When we bought our home in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mtns of CA five or so years ago, it shared a well with the neighbor, a nice older widow lady. There used to be two wells on our property, don't have a clue why they were abandoned and the joint well thing was started. We have a legal easement onto her property were the line (1 3/4" PVC) runs. We didn't really like that idea, but liked the idea of paying about $10k to hook into the municipal water system, so we still do it. We pay her a very fair $25 a month for our share of the electricity to run the pump, and we share any maintenance costs (just happened for the first time). There is a pressure tank attached, so even tho we are about 80 ft higher in elevation, and a couple hundred feet away, we have good pressure. We would still prefer to have our "own" water system, but in this case it works. Our biggest worry is that she dies, and the house sets vacant for a while, with the utilities turned off. We are not sure we would be able to have electricity turned back on to a home we do not own. So every day we wish her a long and healty life...