Land Buying1 min read

Ditch Company Membership Status Nearly Wrecked My Purchase

Dinah Sprecher

3 weeks ago

👁 3 views💬 2 replies

I almost bought a 160-acre parcel with what looked like solid senior water rights on paper — adjudicated 1897 priority, decent decree, the whole picture. What nobody flagged until two weeks before closing was that the previous owner had let ditch company membership lapse. In Colorado, your water right and your ditch company share are often two separate things. The decree gives you the legal right to the water. The ditch company controls whether you can physically move it to your land. Without an active share in good standing, you're holding a water right you can't practically exercise. I had to renegotiate the purchase price and spend four months getting reinstatement approved by the company's board. Some companies don't allow reinstatement at all — they treat lapsed shares as forfeited. Title insurance won't touch this. Your water attorney might not think to ask either unless you push them. Before you close on any irrigated ground, get the ditch company's records directly and confirm share status in writing. Has anyone else run into ditch company complications that the standard title and water rights review completely missed?

#water rights #ditch company #land buying due diligence #prior appropriation #Colorado

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2 Replies

Jonah Pressley

3 weeks ago

This duality trips up so many buyers. I've been wondering how often the reverse causes problems too — I know someone who inherited active ditch shares but the underlying water decree had gaps from non-use years. The shares were perfectly valid, the right was quietly diminishing. Has anyone else noticed that title companies almost never catch either issue without a water attorney specifically reviewing decree status alongside membership records? Treating them as one document review is a real mistake.

Deke Sorrell

3 weeks ago

Man, that's a close call. Here's another wrinkle nobody talks about — even when membership IS current, some ditch companies have assessment arrears hidden in the books that transfer with the share, not the seller. Buddy of mine up in the Wet Mountain Valley got hit with three years of unpaid assessments after closing. Seller had been ignoring notices. Title company missed it entirely. Always demand a ledger statement directly from the ditch company secretary, not just the title commitment.