Justin,
My firm does quite a bit of easement/R-O-W work representing land and mineral owners and providing other easement/R-O-W-related consulting services on their side of the business. Over the years, both I and others have had lots of questions similar to yours. After running into so many situations in which our counterparts appeared to be in violation of the law in this regard, and after hearing so many of them spout so much erroneous gossip about what was and was not legally required of them, and after getting so little help from TREC, I finally got fed up with it. So then, in November, 2011, I bit the bullet, took off work for about three days, buried myself in the Texas Real Estate License Act, especially Subchapter K, which covers easement/R-O-W registration (
Texas Occupations Code Section 1101, Subchapter K, The Real Estate License Act), gave it a thorough, literal reading from start to finish about three times, and wrote a very lengthy (13 pages) formal letter to TREC seeking their formal answers to a long list of precisely-worded questions, including a question similar to yours. I wrote it in such a way so as to cover almost any question anyone could have about these licensing and registration requirements in Texas. To ensure that I got a complete and thorough response from TREC, my state senator also sent a letter to TREC providing copy of my letter and requesting that they give attention to my letter. With my state senator's help, I did receive straightforward Yes and No answers to all of my questions. The answers were provided by the then-current general counsel of TREC.
Do
not in any way depend on what I tell you. Depend only on what you and/or your legal counsel are told by TREC and the statutes, themselves, and then only in writing. But I will show you the courtesy of telling you what I believe to be the answer to your question according to very specific formal questions I asked and the very specific formal answers I received from TREC.
Also, this is for
Texas,
only.
If you are officially a W-2 "employee" of the company,
not an independent contractor, and
not even an independent contractor working in-house, and are buying easement/R-O-W for your employer's use,
not for one of your employer's clients, then you are not required to have an ERW Registration.
If you are officially an independent contractor business contracted to the company, not an "employee," and your own independent contractor business entity is a sole proprietorship, you are required to have an Individual ERW Registration. This is true even if you are situated in-house.
If you are officially an independent contractor business contracted to the company, not an "employee," and your own independent contractor business entity is an LLC or a corporation, you are required to have an Individual ERW Registration,
and your business entity is required to have a Business ERW Registration. Both you and your business are required to be registered separately. Such a business entity is required to have an officer who has an Individual ERW Registration to serve as its Designated Agent.
If the company you are working for is selling, buying, leasing or transferring an easement or right-of-way for another, for compensation or with the expectation of receiving compensation, for use in connection with telecommunication, utility, railroad, or pipeline service, for example providing brokerage services, then both you (as an employee, independent contractor, and/or independent contractor business) and the company you are working for are all required to have Individual and/or Business ERW Registrations.
I say again, depend only on the information you get directly from the horse's mouth, that being the statutes and TREC's formal interpretation of them.
Hope this helps.
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Billy K. Lemons
Pres. / Principal Consultant
Resource Analytical & Management Group, LLC
Mailing: P.O. Box 632400
Nacogdoches, Texas 75963-2400
Email:
billy.k.lemons@resourceanalytical.com844.936.2400 Ext. 1101 Office
https://ResourceAnalytical.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 06-25-2020 14:08
From: Justin Brim
Subject: ROW License Needed as an In House Landman
All,
I recently heard that if you are working in-house as a right of way agent, you do not need the TREC ROW License. Is this true?
I have done some independent research and cannot find a true answer. I thought maybe you guys could help me with this question.
Thanks for your help in advance.
-Justin
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Justin Brim
Venado Oil & Gas, LLC
San Antonio TX
(432) 528-8836
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