Who pays for the sewer lateral in Pasadena, CA

Most relevant if you have received a notice from the city or district

No rule on file here is specific to a notice from the city or district; that does not mean none exists.

Also in force here

• Any timeWork required

  Pasadena Municipal Code 13.24.300 requires that "in every case where a plumbing outlet or plumbing fixture is installed or located below the elevation of the curb or property line, an approved type of backwater trap or an approved type of backwater sewer valve shall be installed between the outlet and the public sewer". It must go in the basement or in an approved box or manhole "so that it will be readily accessible at all times", and it may serve only the low fixtures: "no drainage from fixtures located above this elevation shall pass through such trap or valve."

  What to do: Stand at the curb in front of your property and ask whether any drain inside the house sits below it - a basement, a sunken room, a garden-level bathroom, a floor drain in a garage below street level. If one does, ask the Department of Public Works what it will approve and where it will let the device sit, since it must stay "readily accessible at all times", and make sure your plumber wires it to those fixtures alone rather than to the whole house drain. Section 13.24.610 makes you keep it in good working order once it is in.

  Why this matters▸▾

  This backwater test is one you can apply yourself. Milpitas and Burbank measure a floor or a fixture rim against the nearest upstream sewer structure or maintenance hole cover in the street; Pasadena measures against the curb outside your house, or your property line. If a basement lavatory, a floor drain or a garden-level shower sits lower than that, the section reaches it, and it reaches fixtures that are merely "located" below the line as well as newly installed ones, so an old house is not exempt by age. The second half is where installations go wrong: the device may only serve the fixtures below the line. Fitting one valve on the main house drain so that everything is protected is the cheap way to do it and does not comply here.

  Checked 14 Sep 2026 (7 weeks ago)

  Pasadena Municipal Code, Title 13 chapter 13.24, Sewer Construction and Maintenance
• When you remodelInspection

  Pasadena usually conditions a development permit on a camera survey of the existing sewer: "as part of the Public Works conditions for developmental permits, a closed circuit television (CCTV) inspection of the existing house sewer serving the developed property is usually required". The survey covers the whole run - it "shall include footage from the nearest private cleanout to the connection at public sewer main" - and the video must show the entire circular section of the pipe with the address, date and a continuous camera-distance read-out displayed. The results go to Public Works with "a flat fee per the current General Fee Schedule" for the review, which "normally takes 3 to 5 business days". Then: "the applicant shall correct any defects revealed by the inspection."

  What to do: Ask Public Works at [email protected] whether your particular permit will carry the CCTV condition, and ask before the plans are finalised - the City's own word is "usually", so it is answerable in advance and it changes what a project costs. If the answer is yes, consider having the survey done early: a defect found before you commit is a budget line, and the same defect found as a permit condition is a delay. Most plumbers offer the service. Note that the video must run from the nearest private cleanout all the way to the connection at the main, so if you have no cleanout the survey will say so first.

  Why this matters▸▾

  This is an open-ended cost attached to a project about something else. You are pricing an extension; the condition prices a camera, and then prices whatever the camera finds in a pipe you have never seen - and in Pasadena that pipe runs under the street, because the house sewer is the owner's all the way to the main. The City's list of defects is long and includes "excessive tuberculation", "excessive root intrusion", "offset pipe joints", "cracked pipes" and a "damaged or cracked connection to the sewer main", plus anything else the City Engineer determines. The remedy is the City Engineer's to approve and "may include partial or total replacement of the house sewer, or installation of a structural or non-structural pipe liner" - and a replacement runs into the City's whole-segment rule, so a partial repair between the curb and the main becomes a full one. The applicant pays for the survey and for the correction.

  Checked 14 Sep 2026 (7 weeks ago)

  City of Pasadena, Department of Public Works
• Before work on the pipePermit

  Who issues it:

  City of Pasadena, Department of Public Works

  What it covers:

  all sewer repairs, including the installation of a pipe liner, whether or not an excavation in the public right-of-way is required

  Pasadena requires a Public Works permit for every sewer repair, trenchless ones included: "a Public Works permit is required for all sewer repairs, including the installation of a pipe liner, whether or not an excavation in the public right-of-way (parkway or street) is required for access to facilitate the operation." The scope of the work is then set by the code rather than by your plumber. Section 13.24.210 provides that where it is necessary to replace any portion of an existing house sewer "between the street curb and lot line", or any portion "between the curb and public sewer", all of that portion "shall be replaced to meet the requirements for new house sewers". Connecting to the main where no Y or T was left for you carries a separate charge, which the code puts at $7.50.

  What to do: Before you accept a quotation, ask your contractor which segment the defect is in - inside the lot line, between the lot line and the curb, or between the curb and the main - and get the job priced for the whole of that segment, not for the defect. Then ask Public Works at [email protected] for the permit that covers the method you intend to use, liner included, and confirm what the City will require of a lined connection at the main so a protrusion does not turn into a second permit and a second excavation.

  Why this matters▸▾

  Two surprises, and both are about scope rather than paperwork. The first is that relining does not get you out of the permit - the pipe being lined is in the City's street even when the machine stays on your driveway, and the sheet says so in terms. The second is bigger: Pasadena does not allow a partial replacement inside a segment. A cracked joint a few feet inside the curb obliges the whole run from the curb to the main, rebuilt to new-work standards. That turns a spot-repair quotation into a different job, and it is the kind of thing an owner finds out with the ground already open. Even a liner can escalate: top hats must lie flush with the sewer main wall, and "any protrusions noted on the post-lining videos will require the Permittee to excavate and remove the protrusions under a separate permit".

  Checked 14 Sep 2026 (7 weeks ago)

  City of Pasadena, Department of Public Works

  Also quoted:

  • Pasadena Municipal Code chapter 13.24 - Sewer Construction and Maintenance