Whos liable in this situation?

[RutnBuk]

Just found out that they knew the waterline was unrecorded and through my property when they bought their place. They never told me anything about it. I am not liable for anything. They were advised to talk with me about relocating their water meter but never did.

[SolocamShooter]

Cap it. If they don’t want to play ball and get along cut them off.

[Mudslinger]

Just found out that they knew the waterline was unrecorded and through my property when they bought their place. They never told me anything about it. I am not liable for anything. They were advised to talk with me about relocating their water meter but never did.

If that is the case, cap it and let them run their own line, with your permission of course. The way you have described them, I would not do anything to benefit them. To hell with being the good neighbor. JMO.

[TXJIM]

#1 restore the water, that will show you acted in good faith when/if things get ugly. Keep all receipts and document time spent and any damage caused to your property.

#2 Spend some time thinking about what you really want to accomplish here.

Does the existence of this line diminish your use of your property in any way? Was it laid in properly at a reasonable depth not to be a hazard or a nuisance? If not, that would be your basis for caping the line and forcing them to reroute or buy an easement and put in a new line properly placed as not to cause issues for you. If it's not really an issue and you just want to punish them over the fence issue by holding their water hostage you certainly might have the leverage to do so.

In any case you should handle it with an attorney's advice. This would likely include paying the attorney to research all applicable law, giving proper legal notice and then capping the line. There is nothing stopping them from hiring their own attorney to try to stop your actions. This could of course drag on, you could lose and be out thousands of dollars in fees and gain nothing. Which leads back to #2, spend some time thinking about what you want to accomplish and if its worth a potentially expensive pissing match to get it.

[Thumper]

Talk to the water company yet?

I'd patch it using an inner-tube and wire. Send picture to your neighbor with a letter notifying him it needs to be relocated within 30 days.

[Farmdog]

Fix..have BBQ..they buy beer...friends

[slicktricker]

I agree if youve offered to them as you described and they're still refusing to relocate the line then there is only one road to take. What happens if a mysterious break happens in the 500' of waterline who is liable then?

[Hammerdown]

If they want to be Richards about it, I would cap and tell them to buy wet wipes.

[Cantcatch5]

What size line is it? 2” or less I am sure. In not much more time than it took to read all of the comments you could just fix the line. As far as liability and cost l why worry about it? cost to fix it is very minimal...difinitely less than legal advice! Fittings are cheap!

Since you didn’t even know it was there I would say it isn’t bothering you much.

[mrc]

Just get some rubber hose and a couple of clamps to patch it. Go do your business for 10 days then come back and deal with it. It shouldn't cost must and gives you some piece of mind.

[hopedale]

These people haven't wanted to get along with me since day 1. We share 1500' of land with no fence and they told me to go to hell when I asked to have a fence put up and we can split cost. They said they dont need a fence. Yes there was a title search. No the title company did not miss it. The water company told me it was unrecorded. I offered to split cost to have it moved to their property line and they declined. No idea about rent.

They don't sound to friendly. Cap it and be done.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Slew]

Treat it like a duck blind on public land!! Burn em out!! They won't have any water to put it out and sounds like they won't be able to talk to the fire department!!

Or don't![emoji2]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[turkeyhunter1]

I would not do anything until I spoke to an attorney. You need to be really careful on this. You damaged a privately owned, unrecoreded, waterline. You are not liable for any damages right now and there may be recourse to force them to move it.

If you acknowledge it as their water line by fixing it you may find that you have implied their ownership of the waterline and their right to the water and the easment.

[EarleyBird]

I'm assuming it's PVC. It would be so easy to just fix it yourself, add a bib for your own use and leave it at that. In the mean time you can get advice from an attorney to see what your options are to avoid this in the future.

[stevieray54]

What will it cost to fix it.Do they actually look to be financial to pay for all this. if they don't speak english, maybe they don't understand or have the money