Can I share a well with my neighbour in BC?

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You can, but only a registered easement binds the next owner; a well supplying another lot may need a water licence, and a system for more than one home is a water supply system under the health authority. On rural land one well often supplies two homes: a house and a cabin on the same lot, or neighbours on two lots with a pipe across the line. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. The right to the water: A neighbour's right to draw from a well on another lot, and to lay, reach and repair a pipe across it, is an easement. Registered on the titles, it runs with the land, so a buyer of either lot takes it on. An agreement that was never registered binds the people who signed it; a buyer who relies on the register in good faith isn't bound by interests left off it (Land Title Act s. 29 (2)), so a new owner of the lot with the well may not have to keep supplying yours (our reading; ask your lawyer). What a good agreement covers: Who owns the well, the pump and the lines; how power, repairs, testing and treatment are shared; how much water each home may take and who cuts back in a dry spell; access for repairs; and what happens if one side drills its own well or sells (our reading). Registered with the easement, it binds the next owners too. Household use is one lot's: Groundwater for household use needs no water licence (Water Sustainability Act s. 6 (4)). But household use, as the Act defines it, is water for the occupants of one or more homes on a single parcel (s. 2), and carrying or supplying water from one person for another's use is a waterworks purpose (s. 2). The Province says every non-domestic groundwater user, waterworks included, has needed a licence since February 29, 2016. So a well that supplies a home on another lot reads as outside household use and may need a licence (our reading): ask FrontCounter BC before you rely on it. A house and a cabin on one lot: Two homes on the same lot drawing from one well are still household use under the Act, so no licence is needed for that (s. 2). The drinking water rules can still apply, as below: the exemption is for a system serving only one single-family home. A water system under the health rules: A well and its pipes supplying more than one single-family home is a water supply system under the Drinking Water Protection Act (s. 1). Its owner, the water supplier, must provide water that is potable (s. 6), may operate it only under an operating permit from the health authority (s. 8; every water supply system is prescribed for it, Drinking Water Protection Regulation s. 4), and must have it tested for coliform bacteria and E. coli as the regulation and permit set: 4 samples a month for a system serving under 5,000 people, unless the drinking water officer sets another frequency (s. 11; Regulation s. 8, Schedule B). Small systems: Since 2025, a small system with fewer than 5 homes connected needs no construction permit (Regulation s. 6 (3) (b.1)), and an operating permit for 1 to 14 connections carries no fee (Schedule C). A small system where every home treats its own water to make it potable, at the tap or where the line enters, is exempt from the potable-water duty, provided the untreated lines are marked (s. 3.1). Where a system has several owners, the drinking water officer may require them to name one of them to deal with the health authority (Act s. 17). What it means for a buyer: Ask whether the well is on your lot or the neighbour's, whether the easement is registered on both titles, and whether the system has an operating permit. Ask for the well record, the latest water tests and a flow test, as you would for any well; a shared well has to supply both homes in the driest month (our reading). A report names the wells on record near the lot and the aquifer under it.

Can I share a well with my neighbour in BC?

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