Arizona Laws 40-360.26. Damage of underground facility; liability to owner; homeowner and tenant exemption
A. If any underground facility is damaged by any person in violation of this article as a result of failing to obtain information as to its location, failing to take measures for protection of the facilities or failing to excavate in a careful and prudent manner, the person is liable to the owner of the underground facility for the total cost of the repair of the facility.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 40-360.26
- Careful and prudent manner: means conducting an excavation in such a way that when the excavation is less than or equal to twenty-four inches from an underground facility that is marked with stakes or paint or in some customary manner, the facility is carefully exposed with hand tools, and the uncovered facility is supported and protected. See Arizona Laws 40-360.21
- Excavation: means any operation in which earth, rock or other material in the ground is moved, removed or otherwise displaced by means or use of any tools, equipment or explosives and includes, without limitation, grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, augering, boring, tunnelling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing and driving. See Arizona Laws 40-360.21
- including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Person: means any individual, firm, joint venture, partnership, corporation, association, homeowners' association, municipality, governmental unit, department or agency and shall include any trustee, receiver, assignee or personal representative thereof. See Arizona Laws 40-360.21
- Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- Underground facilities operator: means a public utility, municipal corporation, landlord or other person having the right to bury underground facilities in any public street, alley, right-of-way dedicated to the public use or public utility easement, in any apartment community or mobile home park or pursuant to any express or implied private property easement. See Arizona Laws 40-360.21
- Underground facility: means any item of personal property that is buried or placed below ground for use in connection with the storage or conveyance of water, sewage, electronic, telephonic or telegraphic communications, electric energy, oil, gas or other substances, and shall include but not be limited to pipes, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, lines, wires, manholes, attachments and those portions of poles and their attachments below ground except cross culverts or similar roadway drainage facilities and landscape irrigation systems of two inches in diameter or less. See Arizona Laws 40-360.21
B. A homeowner or homeowners’ association engaging in excavating in an express or implied private property utility easement across property owned by the homeowner or homeowners’ association is not liable to the owner or operator of the underground facility damaged by the homeowner or homeowners’ association pursuant to this section if the damaged underground facility is not buried or placed below ground in accordance with the applicable standards, if the underground facility is not located within the easement or if the homeowner or homeowners’ association engaged in the excavation has complied with Section 40-360.22. This subsection does not apply to any person employed by a homeowner or a homeowners’ association including a contractor licensed pursuant to Title 32, Chapter 10 or a person engaging in contracting without a license as prohibited by section 32-1151.
C. Notwithstanding any other provision in this article, a homeowner is not liable for any costs or expenses, including damage to third parties, resulting from damage to an underground facility owned by the homeowner but located within a public right-of-way if the damage was not caused by the homeowner’s actions or by the homeowner’s refusal to grant permission to the underground facilities operator of a sewer system to access the real property for the purpose of ascertaining the location of the underground sewer facility. A tenant is not liable for any costs or expenses, including damage to third parties, resulting from damage to an underground facility owned by the tenant but located within a mobile home park if the damage was not caused by the tenant’s actions or by the tenant’s refusal to grant permission to the landlord to access the mobile home for the purpose of ascertaining the location of the underground facility.