Who pays for the sewer lateral in Lynwood, CA
Which part of the pipe is yours
Yours all the way to the main under the road
Why, and what to doYours from the meter to your building
Why, and what to do
If something’s wrong
If a repair needs a permit or an inspection
- Who issues it:
- City of Lynwood, City Engineer
- What it covers:
- commencing any work or placing any obstruction in or upon a public street, including parkways and sidewalks
Lynwood Municipal Code section 13-10.1 provides that "No person shall commence any work or place any obstruction in or upon any public street, including parkways and sidewalks, unless a special permit therefor has been obtained from the City Engineer". A lateral repair that reaches the road is work in a public street, and the owner's run reaches the connection with the public sewer under section 14-15.3, so on most properties the two meet.
Who to call first about the sewer lateral
Lynwood: official site(opens in a new tab)The documents this answer is built on
Who is responsible for which part
Lynwood writes its own rule rather than borrowing the County's, and writes it in one sentence. Section 14-15.3 of the municipal code provides that "Sewer laterals between the buildings and the connection to the public sewer are owned and maintained by the property owner served by the lateral". Ownership and maintenance are assigned together, which is less common than it sounds - most codes assign one and leave the other to be argued.
- The property owner
- The run from the building to the connection with the public sewer, owned as well as maintained. Section 14-15.1 carries the same sentence inside its definition of a sewer lateral and describes the pipe itself as "a building sewer as defined in the latest edition of the California Plumbing Code", so the extent comes from the plumbing code's meaning rather than from a measurement in the ordinance.
What else is worth knowing
Sources
Lynwood Municipal Code section 14-15.3, in chapter 14-15 on sewer lateralsWhat the rules say
Most relevant if you are remodelling or adding a unit
No rule on file here is specific to remodelling or adding a unit; that does not mean none exists.
Also in force here
- Who issues it:
- City of Lynwood, City Engineer
- What it covers:
- commencing any work or placing any obstruction in or upon a public street, including parkways and sidewalks
Lynwood Municipal Code section 13-10.1 provides that "No person shall commence any work or place any obstruction in or upon any public street, including parkways and sidewalks, unless a special permit therefor has been obtained from the City Engineer". A lateral repair that reaches the road is work in a public street, and the owner's run reaches the connection with the public sewer under section 14-15.3, so on most properties the two meet.
What to do: Ask the City Engineer's office what the special permit requires for a trench in your street before a contractor sets a date, and ask in the same call whether the sewer lateral cleaning policy applies to your problem - if the trouble is a blockage rather than a break, that may be the cheaper route. Get the answer about who carries damage from a cleaning in writing, because the ordinance puts it on you.
Lynwood Municipal Code section 13-10.1, in Title 13 on streets and sidewalksWhy this matters
What is unusual here is what does not stack on top. Lynwood keeps the street permit in its streets title and does not add a separate encroachment permit for the same trench, so the City Engineer's special permit is the one to ask about rather than the first of several. The other thing worth knowing is not about the permit at all: section 14-15.4 has the council adopt a sewer lateral cleaning policy, and the same section leaves "responsibility to property owners for damages or breaks occurring from the cleaning". A City crew clearing your blockage is a service, not an assumption of the pipe, and the damage stays yours.
What this page cannot tell you
- No assistance or grant programme has been reviewed for this jurisdiction yet.
- No sewer service territory has been mapped for this area, so BelowGrid cannot say who serves an individual address.
Who governs and serves this area
- Jurisdiction
- Lynwood (municipality)
- Sewer service
- No map of sewer providers is held here. BelowGrid cannot say which sewer provider serves an individual address.
How this compares to neighbouring cities
1 of the 8 nearest cities draws the line somewhere else. Each authority publishes only its own rule.
Your other pipe: the water service line
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 main; your water line stops being yours at the meter.
Who owns the water service line in LynwoodNearby cities and further reading
Look up a specific address
This page describes what applies to properties in Lynwood in general. To see which authorities serve one address, and what records exist for it, search for it.
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