[new Mexico] Hired A Well Driller For A Property I'm Purchasing. Job Wasn't Complete, And He's Trying To Charge 60% Of The Original Quote.

Location: New Mexico.

My wife and I are in process of purchasing a piece of land in New Mexico. The land has a well-share agreement for an adjacent property. As part of our due diligence, we decided to get the well tested.

We reached out to a one man business in Albuquerque. He quoted us $750+tax for a testing.

The quote, by the way, was by text message. There was never any email communication; no contract was signed, and no terms were spelled out for unfinished work.

We live in Pennsylvania, so we were unable to be physically present for the testing. Our realtor coordinated with him to test the well and was nice enough to be there for the testing.

It turned out this will is actively being used by the parcel it's located on. I'm not completely sure how all this works, but because of the way the breaker box was set up and that there are lines running to it, the well couldn't be tested without the owner's permission. Our realtor asked him what he'd charge for making the trip, and he said $175.

Here's where it gets convoluted - apparently the guy who owns the parcel the well was on didn't believe he had to share it. He thought it was his.

The seller of the property, a large national bank (the land is a foreclosure) tasked the selling realtor with getting it sorted out with the office of the state engineer. He ultimately did, and the owner of the parcel of the well agreed to allow us to test it.

We found out last week that the property across the street, which just sold, *also* has a well share agreement for the exact same well. They hired a larger regional firm to perform the well testing.

Our realtor informed me last week that the selling realtor of the parcel we're buying, plus the owner of the parcel that has the well, and the guy buying the land across the street agreed to just share costs and use the company they hired. The selling realtor also offered to pay the trip charge for our well tester. Fair enough.

We informed the well tester, and he sent us a bill for $465, on Sunday.

1 hour later, he texted "??". Four hours later, he texted "??" again.

Needless to say: all of us were surprised by the bill, and it was more than the selling realtor was expecting to pay. The selling realtor suggested a three-way split between himself, our realtor, and the selling realtor.

Our realtor called him the very next morning (yesterday), and the guy refused to budge. (Worth mentioning the realtor we're working with has been the most polite, nice, professional guy the entire time.) Our realtor offered $275 - $100 more than what he was told - and the guy refused.

We were still ironing out the details yesterday when the well tester sent a threatening text, saying if payment wasn't received by 9am today, he'd be at the courthouse and put a lien on the property.

Everything I've read indicates that he can't put a lien on the property, and doing so would be bad news for him, because not only is our name not on it, it's still owned by a large bank that could sue him for title slander.

We told him we understand the need to get paid for your time, and offered $275 again. We were clear we weren't trying to make things difficult, and also let him know about the bank owning the land. We asked to explain why his bill was 2.5x what he quoted our realtor. His response was:

"Your realtor is a liar. I told him 2hours at $155/hr plus $100 for the generator. It was almost 3 hours out of my day that day. I took that 3rd hour off. If you were not trying to make things difficult you would pay it and be done. As legal goes the lien will be in your name not the banks name. By me placing the lien the bank pays me and the bank goes after you not me. Been there done that."

We've been nothing but cordial and have tried to be reasonable. What's more, we signed nothing and were provided nothing by him indicating we'd even owe him anything for an incomplete job.

Can he name us on this lien like he is threatening? Are we actually on the hook for anything, lien aside?

Edit for clarification: the realtor representing the land seller, and our realtor, work in the same real estate office, if it matters