Adding property to existing shared well? (Sierra Vista, Maricopa: how much, attorney, houses)

[urbex]

I live in a rural area of Maricopa county. There is a well on my property, registered in my name, that is shared between myself and one neighbor. That neighbor is a long time friend of mine, and we've been operating under a Gentleman's Agreement as far as covering operating costs of the well for the years that we've both been living out here.

It's always been in the back of my mind that I should be formalizing this agreement in writing, "just in case...", and now this has been pushed more to the forefront as an adjoining property has just been purchased, with the new owner inquiring about buying in to our well as opposed to drilling his own.

I have a copy of the well registration, but it has zero information on the well. The deed transfer shows that the intended capacity of the well was 20GPM as per the document filed by the driller, but there's no current information on capacity, depth, etc. I seem to remember being told when I bought the property years ago that there's a 10GPM pump installed.

The existing neighbor is a little concerned about letting someone else in on the well would tax the system too much, which is a thought of mine as well, especially as we don't know what the true capacity of the well is. It is currently connected to just our two houses, with a total of 4 adults between us. His primary concern is that the new neighbor will be 2 adults and 4 teenagers so there may a huge additional draw on the system. We also have only 1 electric meter on the well, and don't have individual water usage meters, so our current method of splitting the well electric bill 50/50 would likely result in our bills going up significantly if we were to go to a 1/3 split for each house. Although it would be nice to split future repairs 3 ways, it may also mean that we end up repairing more often with a larger draw.

So...how would be go about determining well capacity? I suspect if the 10GPM is true, that's likely too low to serve 3 houses to begin with. If we were to agree to letting the new neighbors in, what would be the proper way of handling it? Is even considering letting the new neighbors in just a bad idea all around?

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by urbex

I live in a rural area of Maricopa county. There is a well on my property, registered in my name, that is shared between myself and one neighbor. That neighbor is a long time friend of mine, and we've been operating under a Gentleman's Agreement as far as covering operating costs of the well for the years that we've both been living out here.

It's always been in the back of my mind that I should be formalizing this agreement in writing, "just in case...", and now this has been pushed more to the forefront as an adjoining property has just been purchased, with the new owner inquiring about buying in to our well as opposed to drilling his own.

I have a copy of the well registration, but it has zero information on the well. The deed transfer shows that the intended capacity of the well was 20GPM as per the document filed by the driller, but there's no current information on capacity, depth, etc. I seem to remember being told when I bought the property years ago that there's a 10GPM pump installed.

The existing neighbor is a little concerned about letting someone else in on the well would tax the system too much, which is a thought of mine as well, especially as we don't know what the true capacity of the well is. It is currently connected to just our two houses, with a total of 4 adults between us. His primary concern is that the new neighbor will be 2 adults and 4 teenagers so there may a huge additional draw on the system. We also have only 1 electric meter on the well, and don't have individual water usage meters, so our current method of splitting the well electric bill 50/50 would likely result in our bills going up significantly if we were to go to a 1/3 split for each house. Although it would be nice to split future repairs 3 ways, it may also mean that we end up repairing more often with a larger draw.

So...how would be go about determining well capacity? I suspect if the 10GPM is true, that's likely too low to serve 3 houses to begin with. If we were to agree to letting the new neighbors in, what would be the proper way of handling it? Is even considering letting the new neighbors in just a bad idea all around?

Kind of a no-brainer IMO. You need to have the well evaluated more thoroughly. Talk with a reliable local well driller or hydrologist. The well's discharge/recharge rate could certainly change in future. Not having a more formal use agreement in place seems risky. Discuss this with an attorney. A poorly composed agreement could be a nightmare especially if the responsibilities of each part-owner are never defined or the well capacity changes. Better safe than sorry. Water disputes are a thing, especially where its scarce. Personally I'd never share ownership of a well. If you haven't seen this already, some info to start thinking about it:

https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/...z1810-2020.pdf

[AZJoeD]

For starters I would check with the Arizona Dept of Water Quality.

https://new.azwater.gov/permitting-wells/water-quality

They should have the records on your well.

You can search for one of a dozen companies that drill and service wells in your area. In the past I have used

https://www.beemanbrothersdrilling.com/

You can search the Maricopa County Recorders Office for examples of a well sharing agreement. It is a common practice to record well sharing agreements. I recommend you execute one while you and your neighbor are still gentlemen.

[maverick974]

Ummm, you can also exercise the option of saying NO. That just doesn't sound like any solution that you choose is ever going to make everyone happy.
If your set on allowing a 3rd house to connect, it sounds to me that he should pay 60 percent of all costs with the remaining 40% split between you and your friend. All that is based on the number of people in each household.
There are other variables. What if he decides to build a pool and\or water features on the property or maybe he gets a few horses? Water usage goes up drastically.
I'm sorry but if it were me, I'd have to decline. With our litigious society nowadays, everyone is lawsuit happy so I'd wanna protect myself.

[Greenvalleyfan]

No brainer to me. I wouldn't share any water. If you have a good well, keep it to yourself. Your investment of your home depends on it.

[MGS4EVER]

I agree with Greenvalleyfan. Just sounds like a huge problem waiting to happen. Let's say you do share and then it doesn't work out, that neighbor would have to drill a well after already living there for whatever length of time. They'd probably sue you for the cost of having to put in a well, or something else.

This would be a great time to evaluate the well and then have a formal legal agreement with your neighbor who currently shares the well with a "gentleman's agreement". That way you would know about your well, and everything else will be more formal and in writing. Then you can tell the new neighbor that your well can't handle any more users. Simple.

[urbex]

I wasn't set on any particular way...I'm merely looking at options. But I don't really want to go into a typical C-D argument over this, so I found the info I was looking for and I'm good now, thanks!

[punkyd]

OP should get agreement formalized legally. One day "they" will impose a limit of how much you can pump out. They will base that on there being one owner of well with one house. It should be one owner of well and two houses.

[desert88]

Friend. No formal agreement.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Achi WaWa]

Do your research and then just say no...
I had this happen, so I'll try to be brief and summarize... The well account and wellshare bank account were in my name, so I also managed the finances and bills for the wellshare. Initially It was just me and my neighbor and all was good. In our area outside Sierra Vista, 3 and 4 party wells were typical. Ours was legally three, but the third house insisted on having their own well. Unbeknownst to us, the builder sold the 3rd share to the property to the north. A few years later he sold that property and I found out all about it when the well company showed up to trench and hook it up...

They wanted permission to cross my property and I said no, but my neighbor said OK, so there was nothing I could do.
At that point, I insisted we have an agreement setup. It was several pages long and covered many contingencies, thankfully we never needed... Then those neighbors sold the 8 acres and moved...

The guy who moved in was a total a**. He refused to sign the agreement but there was a clause that tied it to the property and not the previous owner... He then proceeded to start a hobby farm, about 20 animals, a good size garden, raised landscape trees to sell in Mexico, a greenhouse and refused to pay more than 1/3 the water bill.

Our water bill (each) went from $8x2 to $60x3, we burned out one 25gpm pump, a pressure tank failed and I could see the online usage charts where the pump would run 3 days straight x24hr (looked like a scheduled switch).

The guy refused to discuss it or compromise in any way. In Az you cannot shut someones water off once they are connected, especially if they have livestock. After living there 15 years, I was glad I didn't have to deal with it after I moved.

Like others, my advice is to say No if you can.