Legal Question in Environmental Law in Arizona

I am the adminstrator of the Ralston Rd Shared Well.

I have a couple of owners who live out of the country and pretty much will not pay for their portion of the bill. We have a signed Well Agreement from this couple and the other owners on our system. This couple sends me a check from time to time and they try to pay well under what they owe. They also try to pay in advance instead of catching up what they currently owe. Probably hoping I will forget about that. They are behind in their account 8 months and the Well Agreement clearly states if a User is 3 months behind for 2 consecutive months they are considered non-owners and can have their access to the well cut off. They have also modified the valve to their property so it is not accessible so this is not possible for me to do. Should I send the check back to them? Since they insist on not paying their bill and for the maintanence of the well system can I legally get them removed from the shared well system? How do I begin to legally battle with these people?

Thanks for your help


Asked on 2/22/11, 6:30 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Donald W. Hudspeth The Law Offices of Donald W. Hudspeth, P.C.

That is a tough one. Without knowing what you have I can not begin to answer the question. Do you have an underlying documents or parties, like CC&R's or a Home Owner's Association, or "well sharing agreement?" The bad news is that "homeowner's" disputes are usually a "pain" and cost more than they are worth; the good news is that usually under the underlying documents the costs can be charged to the errant owner and a lien imposed and enforced to foreclose out their interest.

General information from a site like LawGuru is probably not going to be enough to get you through this. You probably either need to "bite the cost bullet" and hire an attorney or just see what you can accomplish by constant contact. Cost-benefit-wise you would probably be out more in fees than the water bill for a while. Good luck. Talk to Tom in my office if you want to pursue.

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Answered on 2/23/11, 8:06 am


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