Oregon Water Rights provides expertise in Water Right Due Diligence for the entire state of Oregon.
Recently, a buyer with an $8m ranch property in escrow called seeking explanation of the appurtenant water rights. Some clients simply want assurance that water rights of interest are not at risk of cancellation. Unless it's a large, complicated water right portfolio, we do this for free.
In this client's case, all water rights were senior certificates with no real administrative risk. The client also asked what would gained from paying in that case $1,000 for a water right abstract.
I explained that abstracts we prepare include copies of paper maps not currently digitized as several were water rights by decree. The client was surprised to learn the water rights didn’t cover the entire property. Additionally, the largest right for several hundred acres had a very short, nearly useless irrigation season.
However, based on our many years of experience with similar situations, we identified faded cursive writing on the certificate which indicated its inclusion in a century ago court case granting it a full irrigation season and several million dollars of value.