I own a business that specializes in wells and water pumps. I am the third generation, my Grandfather started the company in the early 40’s.
Starting with my grandfather we’ve been excellent keepers of records. The 40’s and 50’s marked the start of most new well drilling in my area, prior to that surface water wells were more commonplace. My Grandfather was involved in a majority of the original drilled wells for the area. Many towns did not start recording information about wells with the boards of health until the late 80’s. For people hoping to find data on the location of a well or information on one I’m one of the few people who can cover that gap. I also have maps and layouts for underground conduits and lines associated with getting water and electricity to and from places on the properties.
My question is as the owner of this information do you think I have any obligation to share it? If you owned a home and did not know your well location what would your expectations be?
My standards are:
If an existing customer calls me, I will look up and provide any information I have on file at no charge.
If I feel someone is likely to become a customer, new owner, the same applies.
If I know or feel they do not intend to use my companies services I will offer to research the information and will come out to mark locations at my regular hourly rate.
Is this fair?
If you were me how would you handle it?
That sounds like a fair approach to me. You’re not a public agency; you’re a private business, and your time is money. If you already have a business relationship with a customer, makes sense to share the information for free, but if no existing business relationship, no problem with you charging.
Current customer, courtesy service at no charge. Everyone else, at your customary hourly wage. If they become your customer within 6 months, credit them the amount already paid for research.
This seems like the key question. It seems eminently fair to charge someone for the time it takes you to go through and pull records.
But, assuming that all they want is a description, it feels a little unseemly to make them also pay for you to physically come out to the property and mark things.
The issue with this is the information is far more valuable than just my time pulling the record. It takes me ten minutes to pull the records.
If I am called to a home were they don’t know the well location or need to know the wells flow rate it could be days worth of work acquiring that data. In some cases it can require me bringing in an excavator to follow buried lines. None of my competitors would provide me with similar data nor do they have records on par with mine.
If someone is seeking my files without having me do the work it is almost always because they are doing business with my competition. If I’m bidding on a job having the data to work with allows me to better estimate costs, so I can bid at a lower rate. If I don’t have the information I’d need to bid higher to acount for unforseen problems.
While I currently have no shortage of work and am not very worried about losing business to my competition, on a business level I don’t think I should make it easy for my competition to get information my business has spent decades gathering and storing.
First off, think about what your father and grandfather would do in your situation. If they would’ve given that information over without any qualms, you don’t want to be the penny-pinching bean-counter who abandoned your business’s tradition of generosity. On the other hand, if they wouldn’t have given it out either, you’re kind of on your own with this one.
I’d suggest posing the question in a forum devoted to contractors and small businesses (a web search for ‘contractors forum’ should get you started here) , and see what other successful businesspeople have done. I’d think this is a rather common quandary for them. You’ve got information that is valuable to you and other professionals in your field (i.e. the competition) but of significantly less (obvious) value to people unfamiliar with your field (i.e. most of your customers). Alternatively, check with your local chamber of commerce to see if they can connect you with some folks in a similar situation, but in a noncompeting field.
I’d be careful with giving (or charging to give) away maps. The reason being that the homeowner is likely going to base that on landmarks. Landmarks that may have moved in the past 60 years. If your map says the well is 45 feet North of the South East corner of the house and they spend 3 hours digging up their lawn and can’t find it, they’ll come back complaining to you. What they may not have noticed is that 10 years before they bought the house an addition was built on. So they were digging 20 feet too far to the East.
You, OTOH, not knowing the house at all, and doing this all the time, went based on the shape or measurements of the house or double checked by taking a second measurement from a lot line. Or maybe you bring out tools that can check for underground pipes or electricity.
I know you don’t want to charge too much because all you’re doing is pulling out a piece of paper, but I would still encourage you to charge more than you think it’s worth for two reasons. 1)You’re going to have to put up with some headaches, make them worth your while and 2)Some people will say “Ya know know, I’ll just give you the extra $50 and you can do it”
Also, I’d suggest you type up a guide on how to locate wells. Things like making sure the landmarks on the property are still correct, checking from more than one landmark, calling digger’s hotline* etc. Don’t give away all your secrets, but enough that they don’t come crying to you when they can’t find it. And don’t guarantee success (or refunds unless the map is incorrect).
*I don’t know what it’s called by you, but it’s the service you call, before you start tearing up your yard. They come and locate and underground utilities before you stick a shovel into an electrical wire and kill yourself.
New wells require an engineering print of the property. So it needs to be surveyed to mark the proposed location. Before the well can be put into service flow rate and water testing must be completed. All this info is filed with the local board of health, who in turn forwards some portion of that data to the state along with geological data surmised from drilling.
New wells are also required by code to have the well head 18 inches above ground, which makes it a he’ll of a lot easier to find them.
For well abandonment it us filed with the state who will accept a rough map and a gas coordinate. I also send the local board of health a copy in case they could use the info. It’s is kinda comical. ‘Hey that well you never knew existed, it doesn’t exist anymore, just letting you know.’