I have a ranch client I've been doing some water plans for. For whatever reason this state is (I believe) the only one that allows much of this type of work to be done by surveyors.
It's time to break up the ranch, and water rights need to also be. They assume since we got them through all the regulatory hurdles to get the plan all finished that I'm an expert on all water issues.
They have a large number of shares in a water source and asked me what to do with them. I started to tell them and then I realized what it was.
It seems the ranch had been buying shares in a reservoir which means a private water storage system apart from the state.
These shares are not tied to the land and you can sell them to anyone, the plans we were doing are all distributed water from natural or state governed sources. They need an accountant, lawyer and an appraiser, not a surveyor for that one. You have to be so careful handing out advice sometimes.............
I know what I would do with them, but it has nothing to do with surveying so time to keep my mouth shut...........
Interesting. I never heard of water rights as you described them.
> Interesting. I never heard of water rights as you described them.
Private water rights are a hot commodity in the Western States.
Here's some insight on the biz.
I wonder if senior/junior shuffles each time they sell their water rights?
Ranking of rights is generally fixed at creation. It can be amended by bone head moves and talented attorneys. An example of a bone head move would be hiring a Surveyor with no education on water rights to advise you.B-)
They are different than most rights. They are attached to physical locations of water usage. So selling the locations brings with it the rights, there is a senior/junior element involved, but it's first in time has the stronger more valuable right cause it's the last one shut off. The state owns all the water and issues these rights which the state can take away. The ranch has shares in a ditch company and needs to figure out how many shares go to the new parcels. Because we did the plan I can handle that. The shares I need to stay away from are shares in the reservoir. That's like stock in Apple. Sell them to anyone, they aren't attached to the land. A stockbroker would give better advice that me on that question. As a private person I know what I'd do, but sitting in my office as a surveyor I need to say that's not my thing.
My point being how easy you can get into a situation where you get trapped giving advice you shouldn't give when you are dealing with land issues. Maybe it's engineering, legal, mineral issues you just have to learn to say it's out of your expertise.
Google Dr. David Zetland..
http://www.aguanomics.com/?m=1
😉
DDSM:beer:
> I have a ranch client .... They need an accountant, lawyer and an appraiser.........
I believe JB Stahl would be saying that you are the one that should be taking a project manager role and hiring those professionals on their behalf.
He may be right. I should become a realtor, appraiser, endless possibilities