I have been leasing a piece of property for 6 years now with no problems at all (handshake deal). We have been leasing from the rancher which had the hunting and grazing rights.The landowner recently decided to turn those rights over to his neighbor. Both the land owner and new rancher (leaseholder) wants to keep us on the place. They trust us and know we are not there to kill everything off.

The new rancher has not given me a price yet for what he is going to charge. I understand that the dollar amount will more than likely go up from where I was which is not a problem. My question is that he had asked for my information such as email address home address and drivers license number. Is it normal to give do number when signing a lease?

I would balk at the DL#. Offer him your hunting license number instead. Really no reason for him to need your DL#. I could understand your license plate number and a description of vehicle so he knows who is on the place. Email and home address would be used for communication obviously but no reason for him to need your DL# unless he wants it in case you were to write him a hot check. LOL

Would not give my dl. If he doesn't want a check and wants cash that's fine.


Also why would you expect rates to go up?

I would expect them to stay the same. No reason to raise rates after 6 years of a good relationship...

If he is preparing a lease contract it would not be unusual to have that number to go with your name on the contract. Especially in matters of liability, it's an easy way to find your current address if needed. If you were hunting on our lease, all this information would be required.

Our land owner use to ask for the same info even asked for a copy of our DL. I think he used this as a picture ID incase he ever had a problem. I found it odd the first year since I had never been asked for this info before but found it normal their after.

Good luck hope you are able to keep your lease.

If you are comfortable giving him a personal check which contains your bank account number, full name, home address, etc I don't see why you wouldn't I've him your dl number.

I don't think so on the DL....you have been there for 6 years that should account for something.

Our lease requires a DL#, or you simply do not lease.

I expect the lease to go up because I was paying an extremely low rate. When I was invited to be on the lease the other guys had already been on it for 9 years prior. Lease rates have gone through the roof in the last 16 years. Still not sure why he said he does not know what he is going to charge.

I love the lease so I plan to stay on it unless I can't afford it.

There is a huge difference...

I am surprised people would give out there dl number so easily.

I'd rather give someone my dl number than bank account number, just saying, the potential for fraud is way higher with the bank account number. When have you ever seen identity theft with a dl number?

Frankly if I was a landowner leasing to you and you refused providing me this information I would view it as a red flag that you have something to hide and I would be inclined not to lease to you.

Agreed, you are about to cut a stranger loose on your land.....it's not like he is asking for your SS#, that would be different.

A lot of id theft is helped with dl...


Would you be willing to give a copy of the deed or proof of ownership?



If I have your dl, full address, bank account, it would not be hard to do some dmg.

It has to go both ways imo. I would ask the owner to prove ownership of land to protect me. Or a copy of the loan, etc


If I was a land owner there are better ways to get information than have personal identifiable info.

A copy of my DL is included with a lot of different transactions and I have even giving it to someone I bought a gun from that was on the Internet. Figure as many places that have already made a copy of it have it, I wouldn't have an issue giving it to a rancher. His lease, his rules.

Proof of ownership is public record. All you need is an address and you can have the owners name is 20 seconds.

Thanks guys. I have been hunting for over 20 years. Before this lease I was lucky enough to hunt on other people's properties. Having an official contract is new to me which is the only reason I asked. After reading your responses It sounds like it is fairly common.

Good call. His lease- his rules is right. You don't have to provide your DL and he doesn't have to lease to you. If you refused, or even questioned him on it, you better be prepared to gather your stuff and vacate the property. I'm responsible for putting the group together for our place and after a bad experience I'm pretty sensitive to red flags- and this would be one.

My drivers license is on every check I write and has been for 30+ years. Still get stores that ask to verify it from the actual license when paying by check.


I am surprised you even hunt having to give your DL# to any state who issues a license. My DL# is on my Texas and Kansas hunting license and in their records.

County online Tax Appraisal District can tell you all you need to know about a place if you have a name. Can give acreage(s) they own and locations from just a name. If you know the location you won't need a name if you can find it on a Appraisal District map. You can then get a name of the owner, acreage and an address.

And alot of that can be done on the internet. Anyone that writes a check at the grocery store gives the same information to a clerk making minimum wage and there is no concerns of fraud, I'm not worried about a landowner who is giving me access to their property.

"
It has to go both ways imo. I would ask the owner to prove ownership of land to protect me. Or a copy of the loan, etc"

This may sound like it would be insulting to the landowner, but it happened to me and my group one time. Leased from a person who lived on the property, but opening day the landowner showed up with his friends to hunt. Woman confessed that she did not own the property and had been doing this for 5 years since the owner was from out of state and she had not seen him for 5 years. She said she had already spent our money and had nove to give back. Took her to court, got a judgement, never got any of our money back and did not get to hunt that year.

Good news is property records are easy to access and are public information. Easy to avoid a situation like you encountered.

Unfortunately fraud is rampant and exists pretty much every where. It is impossible in this day and age to completely avoid becoming a victim of some sort of fraud at some point in your life with all of the technology available to those types today. I personally don't see an issue with the DL# thing simply because the lease owner is about to turn you loose on his property with weapons and theres an infinite amount of liability there. I wouldn't expect it out of every lease agreement but if they asked for that info I wouldn't hesitate to give it to them simply for accountability to cover their [censored] should something happen. If you don't like their rules/requests then I'd simply find somewhere else to hunt.

Really this is what is all comes down to and if it is worth hunting people need to be prepared to hand it over.