TAS Neighbour Refusing to Pay for Shared Bore Easement - What to Do?

[Jack be nimble]

HI...

I'd forget about his problems or surmising on them...

You might ask him in a friendly way 'what do you think would be a fair resolution to the differences we have here....whatever you tell me I will think about'...Give him some credit for intelligence whether you believe in it or not. You might also offer to help him fix the leaks 'to stop rusting and waste and wasted electricity'.

 

[Spod]

Jack, you seem to think we haven't tried this. It's impossible to have any form of intelligent discussion with him, the instant you say anything he doesn't want to hear he starts yelling, threatening or screaming "talk to my lawyer" (his lawyer is no longer dealing with him though).

I've covered this in another forum, an example of the typical interaction with him is: "I had a run-in with him at the local store a while back, he came up to me ranting about something and the "conversation" turned to the pump and when he was going to pay us. He just started parroting his usual "talk to my lawyer" line. I said to him "all this hassle could just go away if you paid what you owe and fix the leak, simple, what's the problem?" and his was response was to yell louder and then he left the store still ranting."

2 years ago he came onto my property filming me with his phone, wouldn't leave when requested (trespassing), wouldn't stop filming (invasion of privacy) and then managed to hit me in the face with his phone while waving it about. I took it off him and threw it over the fence (into long grass) to give him a reason to leave and he shirtfronted me instead (assault).

I gave him a "let go now" in a very calm voice and he let go and left my property, grabbed his phone and proceeded to call his cop brother and started shouting at him to come and arrest me, which of course didn't happen. I called the police and they had a long chat with him, in retrospect I should have had him charged.

This is how this guy is, he will break half a dozen laws and then make stuff up in his head that he is the victim, it's quite bizarre to watch. He did the same sort of thing to the builder who was fixing his house after it was storm damaged - the house is unfinished and has been for years.

He seems to have done the same thing to his lawyer, who doesn't want any interaction on the matter, and I know he has done it to contractors etc. Basically, no-one seems to come near him now, even the local farmer neighbour made a negative comment about him a few weeks ago, so he may have caused him grief as well. We haven't even seen his wife for at least 2 years...

 

[Spod]

Thanks Jack, to clarify a few things, all people mentioned on the agreements were owners of the properties in the ancient past, back in the 90s, long gone. We are lot one and the original home, his was created by sectioning off a small lot from a larger farm and connected to the bore (as was ours, but many years before). When the agreement was created the pump did indeed have a meter, but before either of us moved in, back in 2010, the pump died and was replaced by the new setup with no new meter, so it is just a pump that feeds both homes. The neighbour refuses to install a meter or do anything else to meet his side of the agreement.

The new pump was originally paid for by the neighbour's vendor and our vendors. When the neighbour's vendor sold to him, the vendor passed his ownership of his half of the pump to our vendor in a verbal agreement, so that probably wouldn't hold up in court. However, our neighbour believes he owns the whole pump, but has no cause to believe this, it's just something he made up and has been unable to explain his reasoning for, other than "It's mine". The bore easement is on our land, not the right of way, and the pump is connected to our electrical supply, so it would be illogical that he owned it.

The rights of way extend from the end of our road (the public road) which connects directly to them and one passes along our east boundary to the gate of a large neighbouring farm (not the problematic neighbour) and the other (a straight line extension of the public road) runs along our north boundary and the problematic neighbour's south boundary. The rights of way are shown on both titles but it isn't clear who owns them, they are just listed as private, but from what he said before he went completely uncooperative, they are actually owned by the large farm to the south, as both our block and his block were split off from that farm in the distant past.

The neighbour's "cottage grounds" only covers his 1 acre block, he rents (or whatever, we are not sure, when he listed his house for sale last year he only listed the one acre cottage block) the paddocks north and west of his lot and there are stock troughs on those paddocks, obviously not part of the cottage grounds, but still connected to the bore against the agreement.

I did have a high accuracy meter in the pump house and was billing him based on consumption minus what I calculated ours to be, based on our estimated water consumption (based on previous uses, plus an extra amount), pump efficiency and electricity cost. He has consistently used 5-50 times as much water as us, depending on the number of leaks and the time of year and number of stock etc he had at the time. I had all this in a spreadsheet, and my calcs were done to be conservatively in his favour to allow for any inefficiencies etc, but apparently a simple formula calculation was too complex for him, his lawyer (or my lawyer for that matter) to understand. He then started demanding to see our energy bills so he could pay half, which I told him wasn't necessary and made no sense as he would be overpaying, but after submitting them and hearing nothing, and then me telling his lawyer that we would be happy to go back to the original $25 a quarter (what he was paying before he started having leaks all over the place making the pump run non-stop for days on some occasions) if he fixed his leaks (a bargain for him by any measure), he just ignored all correspondence and refused to pay us any further.

