Shared well etiquette

Anyone here share a well that could give me some guidance?
So we share a well with 3 other neighbors. The well is not on our property. The guy who owns the property with the well has informed us he is taking his name off the account and wants one of us to take over the account. Last 4 years we all split the cost of the bill between the 4 properties. One of the neighbors hasn’t reimbursed him for the well for quite some time so this must be the reason he wants someone to take over.
Is it normal for neighbors on a shared well to take turns with the account or is the property owner typically responsible?
We never signed any agreement that I know of and we always payed him promptly so is it normal to take turns?
He actually rents the house year round so there is no way the Electrical gets shut off so not sure he really has any leverage……right?

Get your own well. Done deal.

He wants his name off the account because you have a deadbeat neighbor that won’t pay. Makes sense to me.

Why do you have an account for well water? Isn’t it privately owned?

Mike W wrote:

Get your own well. Done deal.

I couldn’t agree more.
We did it with relatives and so so glad that ended 55 or so years ago.

I agree with the “get your own well” crowd.

As a sewer and water contractor, I’ve heard of this exact situation many times.

Tell the guy to shut the well off and have the non payer contact you to resolve the issue.

I’m assuming the account is for a separate meter from the electric company? Tell him to shut off the valve to the non-paying neighbor and start splitting 3 ways. If he ever wants to sell having a utility account on the property not under the owners name could become an issue.

munchy wrote:

I’m assuming the account is for a separate meter from the electric company? Tell him to shut off the valve to the non-paying neighbor and start splitting 3 ways. If he ever wants to sell having a utility account on the property not under the owners name could become an issue.

Correct its for the meter. I’m just wondering if it is normal for property owners to take turns being the well account holder. I was under the impression that the well account is typically taken care of by the neighbor who has the well on their property.

Mike W wrote:

Get your own well. Done deal.

Well that should be an inexpensive option but not an option. We recently split 18k to put in a new system.

So the well has it’s own power meter?

A few random thoughts:

1. What a mess. Wives, vehicles, property, toys, and now wells are all on my “do not share” list.

2. 0% chance I’d put my name on that. The other neighbor is looking to get off of it for a reason.

3. You recently stuck money into a shared well?!? That sounds like a regrettable mistake. I only know of one similar scenario for a group of homes locally on the river (1 owned by a family friend). They have not had major issues but also vowed to not stick any more money into a shared well as one of the 3 groups involved is elderly and likely to sell soon, plus it’s just more chaos sharing.

Just curious how much does the electricity for a well cost for a year? As a well owner I have no idea.

I have owned two homes that shared a well, just two homes one well and 3 on the other. Only lived at one of the them the other was a flip. One had a lawyer written contract, other one was a hand shank. The one I lived at it was trade for plowing snow, small paved driveway. Other one was $10 a month and 50/50 on repairs. Both were 50/50 on repairs or a 1/3 on well itself, I was responsible for line to my house, basically everything from valve to my house was my responsibility on both properties. It was ok, what I noticed was whoever had the equipment on there property had a sense of ownership of it. They could use as much water as they wanted but if you watered your lawn they would give you the stink eye!
To original question I would have a meeting with the other owners and if you guys can’t come to agreement, unfortunately someone is gonna need to get a lawyer involved to write up a legal agreement.

The_Bladepuller wrote:

So the well has it’s own power meter?

correct. our power company evidently will not split the bill into the 4 households.

X2 on What Munchy said.

No written agreement anywhere?

Electric cannot be that expensive.

and
Bucky, the do not share list could be its own thread.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Bucky, the do not share list could be its own thread.

Caves. Do not share a cave with another man.

How deep is the current well? Must be fairly deep to furnish 4 households. I would if all possible have your own well.

Bucky can chime in here also but I had a well drilled a year ago for $8500. It is 210 feet deep.

I have no idea how deep it is but all the houses on our road have shared wells. Split up in groups of 4 just like ours.
The electric ain’t that much maybe $40 a month split 4 ways. I am guessing the guy who has the well account did not get reimbursed by one of the other houses so is tired of the BS.
Strange deal because he lives in Texas and rents the house on vrbo. Obviously we don’t want our power to well shut off but the other neighbors want nothing to do with being the account holder. It’s basically a game of chicken right now and I already made it known that it’s not on my property so I should not be the account holder. I don’t think he has any leverage shutting the power off to it because he can’t rent his house without running water….

eyeguy507 wrote:

I don’t think he has any leverage shutting the power off to it because he can’t rent his house without running water….

I bet he will survive better and longer without his house rent than the rest of you will without water. I’d say he has far more Leverage than you want to know.

Share a well with 5 other neighbors. Retired neighbor handles the arrangements for all of us, cost 125$ a year for electricity. Just received a message from him with the Water test and everything was fine. When there is a maintenance issue we are sent copies of the bill to which no one would argue anyway. Remember when I was a kid on our farm the neighbor shared a well with us. The person we bought farm from sold us the farm and the neighboring house to someone else.They refused to pay for any maintenance of the well or electricity. The well was on our farm so my parents gave them a warning that the water would be shut off eventually and it was. This was at least a year or more before they turned off the water.

At some point your gonna need legal advice and contract. It will benefit all parties involved. And will help with future maintenance and sales of homes on well.

I think I would get an estimate on the cost of shut off valves to each of the well users. Then send out a letter stating what the cost is going to be and if you do not pay for the shut off valves and any past due money your water will be shut off. This way any new users will find themselves without water very quickly.

gregory wrote:

At some point your gonna need legal advice and contract. It will benefit all parties involved. And will help with future maintenance and sales of homes on well.

That’s what we do here, specially on Friday nights.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

That’s what we do here, specially on Friday nights.

EPG he said LEGAL advice.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gregory wrote:</div>
At some point your gonna need legal advice and contract. It will benefit all parties involved. And will help with future maintenance and sales of homes on well.

That’s what we do here, specially on Friday nights.

😂😂 fair enough!!

We share a well with 3 other homes…. The bill has never changed hands. The neighbor lets us know what we owe each year… about $100 per year…. No problems

fishthumper wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>eyeguy507 wrote:</div>
I don’t think he has any leverage shutting the power off to it because he can’t rent his house without running water….

I bet he will survive better and longer without his house rent than the rest of you will without water. I’d say he has far more Leverage than you want to know.

you’re probably right but it is likely his fault for letting one of the deadbeats to not reimburse him for quite some time. we have always paid our cut so if anybody needs to take over the account, it should be the neighbor that ruined it for everyone else. i guess i will wait and see at this point?

Why would you want a neighbor who doesn’t pay his bills to take over your water bill. I sure as hell wouldn’t want that. Maybe I read it wrong

Did I miss something here, are these seasonl homes?

I am sure there is a breaker to the well in the meter panel, give the 3 that pay the bill a key and lock the panel. The last one to leave on Sunday or Monday goes over and shut off the electricity to the well every time the 3 that pay the bill are not at their homes.

Eventually the VRBO owner will have complaints of no water. If the VRBO renter comers over and complians tell him that water is available for $50 for the weekend or $100 for the week. Collect from the renter for the water. Post a note on the door that water is available for $xx, contact yyyy.