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Who pays for the sewer lateral in Whittier, CA

Which part of the pipe is yours

  • Sewer lateral

    Yours all the way to the main, including the fitting where it joins

    Why, and what to do
your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmain
The thick length is yours.

If something’s wrong

If a repair needs a permit or an inspection

No rule on file here is specific to a repair; that does not mean none exists.

Buying or selling?

  • When you sell · Inspection

    Whittier requires the lateral to be inspected before the property changes hands. Section 13.34.030(A) provides that all existing private sewer laterals "shall be inspected at the property owner's sole expense" when any of eight events occur, and the eighth is "Prior to the close of escrow upon a sale or other transfer of the house, building, property or other structure served or, if there is no escrow, prior to recording a deed or other document transferring title to the house, building, property or other structure served, if no inspection or permitted repair occurred within twenty years preceding the transfer". The inspection is a video one: "All existing sewer laterals shall be inspected by video inspection method in accordance with city regulations for the implementation of this chapter", and "Prior to testing, the sewer lateral shall be thoroughly cleaned".

The sale rule in full, with its sources

Planning work?

No rule on file here is specific to remodelling or adding a unit; that does not mean none exists.

Who to call first about the sewer lateral

BelowGrid has no first-call guidance on file from Whittier about the sewer lateral.

Whittier: official site(opens in a new tab)The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

Whittier writes the boundary into the definition rather than leaving it to be inferred, and the definition reaches the fitting. Section 13.32.050 provides that "All house 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". A house sewer "means and includes a private sewer or a private sewer lateral", and that in turn is "a privately owned sewer which conveys sewage from a building to the public sewer, including all pipes, fittings, and appurtenances, from the outer face of the building served to the connection into the public sewer main, including the connection itself".

The property owner
The entire run and the connection at the end of it, with both ends fixed by the code rather than described. The near end is "the outer face of the building served" - not a point inside the house and not a measured distance from it. The far end is the connection into the public sewer main, "including the connection itself", so a failure at the junction is the owner's. The definition also names what travels with the pipe: "all pipes, fittings, and appurtenances".

What else is worth knowing

Nothing conditions the split, and the code closes the argument that would otherwise open it. Section 13.28.010 defines the public sewer as "the main sewer or trunk sewer, constructed in a street, highway, alley, place or right-of-way dedicated to public use" and then adds, in its own sentence, that the public sewer "does not include house sewer". So a lateral does not become the City's by running under a public street - the two categories are defined apart from each other. One thing worth knowing rather than discovering: the duty is not only to keep the pipe working but to keep it in a particular state. Section 13.34.020 makes it "unlawful for any property owner to maintain a private sewer lateral in a defective condition", and defines that condition to include displaced joints, substantial root intrusion, substantial deterioration, and damaged or missing clean-outs. A lateral can therefore be in breach of the code while still draining perfectly well.

Sources

Whittier Municipal Code section 13.32.050, House sewers

Also quoted:

Checked

What is required

  • When you sellInspection

    Whittier requires the lateral to be inspected before the property changes hands. Section 13.34.030(A) provides that all existing private sewer laterals "shall be inspected at the property owner's sole expense" when any of eight events occur, and the eighth is "Prior to the close of escrow upon a sale or other transfer of the house, building, property or other structure served or, if there is no escrow, prior to recording a deed or other document transferring title to the house, building, property or other structure served, if no inspection or permitted repair occurred within twenty years preceding the transfer". The inspection is a video one: "All existing sewer laterals shall be inspected by video inspection method in accordance with city regulations for the implementation of this chapter", and "Prior to testing, the sewer lateral shall be thoroughly cleaned".

    What to do: Order the video inspection early rather than at the point of listing, because the lateral has to be cleaned before it is filmed and a defect starts a ninety-day repair clock that has to finish before escrow closes. Ask the Public Works Department whether the property already holds a written approval under section 13.34.040 - one issued within the last twenty years takes the sale out of this requirement entirely, and it is the cheapest question to ask first. If the sale is a probate or trust transfer, ask about the longer window: those have one hundred eighty days after the transfer rather than having to finish before it.

    Why this matters

    This is a condition on the sale itself, not a recommendation, and the money follows the finding. Where the city engineer or building official decides the lateral is defective, section 13.34.030(C) requires the owner to make the repairs within ninety days and provides that "All costs of repair or replacement of the building sewer lateral shall be borne by the property owner" - and for an ordinary sale those repairs "shall be completed prior to the close of escrow". So a failed video can stop a completion rather than merely cost money afterwards. Two exemptions are worth knowing because they are easy to miss. The requirement does not bite where an inspection or permitted repair happened within the preceding twenty years, and "A transfer of ownership between family members does not require testing if reassessment of property value is not required by the Los Angeles County Tax Assessor". A recording has a shelf life of its own: it "shall be valid for a period of six months from the date of the inspection".

    In force since · Checked

    Whittier Municipal Code section 13.34.030, Mandatory inspection and repair of existing sewer lateral, in chapter 13.34, Lateral Inspection and Repair

    Also quoted:

What this page cannot tell you

  • No assistance or grant programme has been reviewed for this jurisdiction yet.
  • No sewer service territory has been mapped for this area, so BelowGrid cannot say who serves an individual address.

Who governs and serves this area

Jurisdiction
Whittier (municipality)
Sewer service
No map of sewer providers is held here. BelowGrid cannot say which sewer provider serves an individual address.

How this compares to neighbouring cities

7 of the 8 nearest cities draw the line somewhere else. Each authority publishes only its own rule.

Distances are approximate, in a straight line between the places’ centres.

Compare the rules city by city

Nearby cities and further reading

Look up a specific address

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

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