out of bubblegum before ammo, you will be alright.
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
Ask Quora for better answers 😉
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Yeah I reached the same conclusion and rescinded my offer.
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.
Anyone got any endangered plant species native to Maine I can borrow?
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.
They did disclose. I haven’t bought the house yet, and this is the main reason
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.
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
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.
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
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.
I haven’t bought it yet, mainly because of this, It’s Aroostook County, ME.
If you buy this property you’re going to be sitting there waiting for the day they send you a letter to tell you they’re expanding their mine onto your property.
That’s a level of uncertainty that I would not be comfortable with for my home. If it’s “recreation” property, like hunting land, then maybe I would feel differently.
Yeah, I passed. It’s too bad though. It’s a gorgeous, enormous, modern house on 100 acres of land.
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
