Well water coming from an adjacent property; how to proceed?

[Brad E.]

I'm in due diligence on a house and just learned that this house does not have its own water supply.  The water is sourced from a well on an adjacent property that is owned by a different person.  

This property is on some family land that was divided and sold off to different individuals many years ago.  The original tract had a single well.   That well is now on its own lot and is feeding 3 lots total (including the one I'm buying).

The current owner says it hasn't been a problem (shes been there 15 years) and if she ever needs anything related to water, she just calls the neighbor and he addresses the problem.  There is nothing in writing regarding this agreement. Sounds like that's been working out fine for her but I really cant rely on that.  Not to mention I'm sure it will be difficult for me to sell the property later because of this.

The obvious options are 1) Drill a new well 2) see if its possible to connect to city water.  Both of those sound costly but I have not priced it yet.

I was wondering if anybody has had a situation like this, and how they handled it.  Also, if there are any other options that I am not thinking of. 

Any advice is appreciated.

[Chris Seveney]

Quote from @Brad E.:

I'm in due diligence on a house and just learned that this house does not have its own water supply.  The water is sourced from a well on an adjacent property that is owned by a different person.  

This property is on some family land that was divided and sold off to different individuals many years ago.  The original tract had a single well.   That well is now on its own lot and is feeding 3 lots total (including the one I'm buying).

The current owner says it hasn't been a problem (shes been there 15 years) and if she ever needs anything related to water, she just calls the neighbor and he addresses the problem.  There is nothing in writing regarding this agreement. Sounds like that's been working out fine for her but I really cant rely on that.  Not to mention I'm sure it will be difficult for me to sell the property later because of this.

The obvious options are 1) Drill a new well 2) see if its possible to connect to city water.  Both of those sound costly but I have not priced it yet.

I was wondering if anybody has had a situation like this, and how they handled it.  Also, if there are any other options that I am not thinking of. 

Any advice is appreciated.

 This will be problemmatic if there is no agreement in place. I have seen properties witha  community well and an easement of use and operations agreement on the well. 

That would be another option. As you mentioned if you can connect to a public utility that would be the best (but probably not an option).If it were me, I would review getting  a new well drilled, as if you go to sell the property this could scare people off. Just my 2 cents and hope this helps

[Dustin Allen]

@Brad E.

I have sold a property like this before. Similar situation where it was a large property split into 3 after the well was established. My buyers had similar concerns to yours. We looked up connecting to city water but would have had to pay for a mainline extension as the water main didn’t reach this particular part of the neighborhood.

When you get your title report, you should be able to look back in the original documents from when it was split up and find where they deeded the right to water from that well to each property. If you can’t find that, think about getting a new written agreement from whoever is on title with the actual well. 

This isn’t as uncommon as you’d think but I understand your concern. The other issue to understand is who is responsible for maintenance and when was it last done. Typically each of the properties pays annually for the power and maintenance to the well. Be sure to find out what those fees are and who controls that.