I had an interesting visit yesterday morning from an Indiana Conservation Officer. He was very polite and professional throughout his visit, but the whole thing had some lines of questioning that surprised me. He correctly stated I had tagged a couple turkey and deer from 2018 on a landowner tag. He then correctly stated when he ran the Morgan county landowner report, no property came back with my name. I let him know I lease the ag rights to the same Morgan County property which I hunt, qualifying me to tag animals under one of the qualifications of landowner exempt. I really thought this should have been the end of the conversation, but he insisted on documentation of such a lease/leasee arrangement. I’m certain in many cases, as I’ve been part of them on both ends involving other situations, that many of these agreements are simple handshake agreements. As it happens, this one was a bit more formal and after digging around, I found a copy of the most current, which became effective mid November ‘18. I showed him this paperwork and he questioned the validity of my illegible signature. Wanting to make his job easy as possible, I demonstrate my signature in front of him, to his satisfaction. Then he noticed the date on the document didn’t include earlier in the seaon, when I tagged my spring turkey. I couldn’t quickly locate that document. I told him I’d check with the landowner to see if they were better record keepers and he left, asking me to email him the previous lease agreement. As it turned out, the landowner did have the document, which I sent over. He responded that all was good now.
I was fairly put off by the line of questioning, as the Indiana Code on the matter makes no mention of any requirements of lease documentation. Although I’m fairly certain the law requires no documentation much less a clear signature, I still feel like these guys have enough trouble without me making his life more difficult. Fortunately I had the paperwork that satisfied his needs and didn’t have to fight this in the courts.
Apparently the state is looking very close at hunters that tag animals as landowner exempt. If you’re the listed owner on the tax records, you’re probably good to go. If you’re tagging under several other scenarios that also qualify for landowner exempt status, make sure you have your ducks in a row!
I was fairly put off by the line of questioning, as the Indiana Code on the matter makes no mention of any requirements of lease documentation. Although I’m fairly certain the law requires no documentation much less a clear signature, I still feel like these guys have enough trouble without me making his life more difficult. Fortunately I had the paperwork that satisfied his needs and didn’t have to fight this in the courts.
Apparently the state is looking very close at hunters that tag animals as landowner exempt. If you’re the listed owner on the tax records, you’re probably good to go. If you’re tagging under several other scenarios that also qualify for landowner exempt status, make sure you have your ducks in a row!
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