...My pond may be growing. Have spoken with the adjoining land owner and he doesn't mind if some of the pond gets on him. He is a first-rate guy and that land has been in his family for years and he has no plans of letting it leave his family.......Anyway, this would make the levee farther down the creek/ditch thus increasing the size of the size of the pond by approximately an acre. Input please: Anyone have any horror stories of sharing a pond with a neighbor?...
Don't do it !!!!!!!!!!
While another acre of surface water has allot of appeal, it won't be your acre. If you were to do this, there are only two things that can happen, it works out or it doesn't. The problem is that in time, it won't work out for you.
Things to consider. The neighbor is a great guy, but sooner or later he will die. It might not happen in your lifetime, and in fact, you might be the one to go first. Either way, it can happen any day, and when it does, you have a nightmare on your hands.
Things to consider are maintenance of his shoreline. Will he or others build a dock on it? Will they take care of it? Stay up late shooting off fireworks or guns? Let people fish it who leave a mess, don't respect property lines and leave garbage behind? What about taking a boat out into the pond? Will you be alright if they find a honey hole on your side of the pond and catch a dozen, two dozen or more of your bass? Who pays for stocking the pond? Who pays for repairs or cleaning out the drain pipes? What if his heirs decide to split up the place, or sell it off? Kids who inherit land have a very funny way of not caring about neighbors or even their parents wishes. It's just about how much they can get for it, or how quickly they can get it.
The second you share any part of the pond with a neighbor, you lose all control of that pond. It is no longer yours, and what happens in the future is out of your hands. Nobody can predict the future, and nobody can gurantee that a great neighbor will stay that way. If he doesn't die, will he remain financially secure? Allot of wealthy people are now working at WalMart after loosing millions just this year. Will a family member need him someplace else? There's just too many scenarios to be able to guess what the future will hold. Only one of them is good. For everything to remain the way it is right now. Odds are that won't happen.
Good luck, keep the pond on your land and enjoy it any way you want. You will never have any regrets if you do it this way.
Eddie
