Sharing a well

Comparing $25 to what I spend on town water, that is very generous. My water use is about $15/month for a household of one.

Before you agree, find out what the use will be. If typical washing, toilets, maybe wash the truck one a week, no big deal. OTOH, if he has a business that uses thousands of gallons, it could be risky.

I would get some agreement for maintenance. Could be a 50-50 share or charge him a few bucks more and include it in the price monthly. Pumps are not cheap should you need one.

What about metering the house and the shop water usage separately? Maybe meter the electricity usage for the well separately from the house usage also. You'll know what it cost to run the well and how much was the shops. Maybe charge the shop guy for his usage plus X dollars a month to cover potential repair costs.

If he's got a sexy wife, you could think about perhaps plumbing the bottom of her well.

Definitely get a contract written up and signed. Have your lawyer look for any previous water agreements - that might be attached to the deeds. He should know about water agreements.

You need to protect yourself from the neighbours over-use-abuse ; and agree on shared maintenance. and quality / testing issues.

My well supplies me + 1 neighbour - $ 250. per year - we share maintenance 50-50 on shared plant - ie: pressure tank & pump - the water line to his house is HIS plant - not shared. It isn't in our agreement - but it probably should be - notice period to cancel - - when I bought the house, my lawyer said that 1 year was usual notice period for me to cancel.

I've heard stories of people with really great rates for well water - based on a 70 year old agreement - who install a "water furnace" and begin to heat and cool their home with the well water ! John T.

Like Ed says, if they are not using a lot of water $25 might be reasonable but you are accepting the risk. There is a lot of maintenance on a well so you need to bank a reserve fund to buy pumps, bladder tanks and other things that may go bad. Ed's $15. a month is pretty cheap water too. It is more than twice that, just to have a hook up, here.

$36.59 just to have the water and sewer pipe here, $44.16 for the first 6000gallons, ($80.75) $48.84 for the next 6000 gallons, (12000 gal) ($129.59) $52.52 for the next 6000 (18,000 gal) ($182.11) gallons and .97 cents a gallon for everything over that. (combined water and sewer based on water use)

It isn't about the monthly money - not at all - the well owner needs to think about future liability ; future usage changes ; future maintenance ; future disconnection ; etc etc .. whereas the water purchaser is sitting pretty - if there is no contract / agreement .. He will play nice if he is given notice to drill his own well .. under legal contract. John T.

...

DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT WITHOUT LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENT.

Anybody who'd suggest $25/mo is adequate is out for himself to begin with.

--

Yes, and it seems to me there needs to be a provision allowing the water to be cut off if the n'bor doesn't pay, either the monthly charge, or it needs a new pump, etc. and he doesn't pay his half. give him 3 months to pay in increments? Can the OP afford to lend money like that.

then when he still doesn't pay and the wwater is cut off, expect a war; For exmample, Wexpect him to break into the pump room, turn his water back on, and lock the pump room with an identical lock so the OP doesn't even know he's reconnected. Specify a fine or other punishement for this. Otherwise you have to rely on criminal law, trespass, burglary, and that makes t hings even worse.

I would disagree. The purchaser isn't sitting pretty absent an agreement. The well is on property A and absent any agreement the shop owner on the other property is at the mercy of property owner A, who can charge whatever he wants or discontinue service. I would not make it complicated or enter a long term agreement. Tell the shop guy the well is yours and only yours, you will supply water, it's month to month, or yearly, paid in advance, set an agreeable price and go from there. Like Ed said, if it's just some small water usage for a sink and washing off a car once in awhile, maybe $25 sounds fine. If it's more water, then a higher price. We also don't know what the cost of a well is. Once place it could be 75 ft and $3000, another it could be

I would not get into a contract because then you're probably going to have to measure the water usage, put in a meter, he'll want a long term contract which you may not want, if there is a dispute he has whatever rights you have now given him, etc.

All of the above assumes that there is nothing in the deed for property A that says anything about the well, sharing the well, etc.

Ask a lawyer, not a useless usenet group. Or a scumbag website .

The main reason for a contract is to nullify any grandfather handshake agreement that the other party might profess to have. A lot would depend on the laws in the state this is in but some may have something like an adverse possession law that says if you used to have water rights, you still do absent any intervening contract. As Sam Clemens said "Whisky is for drinking and water is for fighting over".

Your opinion of lawyers is overrated. Most of them are barely better than scumbags. I'd bet you have about a 25% chance of finding one that can give an accurate answer, but they will be capable of charging plenty to give an opinion. If he either of them had a competent lawyer or real estate agent, this should have been addressed and handled before closing. If I had to go the lawyer route, I'd just tell the other property owner forget about it, no water for you, not worth my time and money to figure it out.

Yep - and the present great-guy-neighbour might not be the guy you are in dispute with in 5 years - it will be the new owner - who is a complete A-Hole . John T.

The OP "is purchasing" ie : his real estate lawer will have all the answers. John T.

...

I'd wager there is no lawyer involved with either party to the transaction -- probably <20% of private home real estate deals ever have a lawyer involved.

For ordinary things, that's usually fine; for the particular circumstance it's probably worth it if don't "just say no" since well is on that property.

Just up the road from us the subsequent owner of the farmstead the landowner sold after her husband passed away also divided off a tract. To make the boundaries neat and square, the section with barn that was sold also happened to have the well. Absent an agreement, the homeowner came home one evening to discover he had no water--the owner of the subdivided tract when hooking up his new double-wide severed the service line to the other house and barn on the original tract.

Lacking any agreement to the contrary, he was forced to drill a new well as the other fella' refused to share what was now his well.

"Bad things _can_ (and do) happen if one isn't careful.

--

That depends on the state. Some states lawyers are required.

"If you reside in one of the states listed below, you will not have a choice in hiring an attorney. These states require the presence of lawyers during real estate closings: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Real estate lawyers must be a part of the real estate transaction process for each state listed. If buying or selling, your real estate agent will take care of this step during the transaction process."

When I recently bought a property with a shared well, the title included a legal water agreement (from 1976) that is transferrable to any new owner of the six properties; it very carefully lays out the responsibilities of all parties.

Not mentioned yet is water quality. Who is responsible if the well get contaminated and the guy with the shop can no longer get an erection? Either he may sue you or his fat ugly wife may demand you have sex with her now to take care of her needs.

Another good reason to have an agreement signed. In our area - 2 homes sharing a well is no problem - but more than 2 sharing introduces water testing requirements. John T.