Hello, we purchased a house with an etang (650 m2)a little while ago but have not realised that the ‘pond’ was not registered even though it shows up clearly on Google maps. This pond has been fed by a water source. However in 2022 a new neighbour purchased a property upstream of ours and, we believe, has diverted the water in favour of their smaller pond (150m2). They have declared their pond as being fed from ground water from their premises. The local council have decided to sell small parcels of land, one of which is the land which holds the water source and the upstream neighbour has applied to buy it. Our pond is currently empty. Is there anything we can do about this that will not cost us a lot of money?
Sadly I very much doubt it. Unless you own the land that the source is on/in/under then you have no rights to the water unless there is something in your deeds that says you have a servitude or similar.
We had a similar situation but luckily the previous owner had bought the land upstream that the tiny source was on. It abutted a field that a neighbour used for horses and he repeatedly tried to annex it, but we had a géomètre confirm that it was ours.
It was only after we purchased the whole property made up of 11 small parcels that we got the historic documents that showed what he paid for that tiny scrap of land. A HUGE amount!
If you want the pond you may have to bid for the land unless your neighbour is open to negotiation - which is unusual
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Thank you very much for your reply. I am feeling despondent about this.
I don’t know the answer to this but maybe one of the more experienced members of the forum will know if it’s worth having a chat with the maire or mairie.
I’m not an expert, but I found this : if the water comes from a source (a stream, a spring), the statutory easement applies :
Art.641
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/id/LEGISCTA000006136252/
Good you sink a new well to feed your pond, assuming the watercourse is at a similar level?
Wow, thank you for that. It may be from the 1800’s but it does make a lot of sense.
Brilliant, well done! However a note of caution as when we had our water wars the fact that the source was not registered meant we had little power. Or that’s what we were told! Our area was limestone, so sources historically came and went so perhaps in other areas this is different.
Worth the OP asking tho’!
Also
As the water table fell they banned local forages around us about ten years ago. I regret not having drilled when I could. There is one “site” of half a hectare along our route that some poor guy bought to build on before the ban, but procrastinated. The ban came in and now he’s no way to get water.
This all sounds a bit like the film…was it Manon des Sources?
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Has anyone done this?? We are seriously considering it. All our neighbours have one.
Our evil farmer neighbour was refused (happily) as the nappe phréatique in the area was too delicate for the industrial size he wanted.
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