What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Tennessee
I am currently on a shared well with a total of 5 homes; 2 permanent residents and 3 nightly rentals. The well is on my property and the shared well agreement was in place prior to my purchase.
Here is the issue: About 7 months ago we started having water pressure problems. So everyone on the well checked for leaks at their home. No leaks were found at the residents.
One home owner stated they thought the "leak" was at one of the nightly rentals that was just hooked back up to the well after new owners purchased it (dont know why it was ever disconnected). The new owner took responsibility and tried to find the leak- dug up all their water lines leading to their home and also leading to the well- no leaks were found. After not finding the leaks and getting a lot of harassment from one particular home owner- the new owners "threw in the towel" and dug their own well. All this went on for well over 3 months. Meanwhile water pressure is getting worse and worse.
The well has it's own electric meter and prior to my purchase this was in one of the other home owners name (although it is on my property) I suggested to put it in my name since it was on my property, however, they wanted to keep control since they knew what was done with it. I did not argue and kept it in their name.
As far as I knew all homes is well agreement had water just low pressure and from what I was told it was being taken care of. Another month in a half went by and still no pressure. Now I find out that one the permanent home owners had no water and was running a hose to the neighbor to get water for their home (this is the same owner in which the electric for the pump in is their name). Our water pressure was getting worse and worse. Everytime we would try to talk about a resolution; the blame kept going back to the new home owners and no one wanted to solve the problems. Meanwhile, we have little water pressure barely enough to shower.
Now, a few more weeks go by and I find out the the owner who had the electric in his name had turned off the well pump and pad locked it and left for out of town for a month. So obviously now we have NO water.
I called the owner who shut the well pump off and asked if him if indeed he did shut it off. He responded with "yes I did because it would burn up the pump and I didnt want to pay a high electric bill" (this electric bill is a shared cost) and also he stated he had water from the neighbors. My next step was to call the sheriff to file an incident report only because I didn't know what was going to happen next and I felt i needed a paper trail.
Next I contacted a lawyer to read my well agreement and let me know of my rights. The lawyer told me to do what ever I had to do to get water from the well without shutting the lines off to the other homes.
I, again, spoke with the owner who turned off the pump and told him we need to come to some solution to correct this problem. He stated he had no money to do anything and we would have to wait til he returned in a month. Meanwhile, no water. So I called the other owner and spoke with him and wanted to wait til everyone could meet and come to a solution. Meanwhile, no water!! We live here permanently and they only rent out their homes- we had to have water to live and they really didn't feel the issue was too pressing.
So I installed a turn off valve so only I would get water and I installed a small submersible pump to only supply my home, however, this will no way supply the other homes and travel up a mountain to get to them. The original pump that was in the well was already burnt up and was going to have to be replaced. This was going to cost around $4000 not including finding the supposed leak to prevent this pump from being burnt up. I know for a fact the leak if there was one was not at my home.
Now that everyone has taken their vacations and have lost money due to not being able to rent their home for no water they want to solve the problem. Meanwhile, my family and I have suffered through having no water in the home. We've had to buy bottled water, use laundry mat, shower at a camp ground, eat out more, and been really inconvenienced with the whole thing. The way we looked at it- we talked to all involved trying to resolve this issue and we got no where so we consulted an attorney who advised us to do what we had to do to get water so we did and now almost 7 months later they want to fix the problems however, we waited until just a week ago to put another pump in.
What rights do we have??? The other owners feel that we should all have pay to have another pump placed to supply all and our contract states that if a resolution is not taken within 60 days all will have to dig their own well.
Anyone have any thought on this???
I am currently on a shared well with a total of 5 homes; 2 permanent residents and 3 nightly rentals. The well is on my property and the shared well agreement was in place prior to my purchase. Here is the issue: About 7 months ago we started having water pressure problems. So everyone on the well checked for leaks at their home. No leaks were found at the residents.
One home owner stated they thought the "leak" was at one of the nightly rentals that was just hooked back up to the well after new owners purchased it (dont know why it was ever disconnected). The new owner took responsibility and tried to find the leak- dug up all their water lines leading to their home and also leading to the well- no leaks were found. After not finding the leaks and getting a lot of harassment from one particular home owner- the new owners "threw in the towel" and dug their own well. All this went on for well over 3 months. Meanwhile water pressure is getting worse and worse.
The well has it's own electric meter and prior to my purchase this was in one of the other home owners name (although it is on my property) I suggested to put it in my name since it was on my property, however, they wanted to keep control since they knew what was done with it. I did not argue and kept it in their name.
As far as I knew all homes is well agreement had water just low pressure and from what I was told it was being taken care of. Another month in a half went by and still no pressure. Now I find out that one the permanent home owners had no water and was running a hose to the neighbor to get water for their home (this is the same owner in which the electric for the pump in is their name). Our water pressure was getting worse and worse. Everytime we would try to talk about a resolution; the blame kept going back to the new home owners and no one wanted to solve the problems. Meanwhile, we have little water pressure barely enough to shower.
Now, a few more weeks go by and I find out the the owner who had the electric in his name had turned off the well pump and pad locked it and left for out of town for a month. So obviously now we have NO water.
I called the owner who shut the well pump off and asked if him if indeed he did shut it off. He responded with "yes I did because it would burn up the pump and I didnt want to pay a high electric bill" (this electric bill is a shared cost) and also he stated he had water from the neighbors. My next step was to call the sheriff to file an incident report only because I didn't know what was going to happen next and I felt i needed a paper trail.
Next I contacted a lawyer to read my well agreement and let me know of my rights. The lawyer told me to do what ever I had to do to get water from the well without shutting the lines off to the other homes.
I, again, spoke with the owner who turned off the pump and told him we need to come to some solution to correct this problem. He stated he had no money to do anything and we would have to wait til he returned in a month. Meanwhile, no water. So I called the other owner and spoke with him and wanted to wait til everyone could meet and come to a solution. Meanwhile, no water!! We live here permanently and they only rent out their homes- we had to have water to live and they really didn't feel the issue was too pressing.
So I installed a turn off valve so only I would get water and I installed a small submersible pump to only supply my home, however, this will no way supply the other homes and travel up a mountain to get to them. The original pump that was in the well was already burnt up and was going to have to be replaced. This was going to cost around $4000 not including finding the supposed leak to prevent this pump from being burnt up. I know for a fact the leak if there was one was not at my home.
Now that everyone has taken their vacations and have lost money due to not being able to rent their home for no water they want to solve the problem. Meanwhile, my family and I have suffered through having no water in the home. We've had to buy bottled water, use laundry mat, shower at a camp ground, eat out more, and been really inconvenienced with the whole thing. The way we looked at it- we talked to all involved trying to resolve this issue and we got no where so we consulted an attorney who advised us to do what we had to do to get water so we did and now almost 7 months later they want to fix the problems however, we waited until just a week ago to put another pump in.
What rights do we have??? The other owners feel that we should all have pay to have another pump placed to supply all and our contract states that if a resolution is not taken within 60 days all will have to dig their own well.
Anyone have any thought on this???