Whose Pipe Is It? What the Utility Owns and What You Own
Why this matters
When water bubbles up in the front yard, the sewer backs up, or the lights go out on only your house, the first question is not how to fix it but whose job it is. The answer decides who you call first, who pays, and how fast it gets fixed. Many homeowners find out the hard way that the pipe under their lawn, or even under the sidewalk, is theirs. The boundaries differ from one utility and one town to the next, so the most useful thing you can do is look yours up on a quiet day, before anything breaks.
Some calls go to the utility first, every time, whoever owns the part: a gas smell anywhere near the meter or the house (leave and call the gas utility from a distance, see How to Respond If You Smell Gas in Your Home); a downed or sagging power line (stay far away, keep others away, and call the electric utility or 911; treat every wire as live); sparking or smoke at the electric meter; and water gushing from the ground near the street. The utility will make it safe first and sort out ownership after.
The typical boundaries, and why "typical" matters
The lot plan below shows the arrangement you will find in many places. Read every label as "often", not "always".
STREET PROPERTY HOUSE
(utility) LINE
|
WATER main--[CURB STOP]---[METER*]---> main valve
utility owns to owner often owns
curb stop or meter the rest to the house
|
SEWER main--tap---+----lateral---[CLEANOUT]--< drain
ownership varies most: often the owner
owns the lateral to the main, tap included
|
GAS main---service line---[GAS METER]---> house
utility usually owns owner owns piping
through the meter after the meter
|
ELEC pole---drop wire---[POINT OF ATTACHMENT]
utility owns drop owner owns meter
and the meter itself base, mast, panel
* the water meter may sit in a curb pit, a basement,
or a utility room, which moves the line
Water service. The utility owns the main under the street and, in many systems, the pipe up to a curb stop (a buried shutoff valve near the property line, under a small round cover) or up to the meter. The service line from there to your house is very often yours, including the part under the front yard. Where the meter is in your basement, some utilities own the line all the way to it; others still assign the yard section to you.
Sewer lateral. This is where towns differ most. In many places you own the whole lateral from your house to the city main, including the connection (the tap) in the street, which can mean digging up pavement. Other towns own the part under the street or beyond a cleanout at the property line. A few own more. If your town has a lateral ordinance, that is the document that settles it.
Gas service. Most gas utilities own and maintain the service line up to and including the meter, and you own the house piping after the meter outlet. There are exceptions, including some older systems where a customer owns a buried line between the meter and a building. Federal pipeline safety rules (49 CFR 192.16) require gas operators to notify customers who own buried gas piping that the utility does not maintain, so if you have ever received such a notice, keep it with your records; it means you have a buried line to look after.
Electric service. The utility usually owns the wires to the point where they attach to your house (the drop, for an overhead service) and owns the meter. You usually own the mast or conduit on the house, the meter base the meter plugs into, and everything inside. Underground services vary: some utilities own the buried cable to the meter, others make it the owner's.
How to find out for your house, before anything breaks
- Water and sewer: your water bill or the utility's website often has a page on "service line responsibility" or "who repairs what". If not, call the customer service line and ask two questions: "Where does my responsibility for the water service line start?" and "Who owns the sewer lateral, and where does my part end?" Write down the answer, the date, and who you spoke with.
- Lead service line inventory: under federal rules, water systems have had to publish an inventory of service line materials, often searchable by address. It can also tell you what your line is made of, which matters for both safety and how likely it is to fail. See your utility's website.
- Gas and electric: your utility's website usually has a diagram of the customer's and the company's responsibilities. Look for terms like "point of delivery" or "service point".
- Your town: the public works or building department can tell you about sewer lateral rules and whether a permit is needed for repairs on your side.
- Your insurance: many homeowner's policies do not cover a failed service line or lateral by default. Some utilities and insurers offer service-line coverage. Ask your agent what yours covers rather than assuming.
Put what you learn in your house records file. See Your House Records File and What Goes In It.
The wet front yard, worked through
What happened. In March, a homeowner notices a soggy patch in the front lawn about halfway between the sidewalk and the house that stays wet on dry days. The water meter is in a pit near the curb, under a cast-iron lid. Nothing in the house seems wrong.
