Buying A Property With A Spring Being Asked By Seller To Let Neighbors Keep Leaching

We made an offer on a house in rural SW VA. It’s 53 acres with a spring on the property and a cabin, but for some reason, the cabin was never hooked up to water or plumbing. Our plan is to connect the cabin to the spring and use the property as a mini farm. However, within an hour of making our offer, the listing agent called our agent asking if we were okay with sharing the spring with the neighbor below. The concern was that if we stopped sharing, the neighbors could take the issue to court and win because they have been using the spring for 40 years, albeit without legal rights.

Our agent tried to convince us that the best thing to do is to give the neighbors an easement to the spring. It turns out there are two neighbors below who have been leaching water from the spring using gravity-fed pipes. The listing agent then informed our realtor that the property was previously under contract, and the previous buyer had spoken to the neighbors below—one house and two trailers, all related. They have their own spring, which one of them is already using, and they said they were open to moving to their family spring if they were provided with a pump because the gravity-fed pipes often freeze or get clogged.

We asked the seller to talk to these neighbors and even offered to pay for a pump. The seller then came back and relayed that it would take more than a pump to move the neighbors off the spring on the property he’s selling and onto their own spring. After asking my realtor for clarification, she explained that the seller said they need electricity and a reservoir built. He suggested it would be easier to let the neighbors continue using the spring on the property we are buying since they have been using it for 40 years. He also mentioned that the neighbors would only come onto the property to fix the pipes and that they are in poor health.

The sellers also sent a counteroffer just to change the title company, giving me a chance to walk away from the deal right now. My concern is that there won’t be enough water in the spring once we start using it, but I’ve never seen the spring. It also feels like the seller is trying to offload a property with disputes he can’t or doesn’t want to resolve.

What is the best solution? We really like the property but we are not from this area and do not know if disputes or lawsuits are likely to arise from this spring. Should we make another offer contingent on the seller being able to remedy the issues with the neighbors or just walk away.