DIYbanter - View Single Post - Sharing well and pump--how much should we charge?

jJim McLaughlin

wrote:
I share a well with my neighbor. For both of us, the well and pump
were supplied by the developer who old us the land on which we built
last year. Both houses use the well and pump, but only one house
supplies the electricity--and that's our house! We agreed that we
would pay for the electricity along with the rest of our electricity,
but our neighbor should pay us half the cost of the electricity
required to run the pump. Problem is, I don't know how to charge for
that. I don't even know how much electricity the pump uses. It's on
a circuit connected to our house's electrical service--there's no
separate meter. What would be a fair amount to charge?

Hmmm. Personally, I would'nt be in a siuation where this arrangment
aplied.
But you are, so you have to deal with it.

First thing I'd o would be o put in water meters for each ouse, so that
the gallonage used in each house could be tracked.

Second thing would be o et that pup on a separate meter, not connected
to either house's
domestic electric load.

Yep, could be expensive capital costs. And those sould be split 50 - 50.

Ongoing useage, split the elctric costs each month on the percentage of
water
by gallonage being used at each house. House A uses 10,000 gallons in
month of
January, House B uses 20,000 that month, House A pays 1/3 of pump
electric,
House B pays 2/3 of pump electric for that month. look at the gallonage
each month and readjust each month.

Pumps wear out. How do you propose to take care of pump replacement
15 years down the road? What witten down in advance arrangement do you
have for pipe leak repair in water lines from pump to each house?

You and nighbor have similar sized families now and maybe similar water
use patterns.
What happens when neighbor sells to the proverbial single little old
lady ?
Or the family with a dozen kids?

In case it helps, both families have two adults and two children with
typical water usage--no hot tubs, swimming pools, etc.

You and nighbor have similar sized families now and maybe similar water
use patterns.
What happens when neighbor sells to the proverbial single little old
lady ?
Or the family with a dozen kids?

Here's another thing I'm wondering about... Ours was the first house
built, and ours was the first plumbing connected to the pump, so I'm
wondering if we paid for some initial set-up that our neighbors didn't
have to pay for. For example, besides the electricity each month,
wouldn't there be a cost to initially run the circuit out to the
pump? What other initial costs might there be that should be shared
with the neighbor?

Fahgedabbout that. It was chicken feed.

By the way, what poperty is he well on (or in)? Do you and neighbor i
your deeds both have an easement to get to the water lies for service?
Do you each, in your deeds, have water rights acces to 1/2 the flow of
the well?

Finally, when our house was built, we installed a pressure tank. The
purpose of the pressure tank is to improve the overall pressure of the
plumbing in the house and to provide a sort of pressure reserve so
that the pump doesn't have to turn on so frequently. I'm not sure the
cost of this tank and it's related controls, but I know it was over
$1,000. I also know that our neighbor did *NOT* install one of
these. My question is this... Is our neighbor benefiting from our
pressure tank?

The situation you have already described is so screwy, already, that one
can only guess as to how the plumbing was done. Its possible that the
well feeds the pressure tank and the tank feeds both houses. Without
looking
at it an tracing out the plumbing, no one in this news group could tell.
We aren't there, we can't see it.

Besides lessening wear and tire on the pump, is it
also improving the pressure for our neighbor's house, too? (The tank
is located in our house's mechanical room.) Is this something that
our neighbor should be compensating us for?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

What attorney represented you in the closing?

What attorney represented the other home buyer?

I can't believe a locality would allow this kind of
arrangement, it would ot be allowed for new construction in this state
(Oregon).

I almost can't believe there is a lender out there who would lend on
either house,
but especially on house two. Then again, lenders are far too often stupid,
as the sub prime farce shows.

Good luck, you are going to need it.

- Johnnie