Who pays for the sewer lateral in Los Gatos, CA
Which part of the pipe is yours
Yours from the cleanout to your building — if certain conditions are met
Why, and what to doYours from the meter to your building
Why, and what to do
Who is responsible for which part
The District owns and maintains the lower lateral - the part between the property line and the sewer main in the street - where an accessible property line cleanout exists.
- West Valley Sanitation District
- The District states it "will maintain that part of each building sewer lying within a public right-of-way (lower sewer lateral)", performing removal of blockages, removal or treatment of root growths, and "repair or replacement of all, or a part of the lower sewer lateral" when its condition is an unreasonable inconvenience or when replacement becomes more economical than continued maintenance. The District states this applies "if a properly installed, maintained, and accessible property line cleanout exists".
- The property owner
- The District states the property owner "retains ownership and maintenance responsibilities for all private sewer system components", which it defines to include the upper sewer lateral - from the building's plumbing to the property line - along with easement laterals and building sewers connected to a private sewer system. Where an approved property line cleanout has not been installed or kept accessible, the District states the maintenance obligation for the entire building sewer, and any resulting backup or overflow, is the owner's.
- What decides which applies
- a properly installed, maintained and accessible property line cleanout
What is required
Some of these requirements are issued by West Valley Sanitation District rather than by Los Gatos.
The Town of Los Gatos requires an encroachment permit "whenever temporary use of public right-of-way is requested for private construction work", naming "laying or placing any pipes, conduits, sewers" and "connecting to or altering in any way any Town drainage system, sewer system, or piping system of any kind" among its examples. It asks for the cost of the work, the State Contractor's and Town Business License numbers, a site-specific sketch, a diversion plan, insurance and an Engineer's Estimate. It also publishes a coordination list of other agencies whose permits may be needed - police traffic control for "any work at or within 150 feet of a signalized intersection", Caltrans "when working on a Town street that is also a State Highway", plus VTA, Valley Water and County Fire - warning that "permits from other agencies may require a significant lead time".
What to do: Before booking anyone, check two things with Parks and Public Works: how far your frontage sits from the nearest signalised intersection, and whether your street is a state highway. Either adds an agency and a wait. Ask your contractor to confirm they hold a Town business licence as well as a state licence, since the application asks for both numbers. The no-fee permit the Town offers is for sidewalk work only and will not cover a trench.
Town of Los Gatos, Parks and Public WorksWhy this matters
Few authorities BelowGrid covers tell you about the other agencies rather than leaving you to find them, and none of the others names as many as this one does. Two on its list can reach an ordinary lateral repair. Work within 150 feet of a signalised intersection may need traffic control by Town police officers, which is a cost few would anticipate on a residential job and 150 feet is further than it sounds. The Town Code is blunter than the guidance about why somebody from the crew cannot simply wave cars past: section 15.20.020 provides that "no person other than a designee of the Director of the Parks and Public Works Department, an officer of the Police Department, or a person authorized by the Chief of Police, or person authorized by law, shall direct or attempt to direct traffic by voice, hand or other signal". Nor will your contractor's van be treated like a utility's. The parking and standing exemption in the next section reaches "any vehicle of a Town Department or public utility while necessarily in use for construction or repair work", and a private contractor repairing a private lateral is neither. And if your street doubles as a state highway, Caltrans issues its own encroachment permit on top of the Town's. The Town's own warning about lead time is the practical point: these are sequential, not parallel. West Valley Sanitation District's permit for the sewer work itself is separate again.
West Valley Sanitation District's ordinance code states that "it shall be unlawful for any person to discharge or deposit any substance or connect to the district's sanitary sewer system without a valid sewer connection permit and/or wastewater discharge permit issued by the district pursuant to this code". It also provides that "the requirement to install a property line cleanout shall be imposed by the district for any work requiring a district permit, or when in the district manager's opinion, the lower sewer lateral has experienced a high frequency or severity of blockages, or when an existing property line cleanout is deemed not to conform with district design standards".
What to do: If the District requires a cleanout, the code gives you "up to three hundred sixty-five (365) calendar days from the date of issuance" where the permit is mainly for other work, and "sixty (60) calendar days" where the permit is specifically for the cleanout. The installation must be done by a contractor registered with the District. Ask which deadline applies when the permit is issued, not later.
West Valley Sanitation District Ordinance CodeWhy this matters
That cleanout is what the District's own maintenance turns on - it maintains the lower lateral, from the property line to the main, where an accessible one exists. So the fitting you can be required to install is the same fitting that decides whether the District looks after the expensive half of your pipe. The code also warns that "if a blockage in the lower sewer lateral or receiving main sewer is found to be caused by the property-owner's maintenance activities, all district repair and or maintenance costs associated with removal of the blockage will be the responsibility of the property-owner" - clear your own line badly and the District's bill for clearing its own comes to you.
Who governs and serves this area
- Jurisdiction
- Los Gatos (municipality)
- Sewer service
Where else this answer applies
The same authorities settle this in 2 other places BelowGrid publishes: Campbell and Monte Sereno. The answer there is the same one because it is the same authority, not because the pages were copied.
Assistance programmes
West Valley Sanitation District Private Lateral Replacement Program
A loan, secured on the house, and interest-free: "an interest-free five-year term loan as a lien against your property, maximum amount of $3,500, is available for you as a homeowner to assist in replacing your failing, or failed building upper sewer lateral". Repayment is collected on the property tax bill and the lien released when it is repaid. Against a five-figure lateral replacement, $3,500 is a contribution rather than a solution - but it is interest-free money and the District waives its own permit fees for work done under the programme.
Narrower than most, and the limits are worth reading before hoping. The District offers it "for homeowners with single family residential properties and limited to only one sewer lateral per property and one property per homeowner for the life of the District's Private Lateral Replacement Program (PLRP)" - so a landlord with several houses can use it once, and a flat or a duplex is outside it altogether. It is for a lateral already in trouble rather than one you want replaced before it fails: the loan assists in "replacing your failing, or failed building upper sewer lateral located on your property that connects to a District sewer main located in the public right-of-way". Money is not guaranteed by qualifying - "funding is available on a first-approved, first-served basis". There are deadlines once you are in: thirty calendar days from being notified of approval "to secure a contract with a construction contractor that meets the District requirements", and a CCTV inspection of the lateral is part of getting there.
Apply on the official site
How this compares to neighbouring cities
2 of the 4 nearest cities draw the line somewhere else. No single authority publishes that comparison, because each knows only about itself.
Your other pipe has a different answer
The drinking water line coming into your property is a separate pipe, run by a separate authority, and who is responsible for it is decided separately. Your sewer lateral is yours to the cleanout; your water line stops being yours at the meter.
Who owns the water service line in Los GatosLook up a specific address
A jurisdiction page describes what applies to properties in general. To see which authorities serve one address and what records exist for it, search for it.
Search for an address