Requesting an easement

[Mona V.]

I bought a property where the head of the well head had not been taken out since 1967, now that I did to chlorinate it, I realised it lies a few feet into neighbor's property. There is no well easement currently, since nobody ever tried to find out where the well is. I guess my best chance here would be to ask for an easement from the neighbor so that I can maintain the well, or maybe ask him to sell that little piece of land to me?  I have never entered this situation before so any ideas to approach this in a better way? 

If I don't get the easement, I guess neighbor would need to abondon the well and I would need to drill a new one. Well is not shared between properties, but looks like it used to be one big lot long time back.

[Leland Barrow]

I would check case history in the local area. Sometimes if an easement has been used for so long then it becomes a legal easement. Here in Texas if an easement has been used for so many years without the other land owner saying anything then it can be a legal easement. I would research as far back as you can get records and make sure it is not in any of the previous deeds. I would not bring it up to the neighbor until that is the last option. I am not  lawyer but I believe easement laws tend to side with historical use and not necessarily property ownership. You can also check if there are any utility easements on either property. Utility easements can be used in some situations. I purchased a landlocked property and used a utility easement to get official egress/regress. Your situiation is different.