Puu Lani Ranch Water “Catch 22”

Puu Lani Ranch has a private water company (Napuu Water Co.) Since the inception of the company, in May of 2006, each property owner has a monthly fee of approximately $75.75 per month. These monthly fees, however, are not required to be paid until one has water service installed. That is not to say they are not incurred… just not “required to be paid” until… (bears worth repeating).

The catch 22 comes into play when an owner (or new buyer) goes to hook up water after building a home, they are unsuspectingly required to pay these back fees plus a connection fee of $810.00 prior to receiving service. The sellers don’t pay as they are not required to.. and the buyers don’t know about them until they attempt to obtain service. Is this fair? I view these fees as the obligation of the owner at the time the fees were incurred personally, as they are “past fees.”

A savvy realtor will advise his or her buyer clients to negotiate these monthly fees in the purchase contract, rather than finding out months later that they have a large bill they had not budgeted for in building their new home. Of course, if they are getting a good deal on the property and are aware; they may not care about another $10-12,000!