By Burt Tsuei

A Realtor with 20+ Years of proven track record of high quality service in the San Mateo County/Bay Area. A lifelong Bay Area resident, Burt works with buyers and sellers from Pacifica to South San Francisco to Redwood City and beyond.

If you’re getting ready to sell your home on the Peninsula, there’s an inspection most first-time sellers don’t even know exists, and it can stop your sale dead at the closing table. It’s called a sewer lateral inspection, and in seven San Mateo County cities, it’s required by city ordinance.

No matter how clean your contract is, no matter how qualified your buyer is, no matter how much both sides want to close on time, if the city hasn’t signed off on your sewer lateral, escrow is not closing.

I’ve watched sellers find out about this two weeks before close, scrambling to get a plumber out, negotiating last-minute credits, sometimes paying five-figure repair bills they never budgeted for. All are avoidable. Your sewer lateral is the pipe that runs from your house out to the city’s main line under the street. It’s on your property, it’s your responsibility, and in most Peninsula homes built before 1980, that pipe is older clay or cast iron that’s been sitting underground for decades, possibly cracking, leaking, or full of tree roots.

The seven cities with point-of-sale sewer lateral requirements right now are San Mateo, Burlingame, Hillsborough, Millbrae, Pacifica, South San Francisco, and San Bruno. If you’re in Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Foster City, or an unincorporated county, there’s currently no requirement, but rules can change, and a few cities are studying their own ordinances. And the requirements aren’t the same city to city, so what you actually need to do depends entirely on which side of the street you’re on.

Here’s the part I really want sellers to hear: handled correctly, this inspection is protection for you, not just one more hoop. A passing city certificate is documented proof that one of the most expensive hidden systems in your home is in good shape. That’s a clean disclosure item, one less thing for a buyer’s agent to use as a negotiation point, and in most cities the certificate stays good for several years.

The sellers who handle this before listing have leverage. The ones who find out during escrow are negotiating from behind.

You can watch the full video above, or feel free to skip to the topics that interest you most using the timestamps below:

00:00 — Stops Your Sale

00:45 — Video Overview

01:25 — Sewer Lateral Basics

04:13 — Benefits and Costs

07:05 — When It Fails

08:52 — Before You List

10:23 — Proactive Strategy

10:50 — Free Inspection Offer

If you’re thinking about selling in one of those seven cities and you want to get ahead of this, I’d love to help. Call or text me directly at 650-274-3598, email me at Burt@RealEstateBurt.com, or visit realestateburt.com. I’ll send you the checklist for your specific city, the form, the contractor list, and the timeline, same day.

And if you list your home with me, I have a plumber on the Peninsula who runs the entire camera inspection for my clients at no cost. I’d rather you know about this six months out than three weeks before close.