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Who owns the water service line in San Jose, CA

Which part of the pipe is yours

your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmain
The thick length is yours.

If something’s wrong

Who to call first about the water service line

BelowGrid has no first-call guidance on file from San Jose about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

For the two water utilities that serve most of San Jose it does not matter which one you have: San Jose Water Company and the City's own municipal water system both keep the run from the main through the meter, and both hand the customer everything beyond it. Which utility serves you still decides who bills you and who to ring. This is San Jose's own statement.

San Jose
The run from the main to and through the meter, on both utilities' own documents. The City's code defines a "standard service connection" as "the pipe or tubing, fittings, valves, meter and meter boxes necessary to conduct water from the water main to and through the meter or to the curb stop or shut-off valve on an unmetered service connection, to the point where connection is made to facilities of the customer", and defines the municipal water system as comprising "backup facilities, water mains and service connections owned and operated by the city". San Jose Water Company's CPUC-approved tariff states that "the service pipe, curb stop, meter, and meter box furnished by or on behalf of the utility and located wholly or partially upon a customer's premises are the property of the utility".
The property owner
Everything on the house side of the meter, under both. The City's definition runs its service connection up "to the point where connection is made to facilities of the customer", so the customer's facilities begin there. San Jose Water Company describes the same boundary as the meter outlet coupling and makes customers responsible for everything past it.

What else is worth knowing

Establish which utility serves your address, and not for this question. Both draw the ownership line in the same place, so the answer about who keeps the pipe to the meter is the same either way. It matters for everything else: who bills you, who to call about a leak, and what each will do about replacing a service line, none of which follow from the line being common. Note also that the City's half of this answer rests on two definitions read together - what a standard service connection is, and what the municipal water system comprises - rather than on a single sentence assigning responsibility, so cite both sections if you put the question to the City. A third utility serves the city too. The State's register puts Great Oaks Water Company's system over about a tenth of San Jose - if Great Oaks bills you, its own rules govern your service, not either answer above - and the Calero County Park system over about 1%. About a seventh of the city is ground inside the city limits that no published water service area reaches - not a rival utility, and not necessarily unserved. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

City of San José Municipal Code, Title 15 chapter 15.08, Municipal Water System

Also quoted:

Checked

What this page cannot 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.
San Jose: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, San Jose says:

The property owner owns the whole lateral, both on their land and under the road - the City's own ordinance says so in passing, twice. But San Jose will clear a blockage in the run from your property line to the main, and if that run then needs repair the City repairs it "without charge to the owner". All of it depends on a wye cleanout sitting no more than twenty-four inches below the surface and not covered over.

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in San Jose, CA

Look up a specific address

This page describes what applies to properties in San Jose in general. To see which authorities serve one address, and what records exist for it, search for it.

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How this compares across California