Who pays for the sewer lateral in Santa Monica, CA

Who is responsible for which part

The owner keeps the pipe from the property to the main, and in Santa Monica the code's own term for it names the part in the road: a "house connection sewer" is the pipe "constructed in a street, alley, walk or other public place or in a sewer easement". The City puts it plainly on its permit page - owners are responsible "from their property to the City's sewer main in the City street or alley".

The property owner

The connection from the property to the main. The City states that "property owners are responsible for a sewer connection (lateral) from their property to the City's sewer main in the City street or alley", and section 7.04.640 provides that all house connection sewers "and appurtenances thereto, now existing or hereafter constructed, shall be maintained by the owner of the property served in a safe and sanitary condition". Note the code's definition of the term: a house connection sewer is the pipe "constructed in a street, alley, walk or other public place or in a sewer easement granted to the City and connecting ... any lot or part of a lot with any public sewer".

What else is worth knowing

Nothing splits the pipe, but two of Santa Monica's rules decide what a job costs and neither is obvious. First, you do not tap the main yourself: the code has your contractor excavate to the sewer and then "wastewater maintenance forces of the Utilities Division shall then cut the required hole in the sewer or storm drain and install the sewer saddle furnished by the City", for a fee set by council resolution. Build that into the programme and the price, because your contractor cannot simply finish the job. Second, if your lateral is shared, the code allows no more than two lots on one house connection sewer and allows "not more than one lot per connection ... during new construction or remodels" - so a shared connection may survive as it is and may not be carried through a rebuild, which is a conversation with a neighbour that is much better had before the plans are drawn. One vocabulary warning: in this code "house connection sewer" means the length in the public street, not the pipe beside your house.

Checked 2026-09-15

What is required

• Any timePermit

  Santa Monica requires a written permit from the Street Superintendent before anyone may "make, construct, alter or repair any house connection sewer ... or any portion of any such sewer or storm drain connection". The City's own page puts it simply: "a permit is required to construct, alter, or repair any house connection sewer". Clearing a blockage is exempt - "except when it is necessary to replace any part or all of such sewer connection or to excavate in any street or sidewalk or sewer easement in connection therewith". And the connection to the main is not your contractor's to make: your contractor "shall excavate to the sewer or storm drain at the point where the connection is to be made, and wastewater maintenance forces of the Utilities Division shall then cut the required hole in the sewer or storm drain and install the sewer saddle furnished by the City", for a separate tapping or saddling fee.

  What to do: Apply to the Street Superintendent before any work beyond clearing a blockage, and ask two questions when you do. Ask what the tapping or saddling fee is and how City crews are scheduled, so your contractor's trench is not open waiting for them. And if you are connecting to a sewer house connection the City built, ask what the City's records show it cost - section 7.04.590 makes that amount payable before the permit issues. Applications go to [email protected]. If your lateral serves two lots, raise it early: the code allows two lots on one connection but only one per connection during new construction or remodels.

  Why this matters▸▾

  The tap is the surprise. Everywhere else, the plumber you hire opens the road, cuts the main and fits the saddle. In Santa Monica your contractor digs and then waits for City crews, who make the cut and supply the saddle, and who charge for it on top of the permit and inspection fees. A programme that assumes your plumber finishes the job in a day is wrong, and so is a quotation that prices the tap as their work. The permit exemption is the other trap: clearing a stoppage needs no permit until pipe has to be replaced or ground has to be opened in a street, sidewalk or sewer easement - and in Santa Monica the connection you are responsible for IS the length in the public place, so most real repairs land inside the exception rather than outside it.

  In force since 2026-09-15 · Checked 2026-09-15

  City of Santa Monica, How to get a Sewer Permit

  Also quoted:

  • Santa Monica Municipal Code, sewers and sewer connections

Who governs and serves this area

Jurisdiction

Santa Monica (municipality)

Sewer service

Not mapped. No sewer service territory covering this area has been added, so BelowGrid cannot say who serves an individual address here.