Who pays for the sewer lateral in Glendale, CA

Most relevant if you have a backup or blockage

No rule on file here is specific to a backup or blockage; that does not mean none exists.

Also in force here

• Before work on the pipePermit

  Who issues it:

  City of Glendale, the director of public works

  What it covers:

  connecting private property to any public sewer system of the city, excepting the systems of Los Angeles and Burbank that flow into it

  Glendale requires a permit before connecting private property to a public sewer: "no person shall connect any private property with any public sewer system in or belonging to the city ... without first procuring a permit to make such connection", with the systems of Los Angeles and Burbank excepted. Application and fees go to the director of public works. The connection fee depends on whether the property has already borne the cost of the main and on when the main was laid: where it "was in place on or before January 1, 1942", the fee is fifty dollars for 5,000 square feet or less plus fifty cents per hundred square feet above that; where it was not, the fee is "the portion of the total cost of such public sewer main ... determined according to the ratio of the area of the private property ... to the entire area".

  What to do: Before budgeting anything, ask the director of public works two things about your address: whether the property has ever been assessed for the public sewer main it would connect to, and when that main was placed. The answers decide whether you are looking at an excavation fee and fifty dollars or at a share of the main's construction cost. If your property would connect to a Los Angeles or Burbank system rather than Glendale's, say so - the permit section excepts those.

  Why this matters▸▾

  Two questions decide the bill and neither is about your house. The first is who paid for the sewer main in the street - where it was built by private contract at no expense to the city, the permit issues on the excavation fee alone, though a sewer facilities charge may still apply. The second is when that main was laid. Before 1 January 1942 and the fee is fifty dollars and small change; after it, the fee is a proportionate share of what the whole main cost to build, apportioned by area. Those are not the same order of magnitude, and a homeowner has no way of knowing which applies without asking. The City holds both answers.

  Checked 14 Sep 2026 (7 weeks ago)

  City of Glendale Municipal Code, Title 13 chapter 13.40, Sewer System, Article II