Who Owns Which Part

The federal definition

Under 49 CFR § 192.3, a service line terminates at "the outlet of the customer meter or at the connection to a customer’s piping, whichever is further downstream".

So the meter outlet is the boundary of the federally regulated line. Everything upstream of it is the operator’s service line under Part 192; the piping beyond it is customer piping, governed by local code rather than by that rule.

Source: 49 CFR § 192.3, via PHMSA interpretation PI-12-0003.

Which is not the same as who pays

Ownership and maintenance responsibility are set by the utility’s tariff and by state regulation, and they vary. In many arrangements they follow the same boundary. In some they do not, and in some the customer owns a length of buried line on their own side of the meter that nobody at the utility is responsible for.

The only reliable way to find out is to ask your utility where their responsibility ends on your property. It is a short call and it is worth making before you need the answer.

The piping people forget they own

A line running from the meter to a detached garage, a pool heater, an outdoor grill or a workshop is customer piping. It is buried, it is on your side of the meter, and it is yours — which also means it is not necessarily marked when somebody comes to locate lines before digging.

Ask what your 811 center will and will not mark. Private lines are frequently outside what a locate covers, and finding that out with a spade is the wrong way.

And on propane there is no utility at all

If your gas is bottled or tank propane, there is no service line and no meter in the federal sense. The tank, the regulator and the buried run to the house are the property owner’s, and the supplier’s role is set by your contract with them rather than by a tariff.

What to ask a contractor

Which side of the meter the work is on, and who they have confirmed is responsible for that side. A quote that does not distinguish the two is a quote that has not established whose problem it is.