One of the many suggestions we put forth to his lawyer was for him to power the existing pump and we just pay him for our much lower water use, once we had balanced the books. Same response, ie none. He simply refuses to respond or discuss the matter at all and any attempt results in shouting, threats etc, he simply refuses to try and resolve the issue in any way. He seems to have taken the mindset that he will continue to use water and steal electricity from us and we can't do anything to make him pay.

There is no way to find out whether he is willing to try dispute resolution or mediation, he simply won't talk to us, any attempt results in abuse, shouting and threats, it doesn't matter what the attempted conversation is about or how I approach it. He has even taken to shouting abuse at us (mostly my partner) as he rides past on his quadbike, though he hasn't worked out yet that we can't hear what he's saying due to the bike noise, but the hand waving and angry look on his face make it clear what the meaning is. He won't respond to authorities either, when the council turned up a couple of years ago he abused them and made threats, they put a requirement on his property that no council staff may attend his property without police presence. He also around that time attacked council staff in their offices in town, they had to evacuate the front desk until he got the message and left. The council staff mentioned this when I was following up with them on a related matter and mentioned his name, the person I talked to was quite clear on their opinion of him, probably because the incident had caused them considerable stress. This should give you an idea of what we are dealing with...

 

[Jack be nimble]

Thanks Jack, to clarify a few things, all people mentioned on the agreements were owners of the properties in the ancient past, back in the 90s, long gone. We are lot one and the original home, his was created by sectioning off a small lot from a larger farm and connected to the bore (as was ours, but many years before). When the agreement was created the pump did indeed have a meter, but before either of us moved in, back in 2010, the pump died and was replaced by the new setup with no new meter, so it is just a pump that feeds both homes. The neighbour refuses to install a meter or do anything else to meet his side of the agreement.

The new pump was originally paid for by the neighbour's vendor and our vendors. When the neighbour's vendor sold to him, the vendor passed his ownership of his half of the pump to our vendor in a verbal agreement, so that probably wouldn't hold up in court. However, our neighbour believes he owns the whole pump, but has no cause to believe this, it's just something he made up and has been unable to explain his reasoning for, other than "It's mine". The bore easement is on our land, not the right of way, and the pump is connected to our electrical supply, so it would be illogical that he owned it.

The rights of way extend from the end of our road (the public road) which connects directly to them and one passes along our east boundary to the gate of a large neighbouring farm (not the problematic neighbour) and the other (a straight line extension of the public road) runs along our north boundary and the problematic neighbour's south boundary. The rights of way are shown on both titles but it isn't clear who owns them, they are just listed as private, but from what he said before he went completely uncooperative, they are actually owned by the large farm to the south, as both our block and his block were split off from that farm in the distant past.

The neighbour's "cottage grounds" only covers his 1 acre block, he rents (or whatever, we are not sure, when he listed his house for sale last year he only listed the one acre cottage block) the paddocks north and west of his lot and there are stock troughs on those paddocks, obviously not part of the cottage grounds, but still connected to the bore against the agreement.

I did have a high accuracy meter in the pump house and was billing him based on consumption minus what I calculated ours to be, based on our estimated water consumption (based on previous uses, plus an extra amount), pump efficiency and electricity cost. He has consistently used 5-50 times as much water as us, depending on the number of leaks and the time of year and number of stock etc he had at the time. I had all this in a spreadsheet, and my calcs were done to be conservatively in his favour to allow for any inefficiencies etc, but apparently a simple formula calculation was too complex for him, his lawyer (or my lawyer for that matter) to understand. He then started demanding to see our energy bills so he could pay half, which I told him wasn't necessary and made no sense as he would be overpaying, but after submitting them and hearing nothing, and then me telling his lawyer that we would be happy to go back to the original $25 a quarter (what he was paying before he started having leaks all over the place making the pump run non-stop for days on some occasions) if he fixed his leaks (a bargain for him by any measure), he just ignored all correspondence and refused to pay us any further.

One of the many suggestions we put forth to his lawyer was for him to power the existing pump and we just pay him for our much lower water use, once we had balanced the books. Same response, ie none. He simply refuses to respond or discuss the matter at all and any attempt results in shouting, threats etc, he simply refuses to try and resolve the issue in any way. He seems to have taken the mindset that he will continue to use water and steal electricity from us and we can't do anything to make him pay.

There is no way to find out whether he is willing to try dispute resolution or mediation, he simply won't talk to us, any attempt results in abuse, shouting and threats, it doesn't matter what the attempted conversation is about or how I approach it. He has even taken to shouting abuse at us (mostly my partner) as he rides past on his quadbike, though he hasn't worked out yet that we can't hear what he's saying due to the bike noise, but the hand waving and angry look on his face make it clear what the meaning is. He won't respond to authorities either, when the council turned up a couple of years ago he abused them and made threats, they put a requirement on his property that no council staff may attend his property without police presence. He also around that time attacked council staff in their offices in town, they had to evacuate the front desk until he got the message and left. The council staff mentioned this when I was following up with them on a related matter and mentioned his name, the person I talked to was quite clear on their opinion of him, probably because the incident had caused them considerable stress. This should give you an idea of what we are dealing with...