The first question: is it your water, and is it on your side of the meter? A meter measures everything that passes through it toward the house. So the meter can tell you whether the leak is downstream of it.
- They made sure no water was being used: nobody showering, no washer or dishwasher running, no irrigation, and the ice maker was turned off.
- They lifted the meter pit lid (some are heavy, and some utilities ask customers to leave pits alone; check first). Most meters have a small leak indicator, a tiny triangle or dial that spins with even a small flow. It was turning slowly.
- They wrote down the meter reading, waited 30 minutes with no water in use, and read it again. It had gone up by 4.2 gallons.
first reading 0 gal (marked on the dial)
after 30 min 4.2 gal
rate 4.2 / 30 = 0.14 gal per minute
per day 0.14 x 1,440 min = about 200 gal
(As a check: 200 gallons over 1,440 minutes a day is 0.139 gallons a minute, which matches the 0.14 measured.) See How to Use Your Water Meter to Check for a Hidden Leak for doing this step by step.
What that means. Water is passing through the meter while nothing in the house is using it, and the wet spot is between the meter and the house. Before calling anyone, they ruled out a running toilet, because a toilet is the most common hidden leak and would also turn the dial; a few drops of food coloring in each toilet tank, with no color showing in the bowl after 15 minutes, cleared them. With the toilets ruled out and a wet spot on the house side of the meter, the leak is almost certainly in the service line on the owner's side. The call is to a plumber, not the utility.
What would have changed the call. If the indicator had not moved at all and the wet spot was between the curb stop and the street, the leak is upstream of the meter and the utility's to fix: call them first. If the meter is in the basement and the yard is wet, the meter cannot see a leak in the line before it, so it is a call to the utility to ask whose section it is. If the wet patch smells of sewage rather than looking like clean water, it is a sewer lateral question, not a water line. And if the water is gushing rather than seeping, call the utility immediately whatever the meter says; they can shut off the curb stop, which you usually cannot reach without a special key.
Who to call first, by what you see
Even when you are not sure of ownership, the first call usually follows from where the problem is and how urgent it is. The utility will tell you if it is yours, and a plumber or electrician will tell you if it is theirs.
| What you see | First call |
|---|---|
| Gas smell outside near the meter, or a hissing meter | Gas utility emergency line, from a distance |
| Water gushing from the ground or the curb box | Water utility; they can close the curb stop |
| Slow seep on the house side of the meter, meter dial moving | Plumber |
| Every drain in the house backing up | Plumber first; if the plumber finds the city main is blocked, the sewer utility |
| Sewage surfacing in the yard or street | Sewer utility or public works, then a plumber |
| Power out at your house only, neighbors have power | Check your main breaker once; then the electric utility |
| Lights dimming or flickering throughout the house, or half the house dead | Electric utility first: a loose connection at the utility's side can cause this, and so can one inside the panel, which is then a job for a licensed electrician |
| Damaged meter base or mast pulled off the wall | Electric utility to disconnect, then a licensed electrician to repair |
A few boundaries people get wrong
- The sidewalk and the tree lawn (the strip between sidewalk and street) are often public property while the pipe under them is still yours.
- Trees on public land whose roots break your lateral do not always make the town responsible. Ask.
- The meter base on your wall is usually yours to repair even though the meter in it belongs to the utility; a damaged meter base is a job for a licensed electrician, coordinated with the utility.
- Before any digging in the yard, for a fence, a tree or a garden, call 811 at least a few days ahead. State law sets the notice period and the rules, and the free service has the utilities mark their buried lines. It marks the utility's lines, not usually your private ones (such as a buried line to a garage), so know where yours run.
References
- 49 CFR 192.16, customer notification of customer-owned buried gas piping
- See related: How to Use Your Water Meter to Check for a Hidden Leak
- See related: Your House Records File and What Goes In It
- See related: When to Stop and Call a Licensed Pro Around the House
- Your water, sewer, gas and electric utilities' published service responsibility guides, and your town's sewer lateral rules