Who pays for the sewer lateral in Clovis, CA

Who is responsible for which part

The property owner owns, maintains and repairs the whole sewer lateral, and the City says so about the expensive part in terms: the portion beneath the sidewalk and street, up to and including the point where it connects to the City main. There is no cleanout condition and no carve-out.

The property owner

All of it, in the City's own words and with the under-street portion spelled out. Section 6.4.06(b) states that sewer service laterals "shall be owned, maintained and repaired by the owner of the property being served, from and including the lateral's connection point at the City sewer main to the building or other point of use on the property", and that this "includes both the portion on private property and the portion located beneath the sidewalk and street or any other public right-of-way or easement areas such as alleys, trails and landscape areas". Section 6.4.02(d) states the same span from the other end: "the entire sewer service lateral from the building connection to and including the wye connection to the sewer main shall be the owner's responsibility to install, maintain and repair".

Checked 2026-09-14

What is required

• When you askPermit

  The City of Clovis states that "no person shall connect any lot to any public sewer or any house branch sewer without a permit from the City Engineer", and that "no permit shall be issued unless the following charges, when applicable, have been paid". Three charges can apply before a permit issues: a front footage charge reimbursing half the cost of the public main, an oversize charge per gross acre, and a house branch charge that provides "cost recovery for City forces to supply and construct sewer house branches". All three are set in the City's Master Development Fee Schedule rather than in the code.

  What to do: Ask the City Engineer for the permit and, in the same conversation, which of the three charges apply to your address and what they come to - the code names them and puts the amounts in a fee schedule it does not reproduce. If your parcel fronts more than one street or alley, ask how the front footage is being measured. If the main serving you was paid for by the development that built it, ask about the exemption before paying. And establish whether these connection charges reach a replacement of an existing lateral at all, or only a first connection, because the section is written about connecting a lot.

  Why this matters▸▾

  The City's own crews build the connection. Everywhere else BelowGrid covers, a permit is permission for your contractor to open the ground; here the house branch charge recovers the cost of "City forces" supplying and constructing it, so the number that matters is what the City charges rather than what a contractor quotes. The money also comes before the permit rather than with it. And the front footage charge is measured on the parcel's frontage, with the code adding that on lots with several frontages "the total front footage shall be determined by adding the length of all frontages" - so a corner lot pays on both. There is an exemption worth claiming: no front footage charge is payable where the property "has borne wholly or proportionally the cost of sewer mains" and that can be established to the City Engineer's satisfaction.

  In force since 2026-09-14 · Checked 2026-09-14

  City of Clovis Municipal Code, Title 6 chapter 6.4, Sewage Disposal

Who governs and serves this area

Jurisdiction

Clovis (municipality)

Sewer service

Not mapped. No sewer service territory covering this area has been added, so BelowGrid cannot say who serves an individual address here.