 

[Jack be nimble]

Hi, ok understand what you have tried. He may have low to moderate aspergers and not be in control of his doings so nothing logical works. His violence is a possible there but some people are bullies becasue it always worked. I know them well.

I don't know how much he owes you and whether it is worth a lien or caveat if he is trying to sell probably not. It sounds like a mess from go to whoa. The problems with people who don't give a toss is that say he demands a caveat be lifted and you don't agree he can take the matter to court and your trying to get back to square one might be supreme court and tens of $thousands. Whoever set this whole thing up ...and it looks to me like it is an off the shelf job, did not look ahead but just plugged words into a standard easement document.If you have not signed it you may not be obliged to continue it but that doesn't help you unless you find a water supply on your own.

I go back to my suggestion...take it low key and apply to the court for him to pay what he owes...just go to debt level and see what comes of it...go to court not small claims and run a logical case but with argument the magistrate can use. Make sure you tell the magistrate exactly what you are after...continuing payments, leaks fixed (is it worth your while to do them?...he may ask you if it is costing you money you don't recover why don't you fix the leaks yourself,...for your own advantage...? ) whatever...if he can't do it he'll say so...you might want to recover your legal costs at the hearing ...say so...you may want to recover your costs to solicitors so far...say so. He's not going to give what you do not ask.

Extrapolating The problem is that you also use the pump and that on the face of it there was a very poor job done on establishing requisitions oreven issues when you moved in...presuming you did before he did. The pump will not be a heavy drain electrically unless it's a really deep well. Your ultimate solution might be to have another bore drilled and if he complains at your disconnection... give him a working alternator with weatherproof connection and tell him that's his electricity supply forever more. You have then, provided an electrical source though he has to pay for the fuel and repairs.

I think you'd better ensure notice is served on him that requires his agent or himself to advise any buyer that the pumping arrangement will not continue. I'd say the agreement may well have expired as I don't think easements carry over from owner to owner adinfinitum. Check that.

Quite evidently your neighbour has breached the agreement almost totally anyway, has not sought to reduce your costs but to profit from your losses through watering stock in paddocks not cotttage land ....and I suspect that was an issue when the original agreement was made... and your approach has not been to sustain the agreement but to be fairly treated whilst generously allowing him to continue ....but that does not mean you have any intent of agreeing to that paper which was never your device. You just trusted him and were not advised of the danger..

His solicitor may have told him to just ignore it, leave it to you to spend your money trying to get blood from a stone. Presuming the solicitor is paid, it seems pretty uneconomical...why not pay the electricity and if its his pump let it live or die at his cost...Your other option is to get adequate tanks installed...fill them run low pressure pumps from them to house and cut the electricity to the pump-house when they are filled. Electrics is my expertise thus my questions.

By the way, I don't believe the original agreement would have been made as shown and then the proprietors shared the pump costs....were that the case it would have been that way in the agreement. If you tell me more about the pump size/photos of the situation I may be of more help. so... Can you send me photos of the pump house? and the leaks?...if you want see my email next para.

I asked the question about practicality of his providing electricity (?). How deep is the bore, is the pump above ground or submersible? How far is it from pump to cottage and your place to pump? ([email protected] will do). If he is not paying his share and allowing leaks so long as he is not sick so that you might endanger life, you may have to turn off the electricity and let him come and ask for it. The danger of course
is someone working on the pump unbeknown to you and you turn it on for your own use and the worker gets zapped. Thus my suggestion of the alternator. Your pastures protection board may advise you on water leakage. Decide what you want to do and have a solicitor with rural experience make it short and sweet , pay, fix, cottage land only or no more electricity....buy your water from a tanker.

In the meantime do you have photos of his watering stock from the bore?

Ok that's as far as I am going excepting that you should find whether the right of way is registered and also right of way to a property does not give access to the next property and the agreements are with the landowner, not amongst the individuals concerned....so look for title facts...just as example...say I get/buy a ROW to my property which has no other access.... I then subdivide my land...the right of way does not serve the other block/s. I'm not sure that even if you create roads from your place to the other blocks that they can lawfully use the right of way, Thta's one I have to shakeout some time.

You can chase that down legally but I suggest you establish the easement is still law...which I doubt other than your "kindness",and whether it is so ambiguous and unenforceable. Establish the rational behind the ROW and who owns the land ...title searchers....your right to disconnect through arrears , leaks and misuse of what you thought was an agreement and decide whether to do another bore. Obviously you didn't think the agreement would be a problem and I'd say the conveyancing solicitor might have been light on due diligence...just my opinion of course...Remember the 'cottage owner's 'right of way' in the easement according to the original agreement is only for necessary repairs, not for any other access....Is the easement on your land?