Water line easement???

Anyone familiar with granting easements? I have 25 acres of land and a private water company wants to run a pipe through it to get water to an area of the valley that can't get water in their wells, what is fair to ask in return for granting them permission? I have a well at my house on the 20 acres so I don't really need a hook up there, I am building a spec house on the 5 acres and am planning to put in a well (about $10,000), they are trying to talk me into hooking it up to their water system but are asking about $30,000 (that's more than I paid for the 5 acres). Their proposed route goes through both pieces of my land, they could avoid the 5 acres pretty easy but it would be hard to avoid the 20. I don't want to be a jerk but also don't want to give up an easement for the rest of time for nothing when I may someday want to do something in that part of the land...

Above ground or underground ? Straight through, or can it be routed so you could subdivide your land later ?
And, to clarify, they offered $30K TO you, not FROM you ?
And what are they feeding, a few homes, subdivision, farm, industrial...?

You might consider a monthly or yearly fee for compensation on top of an initial fee, for several reasons.
Not the least of which is to remain on the books and to address risk, usage, maintenance, and inflation.

Take a look at how wind turbine rights are done. Generally, there is a charge for the physical aspect, the installation, then access rights per year, some even get a percentage of the money from the power generation. If they want to charge you $30k to hook up to their water you can bet your price shouldn't be less than that.

cell towers are kinda the same around here. if you put one on the guys property, he gets $ up front,$ every month and what ever else he can get out of their azz. DON'T GIVE IT AWAY.

They want me to pay $30,000 if I hook up the house I am building to flip. If they had offered me $30,000 in cash I would have probably said show me the money! That is a separate issue from anything I would get in return for them running the pipe through my land, either one or both lots.

It is a mostly residential area with a couple small businesses, they have been hauling water in around me for years as the well drillers made a habit of drilling past the water seemingly to make more money as they get paid per foot, my well works great at 52 feet while all the 600-900 foot wells around me are dry.

I would think the water line would be underground, it would risk freezing above ground here in the winter.

Sounds to me like they are trying to work a deal where you allow the pipe line and they hook up the new house for free. Not a good deal considering you have well water available.

Well, they have some nerve proposing to charge you when they're hoping to run pipe through your land. Hardly an incentive !
If you can contact whoever's hauling the water and find out what they're charging, that would help your figuring.
Seems to me your fee needs to cover land value, loss of use of the land their pipe & whatever will occupy, and whatever interference results from maintenance.
Getting a piece of the action on top of that wouldn't be unfair, and keeps you in the info & consideration loops.
I'd start with either free water, or enough for you to do your own 2nd well (probably the simpler & better option).
You might want to do some research on "eminent domain", "land rights", etc on Wikipedia.
Also, if you enter into a contract or agreement, if there's an attorney near you who's good with land use, rights, etc, I'd consult with him/her as a CYA.

Just no. My friend's neighbor just got $47,000 for a pipeline to go through the corner of their land. Additionally she got $1000s a tree they took down on the fenceline. This isn't a temporary deal this goes to the new owner of the house.

Unless ou are handsomely compensated, it is truly not worth the hassle in my opinion.

^^^^THAT, and how much much to have a private well drilled? The thing is this: If they're allowed to run that pipe, YOU are restricted from doing whatever you want on "your" own property. There's a bunch to be put into perspective before you sign on a dotted line. Personally, I'd talk to a GOOD real estate laywer.

I would not do this. The nerve of charging you 30gs makes me think they won't be very good if a leak happens. The lay of your land (and the adjacent parcels) will be a major factor compounding the water damage.

This happened awhile back and is still ongoing:
https://nbc16.com/news/local/landsl...uary-could-cost-school-636000-04-19-2021

The soil here is full of clay and the slope of the bedrock is a nightmare for mitigating structural damage, cause once it starts, no telling how it will stop.

btw
Don't even think of getting help from property insurance. That is classified as "movement of the earth" and is not covered by any policy I'm aware of.

They want to run through your property and then have the nerve to want to charge you 30k to hook up? Talk about kick in the ass.

What issues are you going to have if their pipe leaks and causes some sort of sink hole or major damage to your property? What trouble are they going to cause you if something damages the pipe and they blame it on you? What kind of mess are they going to make digging up the pipeline in the future if it needs maintenance? How's it going to affect your land value?

I'd find a lawyer that is familiar with this sort of situation and talk to them.

Tell them they can put it on the fence line in exchange for the hookup to your house. I wouldn't allow them to put it across the land unless it was really buried deep.

As Nancy Reagan once said, "Just say NO!"

We have an easement on the farm and it is a huge mess. The utility is to contact us up to 2 weeks prior to having crews do maintenance /inspections. They never do and they always drive out of the easement area. They hauled ass through my deer food plot and tore that entire area up.

Easements have a way of coming back to haunt you. Prior owners had given a power company a "lease" (very unusual, and not well described in the paperwork) about 100 years ago to run transmission poles across the property. Those poles were removed in the 1950's. The "lease" made the property unsaleable (no one wanted a hassle with the power company). Fortunately, the power company agreed to comply with the law in exchange for $5,000 for "documentation costs". The law was unquestionably on my side. Could have been much worse, so I was glad to pay it.

Will the water line benefit you in any way?

There ya go.

As Nancy Reagan once said, "Just say NO!" NO NO NO AND A BIG NO.

Sounds like the agreement was poorly written or poorly enforced. around here that would be a fineable offense with restitution included. When I worked the oil patch all that was spelled out in the agreement. Might be smart to get a lawyer to at least review the agreement before signing on.

Only way I see it benefiting me directly is if my well ever dries up and I am forced to start buying water from him. Also indirectly it is a little more complicated than just saying "NO", I have several close friends who will be tapping into it, don't want to cost my friends a bunch of money or stop their water project all together.

It sounds like you want to go ahead with it in some form so like I said in another reply get a lawyer involved to make sure you're not screwing yourself.

Exactly. Let them hand you their proposed agreement, and have your lawyer "fix it." Believe me, their legal counsel doesn't have your best interest in mind. As a part of that, get your stub outs installed so you can easily tap in at a later date, if you wish to.

Don't forget the added benefit of fire protection. (Hydrants)

Still not worth the hassle imho.

All of the private water companies that I've seen don't run a large enough main to support a fire hydrant. This case may be different but I doubt it.

big interstate project in my back yard. 200 ft from my property line. we got fire hydrants all over the place. green, blue, red top ones. my nephew says, green is the big dog with red being not much more than a water hose. well it is more than water hose but not nearly what green one is.

I have a 2000 gallon cistern and a big irrigation pump for fire, hopefully it would be enough and I am contemplating adding a 5000 gallon tank a neighbor is offering for free or possibly digging a pond that would fill itself because of the shallow water table on my land.

I guess I will wait till they hand me an official proposal then find a liar to look it over.