Who owns the water service line in Modesto, CA
Modesto's water service stops in one of three places and which one is yours depends on your street: the property line if you are served from an alley, the curbline if the sidewalk runs along your property line, and the back of the sidewalk if the sidewalk runs along the curb. The owner furnishes, installs and maintains everything from there in - and has twenty-four hours to start fixing a leak once they know about it. This is Modesto's own statement.
Which part of the pipe is yours
Yours from the curb to your building — if certain conditions are met
Why, and what to doYours all the way to the main under the road
Why, and what to do
Where the responsibility divides
- Modesto
- The service up to a boundary that moves with the street, and the meter outright. Section 11-1.03(a) states that the City "will furnish the service complete from its main to the property owner's property line, in case of an alley; to the curbline from a street main when the sidewalk is adjacent to property owner's property line; and to the back of sidewalk from a street main when the sidewalk is adjacent to the curbline". For meters the City takes on the work as well: section 11-1.06(f) has the City "furnish, install and maintain all meters, with the property owner or water user to pay the cost of the meter, installation and maintenance", and the City's Water Services division says the meters "are installed, maintained, and read by Water Services Division staff".
- The property owner
- Everything from the end of the City's service inward, and the code says so twice from two different starting points. Section 11-1.03(a): "the property owner shall furnish, install and maintain all piping to the City service." Section 11-1.03(c): property owners "shall be responsible for the maintenance of water pipes, water faucets, water plumbing fixtures, and all other water services appliances from the point the water meter exits into the plumbing of the property owner." And a third time, more broadly than either, in the Rules and Regulations at section 11-1.14(e): "All water users, customers and property owners must keep the service pipes in good order at their own expense and may be held liable for damages which may result from their failure to do so." That one says "the service pipes", with no boundary attached.
- What decides which applies
- Find out which of the three cases your address falls in before you assume anything, because the City's service ends in a different place for each and the difference is metres of pipe under paving. Served from an alley main, the City reaches your property line; served from a street main with the sidewalk against your property line, it reaches the curbline; served from a street main with the sidewalk against the curb, it reaches the back of the sidewalk. Note also that the code describes your half from two different starting points - "all piping to the City service" in one subsection and everything "from the point the water meter exits into the plumbing" in another - which agree where the meter sits at the end of the City's service and do not where it does not. Two further things worth knowing: you have twenty-four hours to start repairing a leak from the moment you knew or should have known about it, and if your property predates the City's metering programme you may still hold title to your own meter, in which case the City will take over its maintenance and replacement once you transfer that title. One more thing, and it is the one most likely to cost you. Modesto's code says the City FURNISHES the service to whichever of the three points is yours. It never says the City REPAIRS it. The only upkeep the City takes on anywhere in the chapter is for meters, and even there the owner pays the cost. Meanwhile the Rules and Regulations tell water users and property owners to keep "the service pipes" in good order at their own expense, without saying which pipes or where they stop. So if a leak appears out under the paving on the City's side of that boundary, do not assume the City pays for it - the code does not say so, and one of its sentences can be read against you. Put it to Water Services before anyone digs.
What this does not 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.
- This authority's service line inventory - the record of which pipes are lead, and where - has not been matched here yet. Ask the utility for yours.
Your other pipe has a different answer
For the sewer lateral, Modesto gives the opposite answer to the one above:
The house sewer line is the owner's to build, maintain and repair - and in Modesto that reaches under the road, but stops short of the joint at the main. The City's packet defines the line as running from the building plumbing "to, but does not include, the connection at the City sewer main". The City also runs a cost-share programme for the part in the right-of-way, and will flush or inspect that part for free before you call a plumber.
Your sewer lateral is yours to the main; your water line stops being yours at the curb.
Who pays for the sewer lateral in Modesto, CAHow this compares across California
- Why your two pipes disagree — the places where the sewer and water authorities contradict each other about the run beneath the road.
- Which water systems know what is buried — how much of each California system’s network the utility can actually identify.