Frozen service pipelines are a problem for property owners, not the city

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Many residents may not know that they are financially liable for the pipes that connect their houses to the main lines from the city.

A lot of people learn about that the hard way, said Charles City Administrator Steven Diers.

The service lines connect water and sewer systems from the main pipelines of the city to residential homes. The sewer lines vary from 4 inches in diameter to 6 inches or more in diameter, Diers said.

That line is the responsibility of the property owners, not the city.

Bob Ingram, an insurance agent with Sisson and Associates who often advises the city of Charles City on insurance matters, suggests residents check with their provider or agent to see whether they can be covered.

A service line can cost up to $8,000 to be fixed, according to Ingram.

“If a loss occurs on that line in your yard and has to be replaced, it would be at the homeowner’s expense, not the city’s,” Ingram said.

Most standard homeowner’s insurance policies don’t cover the service line, Ingram said, but “there’s an endorsement you can add to pick that up.”

Some companies offer service line coverage, but others don’t and that’s why it is important to check with your agent or insurance provider to see if you’re covered if you want that coverage, Ingram said.

“Everybody’s homeowner’s insurance is going to be different,” Diers said. As cold as it’s been, it is important to know because of the possibility of freezing lines.

A program offered by the Utility Service Partners would offer to insure privately owned water and sewer service lines against failure, including freezing.

“It’s an insurance program,” Diers said about the National Service Line program. “They provide insurance on private water mains and sewer mains. You can even insure the plumbing inside your house as well.”

The program has been around for several years, and has an endorsement from the Iowa League of Cities.

“In most communities those service lines are the responsibility of the property owner,” Diers said. “If a main freezes the city has to deal with that, but if a service lines freezes, which is smaller diameter and more likely to freeze than a main would be, that’s the responsibility of the homeowner to get fixed.”

“If the main is one side of the road, and your house is on the other, that goes all the way across the road,” Diers said. “You might have that entire expense of digging up the road and replacing it. It can be quite costly.”

So far this winter has seen several pipes freeze around Charles City due to the below-0 temperatures.

“We’ve had at least half a dozen instances where lines have frozen or meters have frozen,” Diers said. “It your water temperature gets down to about 40 degrees that’s when you really need to start keeping a lookout to make sure things aren’t freezing.”

The Utility Service Partners program was seeking an endorsement to use the city logo and letterhead when sending out mailers to residents of Charles City to advertise the service.

But the coverage the program offers is also available for residents through other insurance providers.

“Are they unique? No,” Diers said. “There’s other companies out there that provide that kind of coverage.”