YeBullen

Thanks. The water company I spoke to said ‘you must have your own metered water supply for a new build and cannot tee off a neighbour’. From what I am hearing here, this just means that they won’t assist with any problems I might have in the future. Not that it is illegal in any way? if the seller did sell in future and I came up against problems - we could have a legal written contract that a new purchaser of the neighbours house isn’t allowed to cut off the supply? Thanks all for your input. Forums are incredibly useful aren’t they?!

With (b) do you mean cash back for paying for the borehole installation?

If the seller agrees to me drilling on their land. And I spend £15k. But I’m an unlucky bugger who doesn’t strike sufficient water I’ll be £15k down with no way of recovering. Or, I do strike water and the sale falls through for whatever reason. I’m stuffed again. I don’t think the seller has enough money to do the work, she has said as much to me (she needs to sell to pay somebody for the plans / planning application etc). I’ve contacted the water companies and they have sent me a map. The route looks impossible to me. Maybe it isn’t but the seller has said there is no way the private land owners will allow access anyway. It’s basically a large farm with manor houses, oasts, small cottages dotted around. The seller owns a cottage and this land and barn is owned by her.

This is such great feedback, thank you so much. It’s such a great opportunity to build a our dream family home but I can’t afford to take a risk where I can’t guarantee a water supply now and in the future, obviously. I need to do more research so I can weigh everything up. The seller is happy for us to tap into their supply but as one of you have said, what if they sell and the new owner has a problem with it.. or the pressure / flow is compromised. Feels too risky, however water tight our legal contract might be, if there is such a thing. And I’m still unclear about the legalities of it anyway. Would love to know if any of you do…? I love the idea of a borehole and having our own supply, I’d probably do it even if we had our own mains supply - but I just don’t understand it well enough yet to weigh up the risks in relation to this purchase. Seems like the borehole needs to be put in to know for sure. I can’t even contemplate the word of a water diviner…. I’m a natural born skeptic unfortunately. My current feeling is I can’t proceed with the purchase unless I have a) a very successful operating borehole fully installed AND b) a bullet proof legal agreement with the current and any future owner that I can share water in perpetuity if the borehole dried out (if this is even a thing)… Such a shame. We were all so excited.

Hi, Hoping somebody on the forum may be able to advise. We would like to buy a barn in Penshurst, Kent - which has planning permission to convert into a 4 bedroom home. The problem is that the water utility main is over 1k/m away and it seems impossible that we would be able to run a new pipe, through private land / fields etc. We are considering a borehole, but I am told there is no guarantee that we would strike water, and if we did unlikely to be high yielding, or good enough quality without costly filtration. So my questions are: - 1. Is it possible to tee off the sellers property water supply (which she is happy to do). Is it legal?, what are the risks involved with doing something like this. 2. Does anybody know about boreholes or the likelihood of striking water and if there is anyway of knowing for sure (not involving a person with a couple of rods walking about )*** It seems that it is just way too risky to purchase this barn if I cannot 100% guarantee a water supply. Anybody come up against a situation like this? Thanks, Matt.