On Saturday, December 22, 2018 at 11:01:50 AM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
On Saturday, December 22, 2018 at 10:14:07 AM UTC-5, backstrapassassin wrote:
OK I've got a situation that is along these lines but worse, my family moved
into a house neighboring a man I've known my whole life. It's a shared well
the person I bought it from sold the man I've known land to build his house
and split a line over to his house for water. And the land that was sold to
him is were the well head is, so years later my family buys the house and
here's the situation the well head is on his land the pressure tank is in my
crawl ( 4ft tall ) space electric to the pump is on my house meter. When we
moved in an old man and old woman, and he would bring a few cows up from a
lower field once or twice a year to finish them didn't use to much water . He
told me when we moved in that the old guy I bought from took 100 a year for
water usage, I thought kinda low but two old people and a few cows OK that's
cool. Fast forward two years his wife dies he's there alone still no big deal
on water we've lived there going on ten years now so around year 7 he
remarried to a lady that farms goats for milk so know they have 100 goats
(milk goats ) he raises pigs 6 to 10 at a time he's go chickens turkeys ducks
pretty much all live stock but horses and he still pays 100 a year. I'll note
over the years any problems have been split 50 50.
A few months ago I get a electric bill that's 357. I'm like wtf, so I go to
the crawl space and sure enough the pump is short cycling. So I track the
leak back to the shutoff value at the well head. But before I found that I
went to his house to find water standing by his barn I said that must be the
leak that made my electric bill triple. He says no that's been a slow leak
sense November the year prior. I'm like wtf we will call him Carlos. He said
it doesn't leak enough to cycle that pump like that and I said but Carlos
every bit of cycle time runs off my house it all matters to me.his wife comes
out and I said hey how about we put the pump on its own meter because you guys
have a full blow farm running now and I can't tell were I'm at as far as
efficiency, BTW my family has installed the most efficient appliances when
we have to replace anything over the years. He said no cost $30 a month alone
just for the meter I said I'll gladly split at least I'll know where I'm
standing and I also said I'll split the $15 a month for my part of the meter
and I'll pay you $100 a year for the next 9 years and his wife laughed at me
looked at me like I was crazy when I said that anyway it's Christmas time now
2018 and I think I'm going to go over and discuss this again with him since
another years past what are you guys think jacked-up situation huh
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for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...s-1183316-.htm
You can put a watthour meter on just the pump circuit. An electrician can
do it or DIY if you have the skills. Assuming they are willing to trust
you not to tamper with it. If not, I guess you could put the meter in a locked
box that takes two keys to open, so they know you're not tampering with it.
But the fact that they are doing what they are doing, using the well for
a farming operation and the wife has the nerve to laugh at you isn't a
good sign.
The previous owner that sunk the well in a spot that they later decided to
sell was really dumb. IDK the layout, but you'd typically put a well
close to the house and you'd think almost naturally it wouldn't wind up
on a piece that you might later sell. Worst case, I'd be making sure
I had money available to drill a new well on your own property.
I should have added, if you're going to pay for this meter install, you
should get an agreement in writing with the neighbor to split the cost.
And that the other half of the problem is even if you measure the electric
used by the pump, how does the cost get split? You'd have to meter the
water too, to divide the cost accurately. And I'm betting that some
fixed arrangement, like 80/20 or 70/30, won't be acceptable to the neighbor.
They will probably want it split 50/50. I'd get how it's going to be
split into the written agreement too, before shelling out money.