Neighbor's House Has Water Line Connected to Well on Our Property
My family owns a small machine shop on a piece of property. The property line goes within about a couple inches to the house next door, so it is right up next to the house. We know this because we purchased it in 2003 and the owner told us so, and a private survey around that time confirmed it.
Around a year or so ago our water line connected to our well broke under our shop. So, knowing there was another well on our property, we decided to hook up to it. The house next door was hooked up to this well. We knew this because we saw their well pump inside their house during a walk through due to the house being for sale. I believe we also assumed they used the well because it was located on our property bordering their house.
The other well we hooked up to was in a well pit lined with cinder blocks. We had to dig between a foot or two of dirt out and many feet of leaves to reveal the well (the pipe coming out of the ground). It was then we saw the two water pipes going to their house.
Before we actually hooked up to this well, we notified the neighbor who was now living over 100 miles away in a different location in MI. We told her very assuredly we were not going to permanently disconnect the water supply going into her house. We told her we just wanted to hook up to the well. This would cause no problems for her at all, and should have not been a problem because the well was on our property anyway.
Well, it was a problem for her because she thinks the property is hers. The police were called on several occasions. Her children who were in an out of the house even argued with my father. It did not matter how many times you told them you had a survey, or that we were not going to completely disrupt their water supply, belligerent and unsophisticated people will still act a certain way. We believe she was acting this way because she knew she was wrong and did not want to have to get another well.
After that we had water coming from the disputed well. We had no problems with the neighbors because no one was living next door for a long while, about a year and a half. If we fast forward to April 2009, we now have one of her sons moving back. He wondered what happened to the water supply at his mother’s house. He was told that his mother had been difficult to the point where my father and brother did not want any connection to our well pump coming from their house and so it was cut off at the well. This apparently made him mad enough to rip off the top of our well, throw accelerant on it and burn it as well as rip out thirteen small cedar trees we planted along the edge of our property so they would grow for privacy. He did this even though we had a no trespassing sign on the well. My brother even took a picture of him doing these acts.
The police were called again on this occasion this time by my brother and father. We were told to check with the equalization department to see their survey which should show that we own what we own. We are very sure of our survey which is stamped by the surveyor so we were told it was good enough to go by.
I am wondering, if there was no easement on the deed do they have a right to a well they were previously hooked up to even if it is on our property? If they have a prescriptive easement, did they abandon it by not using the water for a year? They have room to place a well on the other side of their house, so does this mean they do not have a necessity to use the well on our property? She had only been living there since 1997, I believe and the underground well house was not maintained.
Note: We have told them on several occasions to stay off our land, even through letters. Since they are on a slim piece of land, they tried parking vehicles on our land. The lady even tore down an old barb wire fence that separated the property. I also do not know how long the well was connected to their house. I have not taken Property II yet, only Property I, so I do not know much about easements. I have read prescriptive easements are analogous to adverse possession. Any insight would be appreciated.
Re: Neighbor's House Has Water Line Connected to Well on Our Property
It sounds like they were there by permit or permission not by an easement, but thats just a guess. It is what I would argue absent any sort of written easement agreement. I would try and contact the surveyor and maybe have him freshen the survey, stake the corners and resign the plat, then record it at the courthouse if it not there already. This gives you something to show and point to with the police next time they are called. Someone should check the courthouse records back as far as they can to make sure something is not in the records pertaining to this well. Call the local well drillers and see if they have any information. In some areas the local health department may have some records on wells. So, what are the other people doing for water?