Any health officer or governing board of any city, county, sanitary district, or other district having the power to operate and maintain a sewerage system, having served written notice upon the owner or reputed owner of land upon which there is a dwelling house, and the owner or reputed owner, after 30 days, having refused, neglected, or failed to connect the dwelling house, together with all toilets, sinks, and other plumbing therein, properly vented, and in a sanitary manner, with the adjoining street sewer, may construct the same at a reasonable cost, and the person doing that work at the request of the health officer or governing board has a lien upon that real estate for his or her work done and materials furnished, and the work done and materials furnished shall be held to have been done and furnished at the instance of the owner or reputed owner, or person claiming or having any interest therein. The governing board may pay all or any part of the cost or price of such connection to the person or persons who furnished labor, materials, or equipment for the same, and, to the extent the governing board pays the cost or price of the connection, it shall succeed to and have all the rights, including the lien provided for above, of the person or persons against the real estate and against the owner or reputed owner thereof.

As an alternative power to the enforcement of the lien provided for in this section, the governing body of the public agency performing the work of connection to the public sewer may, by order entered upon its minutes, declare that the amount of the costs of the work and the administrative expenses incurred by the governing body incident to the proceedings, together with other charges uniformly applicable within the jurisdiction of the governing body for the connection of the premises to the public sewer, shall be transmitted to the assessor and tax collector of the public agency, whereupon it shall be the duty of those officers to add the amount of the assessment to the next regular bill for taxes levied against the lot or parcel of land.

The liens provided for by this section shall be enforced in the same manner as those provided for by Part 6 (commencing with Section 8000) of Division 4, of the Civil Code.

The governing board may also use the procedures in Section 5474 for levying the costs incurred for the construction of the improvements for the connection of the premises to the public sewer.

(Amended by Stats. 2010, Ch. 697, Sec. 37. (SB 189) Effective January 1, 2011. Operative July 1, 2012, by Sec. 105 of Ch. 697.)