Dallas Water Utilities Tap & Connection Fees (2026)

Dallas Water Utilities provides water and wastewater inside the City of Dallas, and permits for new service run through the city’s Planning & Development Department. For a new single-family home, the official city charges are small: $465.50 to inspect the water service plus $465.50 to inspect the 6-inch sewer lateral, $931 in total under the fee schedule effective October 1, 2025. The catch is what that number leaves out. Since October 1, 2024, Dallas Water Utilities no longer installs residential taps, so every owner hires a registered, bonded contractor to build the water tap, service line and sewer lateral, and the city does not publish that contractor price.

Dallas connection fees at a glance

The table below lists every Dallas row in our database with its source. The two inspection fees come from the Planning & Development Meter and Wastewater Fee Schedule (effective October 1, 2025); City Code Section 49-18.7 sets the same $465.50 inspection fee for larger and commercial connections built by the applicant. The lot fees and the account deposit come from Dallas City Code Chapter 49 (Sections 49-18.10 and 49-18.8). The lot fees are conditional: they apply only on a first connection to a main that a developer built with city cost participation, so many lots never see them. The deposit is refundable and belongs to the water account, not to construction.

Worked example: a new home in Dallas

Assume a new house on a subdivided lot with a 3/4-inch or 1-inch water service and a 6-inch sewer lateral, both installed by your bonded contractor. The inspection fee is the same $465.50 for 3/4-inch, 1-inch, 1-1/2-inch and 2-inch services, per the Meter and Wastewater Fee Schedule (effective Oct 1, 2025). The lot fee is $0.018 per square foot for water and another $0.018 per square foot for wastewater under Dallas City Code Sec. 49-18.10.

Official City of Dallas charges for one new single-family home, three lot cases (contractor construction not included).

When the account is opened, a residential customer with a 5/8-inch or 3/4-inch meter also posts a $100 security deposit ($125 for a 1-inch meter) under City Code Sec. 49-18.8. We leave it out of the totals because it is refundable.

An unsubdivided tract pays the lot fee by the acre instead: $785 per acre for an existing water main and $785 per acre for an existing wastewater main. A one-acre tract that owes both would add $1,570 rather than the per-square-foot amounts above.

Two things we could not put a number on. First, the installation application says the bonded contractor requests the meter from Dallas Water Utilities’ Distribution Division, but neither it nor the fee schedule prints a separate charge for a small residential meter, so ask when you apply. Second, we did not find a water or wastewater impact fee in the Dallas fee documents we read, which is unusual among large Texas cities. Confirm that with Planning & Development before you rely on it.

Costs outside the Dallas fee schedule

In Dallas the construction work is now the owner’s cost, and it is by far the largest piece:

• The tap, water service line and sewer lateral in the public right-of-way, built by your bonded contractor. The city publishes no price for this. For a sense of scale, the last city-contractor prices Dallas published, in its permit fee table effective October 1, 2023, were $6,190 for a new 3/4-inch water service and $6,890 for a 6-inch wastewater lateral. Those prices were discontinued, so treat them as history, not a quote.
• Water service line from the meter to the house. National estimate $30–$150 per foot, typically about $50. See water service line cost.
• Sewer lateral on private property. National estimate $50–$250 per foot, typically about $100. See sewer lateral cost.
• Hard digging and pavement repair. The per-foot estimates above already include trenching in normal soil; national estimates put trenching in clay or rock at 1.2× to 7× the normal-soil cost. See utility trenching cost.
• Building and plumbing permits, which Dallas lists separately from these water and wastewater charges.

National figures are estimates from our benchmark set. Enter your contractor’s quote in the calculator to see the full picture with Dallas’s official fees loaded:

How and when Dallas fees are paid

You apply with the city’s Water and Wastewater Service Installation Application. For a new single-family home or duplex, the completed application is uploaded with the building permit in ProjectDox; for an addition or remodel, it is emailed to BIWaterWastewater@dallas.gov after the building permit is issued. Every submission needs a signed agreement from a registered, bonded contractor. The permit cannot be transferred and expires one year after issue.

The application states that Dallas Water Utilities discontinued city-contractor installation on October 1, 2024, and that the $465.50 inspection fee applies to each installation. Your contractor calls Dallas Water Utilities’ Distribution Division to request the meter. Water Distribution must inspect the work before the permit can close. Wastewater Collections must inspect before the contractor connects to the city lateral or main; Building Inspection makes that referral and no appointment is needed.

If a lot fee applies, City Code Sec. 49-56(h) says it is charged at the rate in effect on the day you apply for the service connection permit and must be paid before the permit is issued.

Upcoming changes in Dallas

• Annual fee ordinance. Dallas adjusts water and wastewater charges in its fiscal-year fee ordinance, which takes effect with the October 1 fiscal year. The FY2025-26 ordinance, approved as amended on September 17, 2025, raised the connection inspection fee from $275 to $465.50 and removed the city’s residential installation price tables from Section 49-18.7. Check for an FY2026-27 change after October 1, 2026.
• Meter charges. The published schedule gives meter and hatch prices only for services larger than 2 inches. Ask Dallas Water Utilities what, if anything, it charges for a 3/4-inch or 1-inch residential meter.
• Lot and acreage fees. The $0.018 per square foot and $785 per acre rates in Sec. 49-18.10 were not changed by the FY2025-26 ordinance.

Dallas tap fee FAQ

North of the Red River, Oklahoma City water and sewer connection fees are set by the number of baths.

Related: Texas utility connection costs by city · Fort Worth fees · Frisco fees · McKinney fees · Houston fees · water tap fees · sewer tap fees · tap fee vs. impact fee · utility connection cost calculator

Sources for Dallas figures

• Meter and Wastewater Fee Schedule (effective October 1, 2025), City of Dallas Planning & Development (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Water and Wastewater Service Installation Application (26-001), City of Dallas Planning & Development (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Dallas City Code Chapter 49, Sections 49-18.7, 49-18.8 and 49-18.10, City of Dallas via American Legal Publishing, Code S-33 (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Dallas City Code Sec. 49-56 (lot and acreage fees), City of Dallas via American Legal Publishing (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• New Permit Fees, effective October 1, 2023 (discontinued city-contractor prices), City of Dallas (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• FY2025-26 fee ordinance, File 25-2339A (approved as amended Sep 17, 2025), City of Dallas (checked Sep 24, 2026)