Skip to main content
BelowGrid

Who owns the water service line in San Bernardino, CA

The Water Department owns the service connection and keeps it up, all the way to the meter. Its Rule and Regulation No. 7 states that service connections "including laterals, meters, boxes, shutoff valves, and other appurtenances, shall be and remain the property of the Water Department", and that the Department is responsible for maintaining and repairing them "up to and including all appurtenances between service lateral tap on the public water main to the service meter". The owner's pipe starts on the far side of the meter. This is San Bernardino's own statement.

Which part of the pipe is yours

your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmainSewer: yours to the mainWater: yours to the meter
The thick length is yours.

Where the responsibility divides

San Bernardino
The whole connection from the tap at the main to the meter, owned as well as maintained. Two things are billed back to the customer even so. The owner or their agent "shall be held liable however for any damage to the meter including time and materials due to negligence or carelessness, and in particular for damage caused by hot water or steam from the premises". And the curb stop or wheel valve on the inlet side of the meter is "intended for the exclusive use of the Water Department": if a customer's use damages it badly enough to need replacing, "the cost of such replacement shall be the customer's responsibility". Operating those valves is not a householder's to do - the rule reserves it to Department staff, and bars "any entry into, or work, including but not limited to operation, maintenance, repair, or relocation of Water Department property by any unauthorized person".
The property owner
Everything past the meter. Rule 7 puts it plainly: "all pipe and fittings beyond the customer's side downstream of the meter or outside of the meter box and all facilities within the customer property shall be installed by and maintained by the property owner". So a leak between the main and the meter is the Department's to fix, and a leak on the house side of the meter is yours, including the run across your own front garden.
What else is worth knowing
Routine work on the Department's side can still interrupt you, and the rule says so rather than leaving it as a surprise: meters "are routinely serviced and maintained during normal business hours", that work "may cause a total shutdown of the services located on a site", and the Department undertakes to notify affected customers "within a reasonable time frame prior to the scheduled shutdown except for emergency situations". Your sewer lateral runs the other way from your water service in this city. The same Department states in the same rule that private sewer laterals, including the length in the public right of way, are the User's to keep in good condition and free of defects, with all maintenance and repairs "performed at the User's own expense".
San Bernardino Municipal Water Department, Rule and Regulation No. 7 - Maintenance of Service Connections, approved by the Water Board on 27 January 2026, which states who owns the connection and where the Department's maintenance stops

Also quoted:

Checked 2026-09-19

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.
Check your address with San Bernardino

Your other pipe has a different answer

For the sewer lateral, San Bernardino gives the opposite answer to the one above:

The whole run is yours and the joint at the main is not - the Department defines a private sewer lateral as running from the premises "up to, but not including, the connection to the City's or satellite service area's collection system". That includes the part in the street: "the portion of the Private Sewer Lateral that extends beyond the property line in the public right of way is also the owner's responsibility to maintain and repair." And a lateral left inoperative is not only your bill - it can be a nuisance under California Health and Safety Code section 5410, enforced by the City's Public Works Department.

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

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in San Bernardino, CA

How this compares across California