Waterline And Spring Easement

[Nurvos_rex]

We live in Southwestern Virginia. In the mid-60's, my parents, grandparents, cousin and others in our community accessed a spring and buried a waterline on a neighbor's property with their consent. At least 4 homes and the property owner have utilized this water for the 40 plus years on a gentleman's agreement with no documents ever being drawn. The original owner and is son have since passed away leaving the land to their offspring which has posted the land for sale, but still retains possession.
What are our rights to this spring and possible easements to the waterline currently and if the property is sold. Will it be grandfathered in under prescriptive easement or are we basically SOL without proper paperwork.

Thanks,
Darryl

[lwpat]

You need to get an agreement and record it in order to avoid any future problems. Have an attorney draw up the paperwork.

[4eyedbuzzard]

You may also want to address any similar easements that may be needed on the 4 properties using the spring, and the possible issue of the future repair/maintenance of the spring and piping, how those costs are to be distributed amongst the existing user properties. Basically a home owners association type agreement regarding repair/maintenance on the spring and piping if ever needed. Prevents misunderstandings in the future.

This type of thing is common in rural areas, and most people are pretty cooperative. Addressing the easement issue with the deceased's estate before they convey it to someone else would be a high priority.

[Nurvos_rex]

Thank you, I feared this, but my parents being the elders who made these decisions years ago still think there is good in the world. Unfortunately they haven't been burned by enough folks to realize their way of life is practically over. Hopeully we will be capable of working up the details.

Again, thank you for your response.

Darryl

[4eyedbuzzard]

There still is a lot of good in the world. It's just that the bad gets a whole lot more publicity by exploiting every loophole and omission in the law without any sense of ethics or morality, and it scares everyone else into a CYA mentality. Definitely an over legislated, over litigated world in which we live, but it's the only game in town, so you have to play.