Skip to main content
BelowGrid

Who owns the water service line in Hillsborough, CA

Which part of the pipe is yours

your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmain
The thick length is yours.

If something’s wrong

Who to call first about the water service line

BelowGrid has no first-call guidance on file from Hillsborough about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

In Hillsborough the pipe that carries water from the Town's meter to the house is the owner's to repair, and the meter is the Town's. Section 13.32.110 of the Town's code provides that "any water pipeline and connection to the town's meter which pipeline or connection has become damaged or deteriorated shall be repaired by and at the cost and expense of the property owner" whose property it serves. The same section requires that pipeline to be tested for leaks before a property is sold. Nothing the Town publishes says who repairs the pipe between the main and the meter. This is Hillsborough's own statement.

The property owner
The water pipeline serving the property and its connection to the Town's meter. Section 13.32.110 adds that "It is the duty of such property owner to keep such sewers, pipelines and connections in good condition and repair", and to report a pipeline in bad condition to the city engineer. When title to any improved parcel changes hands, "all water pipelines and connections to the town's meters shall be tested for infiltration and leaks and inspected (including video inspection)", with any repair approved by the Town in advance and completed at the owner's expense before the transfer, unless the city engineer waives it for a pipeline tested within the previous two years.

What else is worth knowing

The line is the Town's meter: the code makes the owner responsible for the water pipeline serving the property and its connection to the meter, and calls the meter the Town's. The Town's Water Division "is charged with maintaining the Town's water distribution system", which the Town's Water page says includes "over 7,500 various assets such as water meters, fire hydrants and valves", and the Town's standard water service drawing shows the meter supplied and installed by the Town, in a box in the parking strip on the street side of the property line. Neither the code nor the Town's pages say who repairs the service pipe between the main and the meter, so if a leak is on that run, ask the Town's Public Works Department before paying for work there. The sale-time test applies to the water pipeline as well as to the sewer lateral. The State's register puts the Town's system over nearly all of Hillsborough, but check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Hillsborough Municipal Code section 13.32.110, Property owner responsibility

Also quoted:

Checked

What Hillsborough reported to the State about service-line materials

Federal rules required every community water system to inventory its service lines and publish the result. These are the figures this one filed.

The inventory records what each line is made of: lead, galvanized requiring replacement, non-lead, or lead status unknown. “Still unclassified” counts the lines whose material has not been identified. It does not mean they are lead.

Hillsborough has classified more of its service lines than most of California: 0.00% of its lines are unclassified, against 9.2% statewide.

Service lines reported
4,365
Still unclassified
0 (0.00%)
Across California, 9.2% of service lines are unclassified.
Share of service lines still unclassified
  • Hillsborough0.00%
  • California9.2%

What this page cannot tell you

  • This describes who is responsible for which part of the pipe. It is not a record of what your own service line is made of.
  • The State's service area map puts 99% of Hillsborough's land inside the boundary it maps for the city's own water system. Measured 26 Sep 2026.
  • Classified does not mean inspected, and this system inspected less than most. Hillsborough established 9.4% of its classifications by field inspection, against 22% across California; the rest come from records, the year of construction, or a predictive model.
  • These figures were submitted to the State by the water system itself and were read on 4 Sep 2026. They may not reflect its current inventory - ask the water system to confirm anything about a specific address.
Hillsborough: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Hillsborough says:

Hillsborough treats the whole lateral as private property, the length under the street and the connection to the main included. Section 13.33.030 of the municipal code defines a sewer lateral as "the privately owned pipeline that carries sewage and liquid wastes from the structure or structures served", running "to and including the connection to the sewer main, manhole or sewer main cleanout, including any portion under streets or within public rights-of-way", and section 13.33.060 provides that "the property owner shall remain responsible for ongoing maintenance of the entire lateral down to and including the connection to the sewer main."

Your sewer lateral is yours to the main, fitting included; your water line stops being yours at the meter.

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in Hillsborough, CA

Look up a specific address

This page describes what applies to properties in Hillsborough in general. To see which authorities serve one address, and what records exist for it, search for it.

Search for an address

How this compares across California