2002
Central CO title since
Center-pivot country on Highway 17, and the post office address of the Great Sand Dunes. On a Mosca file the deed is rarely the hard part — the pivot, the well and whatever has been signed with a solar developer usually are.
Mosca was established in 1890 and named for Mosca Pass. It is unincorporated, so Alamosa County is the land-use authority, and it is the mailing address for Great Sand Dunes National Park — though the entrance is twenty miles east on Highway 150. This is irrigated row-crop country: Alamosa County farms about 141,000 acres, roughly 57,000 of them irrigated. That shapes what a closing here actually turns on, and it is rarely the deed.
Start with the pivot and the water, because the contract handles both by listing rather than by doctrine. Inclusions transfer “whether fixtures or personal property,” so a pivot nobody wrote into the blank is an argument waiting to happen — and if it is leased or equipment-financed, the buyer needs the lessor’s written approval or the contract can terminate. Deeded water, well rights and ditch stock sit in three separate paragraphs, with a review period to walk if the water does not check out. One easy miss: an unregistered well must be registered with the state within sixty days after closing.
Then the minerals, and there is a local illustration worth knowing. The mineral estate beneath the wildlife refuge just north of here is privately held, and the refuge’s own manager has said there is no legal way to refuse that owner access. If the federal government is in that position on ground it bought outright, a buyer on forty acres is in no better one. Meanwhile utility-scale solar is optioning this exact farm ground — and those options, leases and easements get recorded.
What we examine on Mosca files — read locally, explained in plain language.
Irrigation equipment transfers by what is written in the contract, not by a general rule — and a leased pivot needs the lessor’s written approval. We check for the UCC filing behind it.
Deeded rights, well rights and ditch stock are three different things in three different paragraphs. An unregistered well must be registered with the state within sixty days of closing.
A private mineral estate can outrank the surface owner — the refuge north of here is the proof. And solar options and easements are being recorded on this farm ground now.
Hooper is seven miles north on Highway 17; the county hub covers the wider valley, and Moffat sits further north over the Saguache line.
“A pivot nobody wrote into the contract is an argument, not an inclusion. We check before it becomes one.”
Straight answers. Informational only — not legal advice.
No — we work Mosca from our Salida office and close in person, in Denver, or remotely with a notary. Call 719-539-1001 or email info@centralcoloradotitle.com.
Only if the contract says so. Colorado’s standard land contract transfers inclusions “whether fixtures or personal property,” so what governs is which blank the pivot lands in — not whether it is bolted down. If it is leased or equipment-financed, the buyer needs the lessor’s written approval to take it over, and without that the contract can terminate. We look for the lien behind it. Informational only, not legal advice.
No. Water rights convey separately from the land and aren’t part of a title search, so a standard policy does not insure them — whether deeded separately or passing with the land. We flag the recorded instruments and point you to the right water experts. On irrigated ground that is the largest gap between what a buyer believes they bought and what is actually covered, so the water needs its own diligence. Also worth knowing: an unregistered well has to be registered with the Division of Water Resources within sixty days after closing.
Because the mineral estate can be severed and, in Colorado, the mineral owner generally has the right to reach it. The clearest local example is the wildlife refuge just north of here: the federal government owns the surface and the minerals underneath are privately held, and the refuge’s own manager has said there is no legal way to refuse the mineral owner access. A private buyer has no stronger position, which is why we read the mineral chain rather than assume it.
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