Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 83, § 3 (2026)

Sewer connections

✓ current as of July 2026

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Section 3. The board or officers of a city or town having charge of the repair and maintenance of sewers may, upon request of the owner of land and payment by him of the actual cost thereof, construct a particular sewer from the street line to a house or building. A town may appropriate money for connecting estates within its limits with common sewers, and no estate shall, in any year in which such an appropriation is made, be connected with a common sewer except in the manner hereinafter provided. If bonds or notes are issued to pay the cost of making such connections, the assessments provided for in section twenty-four shall be applied to the payment of such bonds or notes. If the board of health of a town making such appropriation shall order land abutting upon a public or private way in which a common sewer has been laid to be connected with such sewer, or if the owner of such land shall make to the board or officer having charge of the maintenance and repair of sewers application to connect his land with a common sewer, such board or officer shall make such connection.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 9 cases, 1971–2006 · leading case: K. Hovnanian at Taunton, Inc. v. City of Taunton, 642 N.E.2d 1044 (Mass. App. Ct. 1994).

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K. Hovnanian at Taunton, Inc. v. City of Taunton, 642 N.E.2d 1044 (Mass. App. Ct. 1994). · cites it 5× “After trial, the judge declared that G. L. c. 83, § 3, did not apply to the intermunicipal sewer system shared by Taunton and Dighton and that each municipality’s permission was a necessary condition to the other’s approval of Hovnanian’s application for sewer connection and…”

P & D Serv. Co. v. Zoning Bd. of Appeals, 268 N.E.2d 153 (Mass. 1971). · cites it 2× “See G. L. c. 83, §§ 3 and 24. In the years 1967 and 1968 the town of Dedham had appropriated money for such connections.”

Padden v. West Boylston, 831 N.E.2d 927 (Mass. App. Ct. 2005). “The board of health adopted the present regulation under the authority of G. L. c. 83, §§ 3 8 and 11, 9 and G. L. c.”

Decoulos v. City of Peabody, 274 N.E.2d 816 (Mass. 1971). “See also G. L. c. 83, §§ 3 and 11. We assume (without deciding) that the city could not in its zoning ordinance require the making of sewer connections on a basis which in any degree relaxes any standards laid down in the statutes just cited or in the State Sanitary Code (see…”

Fluharty v. Bd. of Selectmen, 382 Mass. 14 (Mass. 1980). “” If the town has appropriated money for connections with common sewers, the board or officer in charge of repair and maintenance of sewers “shall make such connection” upon an order of the board of health or on the application of the owner.”

Cedarmere Ventures, LLC v. Cohassett Sewer Comm'n, 21 Mass. L. Rptr. 600 (Mass. Super. Ct. 2006). · cites it 11× “30A, §14, and G.L.c. 83, §3 seeking judicial review of the decision made by defendant, the Cohasset Sewer Commission (“Commission”), which denied Cedarmere a sewer connection permit to hook up to the Town of Cohasset’s (“Town”) common sewer system.”

Abbott v. Bd. of Water & Sewer Commissioners, 664 N.E.2d 1204 (Mass. App. Ct. 1996). · cites it 3× “639 (1994), their right to connection permits is controlled by those agreements and not by G. L. c. 83, § 3, 2 and that they, therefore, are entitled to the permits since the intermunicipal system has ample capacity to handle any sewage generated by those lots.”

Abbott v. Wright, 3 Mass. L. Rptr. 448 (Mass. Super. Ct. 1995). · cites it 4× “They allege that they have a statutory right to these permits under G.L.c. 83, §3 and that the Board’s actions constitute a denial of their equal protection and due process rights.”

Lemansky v. Charlton Water & Sewer Comm'n, 20 Mass. L. Rptr. 363 (Mass. Super. Ct. 2005). · cites it 2× “Plaintiffs’ final argument is that the moratorium is void because it conflicts with G.L.c. 83, §3 as interpreted by Clark v. Board of Water and Sewer Commissioners of Norwood, 353 Mass.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.