Before you jump to any conclusions, it’s imperative you look a bit further into this ban that is in place in North Dakota on hunting rights. What this ban does is stop the practice of a landowner being able to sell the hunting rights to his land for a lifetime. In other words, before the ban, I could buy a piece of property in North Dakota, sell the hunting rights to that land to another party, which they would then have those rights for a lifetime and then tomorrow I could resell that same piece of land. I am assuming the new buyer would be able to negotiate to buy back the rights.
I am always looking for ways to increase hunting opportunities and for those of you who know, I am a strong advocate for property rights. I’m not a legal expert but I think this is as much a legal issue as a property rights issue.
Some feel that as the owner of a piece of land you should have the right to do with it as you please. The question then becomes whether or not you can sell this right beyond your ownership of the land. What makes answering that question even more difficult is the fact that the state of North Dakota already allows the lifetime sale of rights for other things – the right to mine coal, graze livestock, pump water and explore for oil. Should we now be able to add hunting rights to this list?
Existing laws of course set precedence and it certainly would seem a fair question to ask what’s the difference in selling lifetime rights to graze livestock as to hunt the land?
As a landowner, you should be aware of the fact that often when encumbrances, such as the sale of rights, easements, etc., are included in land, it can drive the value down. I would assume too that under the right circumstances it could drive the price up but I’m still trying to figure out how in this case.
Here’s a simple example of how something like this might work. I bought a 10-acre parcel of land with an old farmhouse on it. At the time I bought the property, I didn’t realize that my neighbor had water rights on my land. How this occurred is simple to explain. The previous owner of the land and house I bought deeded the rights to an existing well to his neighbor after he sold him a lot of land. The buyer of the lot of land, built a house and struggled to find a viable water supply, so the original land owner deeded him water rights.
Some time after I was in the process of selling the farmhouse and a 2-acre piece to go with it. My friend, who is the local surveyor, discovered the deeded water rights to that well, which hadn’t been used for nearly 30 years.
I wanted to clean up the deed which would also increase the value of my property, albeit slightly. So I worked with the neighbor to take care of that.
So, the question comes back to whether or not it is legal to sell hunting rights in the same way you can sell or grant water rights, oil rights, etc..
The existing ban in North Dakota expires next year and legislators and landowners are setting up for a battle.
Tom Remington
