William Johnson
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Idaho
Back in 2020, I bought a home and 1.68 acres of land. The home that I bought used to be a part of a bigger farm. A farmer had bought the farm, purely for the land, and sectioned off the home and 1.68 acres to sell to recoup some of his costs. Before I bought the house (and before the land was re-surveyed), he installed a pivot irrigation system on the remaining 40+ acres that adjoined my property and installed another pivot irrigation system on a parcel of land he owned across the highway (about 50+ acres or so). Both irrigation systems feed off a single power meter and canal headgate. I never put too much thought into this.
Recently, I was doing some work on the property and called dig line (811) to locate any underground utilities I wasn't aware of and they located a large water line and high voltage cable straight down my driveway, about 10 feet from my house.
When I look at a satellite image of my property and surrounding area, I can see a stright line where the ground was disturbed that goes from one pivot irrigation head, across the back 40 acres, straight down my driveway, and then out into the field across the street to the other pivot system. I went back through all my closing documents and while I do have easements for the power company, highway etc. - some dating back to the 50's - there is no mention of an easement for this suspected irrigation main line and power through my driveway. If it is there, it was never disclosed.
I do not have any immediate plans of major construction (expanding the house, etc.) but knowing there was a 6"+ line with 50psi of water and a 480v, 3-phase trunk line running under the driveway, I would have thought a little harder about whether or not to even buy the house. I have planted trees in the back of the property and even built a 8' x 9' pole-barn style chicken coop right over the suspected line that would need to be disassembled/torn down/dug up if this water/power line ever needed to be serviced and the seller even watched me do it and never said a word. He is here often, farming the land behind the house....
I believe he had an obligation to disclose the water/power line at the time the property lines were being surveyed or at least he would have had to disclose them to the Title company before closing. The only reason someone would deliberately not disclose this would be the effect on the market value of the property, right?
Any advice, thoughts, etc. would be hugely helpful.
Recently, I was doing some work on the property and called dig line (811) to locate any underground utilities I wasn't aware of and they located a large water line and high voltage cable straight down my driveway, about 10 feet from my house.
When I look at a satellite image of my property and surrounding area, I can see a stright line where the ground was disturbed that goes from one pivot irrigation head, across the back 40 acres, straight down my driveway, and then out into the field across the street to the other pivot system. I went back through all my closing documents and while I do have easements for the power company, highway etc. - some dating back to the 50's - there is no mention of an easement for this suspected irrigation main line and power through my driveway. If it is there, it was never disclosed.
I do not have any immediate plans of major construction (expanding the house, etc.) but knowing there was a 6"+ line with 50psi of water and a 480v, 3-phase trunk line running under the driveway, I would have thought a little harder about whether or not to even buy the house. I have planted trees in the back of the property and even built a 8' x 9' pole-barn style chicken coop right over the suspected line that would need to be disassembled/torn down/dug up if this water/power line ever needed to be serviced and the seller even watched me do it and never said a word. He is here often, farming the land behind the house....
I believe he had an obligation to disclose the water/power line at the time the property lines were being surveyed or at least he would have had to disclose them to the Title company before closing. The only reason someone would deliberately not disclose this would be the effect on the market value of the property, right?
Any advice, thoughts, etc. would be hugely helpful.