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

cj

wrote:

Wow! Lots of responses! Thanks for all the advice.

I'm surprised the mere idea of well sharing is so foreign to
everyone. It's very common in Wisconsin. It makes a lot of sense.
There are rarely any problems, and I personally have never heard of
any first-hand. Sharing a well causes no problems with deeds,
mortgages, buying, selling, etc. Our deed, and our neighbor's deed,
both have the same language regarding the well and pump, and the deeds
were reviewed by attorneys, title companies, lenders, etc. This is
all legit.

My only problem is *HOW* to split the electricity. We both agree that
we'll split it, and our deeds stipulate that we'll split it, but how
do we split it? I'm waiting to hear back from my neighbor to see if
he agrees on a reasonable amount like $15/mo. I have no reason to
believe he'll argue about it. If he does, I'll just have to install a
meter on that circuit, watch it for a few months to come up with an
average, and then charge based on that. If the cost of a meter is
reasonable, I may do that regardless, as I'm a lover of information,
and I'd just like to know how much juice the pump uses.

I'm satisfied that the cost to run the circuit in the first place is
negligible, and I won't bother my neighbor with that. Besides, we'd
have to run that circuit even if we didn't share a well, and our
neighbor had to run a similar circuit to control the pump, so it's not
worth analyzing.

As for the pressure tank... I'm going to have a non-biased third
party plumber look at the installation and make sure it's fare, and
explore the "check valve" to make sure my neighbor doesn't benefit
from it, or, if necessary, figure out what initial costs should be
shared.

Thanks for all the information everyone!

- Johnnie

we share a well with the well's owner (whos never here) and another
neighbor. the well's owner charges us $35 a year and i know that i use
alot more water than he does
cj in michigan