Rules

Who Owns the Sewer Lateral in Indianapolis?

By Indianapolis Sewer Line Repair · September 5, 2026 · 5 min read

The short answer for most of Marion County: you own the pipe from your house all the way to the main, including the part under the sidewalk and the street. Citizens Energy Group owns the main. The connection between them — the tap — is yours to maintain and theirs to inspect.

That surprises people, mostly because the expensive part of the lateral is the part under public ground.

Who owns what

Citizens took over the Indianapolis sanitary and storm sewer system from the city in 2011, and the sewer bill you pay is a Citizens bill. Carmel, Greenwood and most of the other suburbs have their own utilities and the same basic split: you own the lateral, they own the main.

The 2026 rule

As of 1 January 2026, work on a sewer lateral in the Citizens service area has to be done by a contractor bonded with Citizens, under a Citizens permit, with the connection inspected before it is buried. That covers spot repairs, replacements, lining and bursting — anything that touches the lateral. It does not cover snaking or jetting from a cleanout.

What it means for you:

• Ask every contractor whether they are bonded with Citizens. It is a yes-or-no question.
• The permit fee should be a line on the estimate.
• The inspection is scheduled by the contractor and is part of the job timeline, which is one reason a replacement to the main takes two days rather than one.
• Unpermitted lateral work has no inspection record. When you sell, a buyer's camera run finds a repair with no paperwork, and the negotiation starts from there.

The citizens energy sewer lateral permit is not a revenue exercise; it exists because a bad tap lets groundwater into the main and lets sewage into your neighbor's basement. Citizens Energy Group publishes the current contractor and permit requirements.

Why the street section is the expensive part

The lateral is four or five feet deep at the house and eight to twelve at the main, because the main has to be below every basement it serves. If the main runs down the far side of the street — common on the older north-south streets — your lateral crosses under a lane of pavement at ten feet. A dig there needs a right-of-way permit, traffic control, shoring and full-depth pavement restoration, which is $3,000–$6,000 before the pipe is touched.

That is the single best argument for trenchless lining on a street-side failure: the liner runs from the house to the main and never opens the pavement.

What Citizens will and won't do

Citizens will send a crew if the main is blocked or surcharging. If a Citizens crew comes out for a backup and finds the main is flowing, they will tell you the problem is on your side and leave. That is usually right, and it is worth a call before you pay anyone, especially if the whole block is backing up in a storm.

Citizens will not repair, clean or scope your lateral, and it will not pay for a lateral failure. The combined-sewer surcharge that comes up an old-side-of-town floor drain in a July storm is a system condition, not damage Citizens covers; the fix on your side is a backwater valve.

Insurance and protection plans

Because the lateral is yours, a failure is your bill. Standard homeowners policies exclude it when the cause is age, roots or wear. A service line endorsement, offered on many Indiana policies for $30–$60 a year, covers the lateral to a cap, typically $10,000. Third-party utility line protection plans cover a portion with lower caps and more exclusions. Read either one for Orangeburg and for "pre-existing conditions" before you rely on it.

The neighbor's tree, the neighbor's lateral

Roots from a tree on the tree lawn or next door in your pipe are still your problem; Indiana law doesn't make the tree's owner pay for your lateral. Shared laterals — two houses on one pipe, which turns up in some pre-1930 double lots near Fountain Square and the Old Northside — are a legal question before they are a plumbing one. The camera will show the wye; a lawyer sorts out who pays.

What to do with this

Know your pipe's material and age (the signs post has the eras). Get it scoped before you buy, and after the second clog. When work is needed, get the permit on the estimate. The about page lists what to ask any sewer contractor in Indianapolis, and the cost page has the ranges for the work itself.