Right of Access - Water source.

Hi all,

A bit of a long time since I asked anything but your help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, long story short, when we built our house there was an existing water supply for a neighboring property on the deeds with a "right of Access" granted to the owner of that property (least thats the way it was explained to me).

Now we do not maintain, manage or consume the water supply ourselves but these people do, according to my solicitor at the time, have a right of access.

The issue now is that this supply has clogged up and is no longer working. The guy who owns the property brought another neighbour to look at the supply and diagnose whats wrong and they concluded they would need a digger in to rip out the culvert that is there and rebuild it higher than it is already (and I would expect) make it larger.

My issues with this are manyfold but what springs to mind initially is:

1. The culvert is a run off collection (no idea why but that's what it is (we live on the side of a large hill / small mountain)) and there are cattle grazing above this.

2. The guy who owns the other property is trying to tell me he has a right to bring a digger in and start ripping up my land to fix his water issue and as a consequence of that will tear down 2 mature ash trees as well as general disruption etc.

Again, solicitor told me they had a right to access and inspect but NOT to change anything.

I know its all about the deeds and getting access to them but they're visiting again to 'discuss' on Sunday and I would love some input on this.

My gut feeling is the water supply is NOT sustainable, certainly not legal and I don't want anyone ripping up my property in any shape or form.

Thanks for reading.


FBP.

fatboyPee said:

I know its all about the deeds .

Click to expand...

Yes, you need to look at your deeds and determine what rights the other party have.

The surface water collection arrangement you describe is probably for animals as it is unlikely to be fit for human consumption.

It is fairly common in rural Ireland for a neighbour to have rights to water or a well on anothers land. Sometimes the right extends to inspecting, digging and repairing the pipe. But the land would have to be fully reinstated following the work.

The method by which this is done is by a Wayleave Agreement.