§3986. Special assessments; installment notes; effect of default; assessment lien

A. Upon receipt of the certified statement or report of the engineer of the sewerage district as provided for in the preceding section, the governing authority shall review said certified statement or report, including the proposed local or special assessments, and thereafter shall make a determination as to whether each lot or parcel of real estate to be assessed will be benefited to an amount not less than the proposed local or special assessment. Proposed assessments that are found by the governing authority to have been erroneously assessed or for which the governing authority does not find said benefit shall be deleted from said certified statement or report. The deletion of such proposed assessments from said certified statement or report for either of said reasons shall in no way invalidate or affect the legality of the contract awarded for the construction of said proposed improvements nor shall such deletions constitute a violation of the public contracts law of this state.

B. Following said review and finding as to benefit by said governing authority there shall be mailed to each property owner to be assessed a notice advising each property owner of his proposed assessment and the manner and time for payment thereof. Said notice shall set forth a general description of the proposed improvements, such description of the property to be assessed and the location thereof as the governing authority may deem necessary and shall notify the property owner to advise the governing authority in writing within fifteen days from date of said notice if inaccuracies exist in the proposed assessment. The aforesaid notice shall be given by depositing said written notice in the United States mail, postage paid, and addressed to the property owner at his address as it appeared on the last approved tax roll on which the property was assessed for taxes by the governing authority. The certificate of the clerk or secretary of the governing authority levying any such assessments that the aforesaid notice has been given in writing to all property owners to be assessed shall establish a conclusive legal presumption that all requirements of notice as set forth hereinabove have been legally satisfied.

C. After thirty days has elapsed from the date of the mailing of said notice of the proposed assessments, the governing authority shall adopt an ordinance levying a local or special assessment on each lot or parcel of real estate in the area involved in proportion that its area bears to the total area to be assessed, or in proportion that its front footage bears to the total front footage to be assessed, as shall be determined by the governing authority, and the total of all such local or special assessments shall represent the total cost of said improvements, including all the items above set forth; provided that where the construction is financed partly under the provisions hereof, and partly by the issuance of bonds, or by any other method, then the total of all assessments levied hereunder shall represent the total cost of the work contemplated, including all items mentioned above, less the amount provided by bonds, or such other method. The amount assessed in said ordinance shall be due and collectible immediately on its passage, and, if not paid within thirty days from the date of the adoption of said ordinance, it will be conclusively presumed that any property owner whose property is affected thereby, exercises the right and option, which is hereby authorized, to pay the amount due in equal annual installments bearing interest at a rate or rates not exceeding the maximum rate provided for conventional interest by Article 2924 of the Louisiana Civil Code as the same now exists or may be hereafter amended, and extending over a period not exceeding twenty years, all within the discretion of the governing authority and as provided for in the ordinance levying such local or special assessments. The first installment shall become due on December thirty-first of the then current year or one year after the date of the assessment ordinance herein provided for, in the discretion of the governing authority of the district, and annually thereafter.

D. A certified copy of said ordinance levying the local or special assessments on the real estate as aforesaid shall be filed with the clerk of court in the parish in which the sewerage district is situated, who shall forthwith record the same in the mortgage records of the parish, and when so filed and recorded, shall operate as a lien and privilege against all real estate therein assessed, and which aforesaid lien and privilege shall prime all other claims except taxes and prior recorded local or special assessment levied for streets, sewerage, or water.

E.(1) The failure to pay any installment or interest thereon when due shall ipso facto cause all other installments and the interest thereon to become due and payable and the sewerage district may, after thirty days from the date of such default proceed against the property for the collection of the total amount due thereon, including interest, plus twenty percent additional on the principal and interest of the past due installment or installments or twenty percent of the amount sued for, and in the event judgment is necessary to effect collection, twenty percent of the amount of the judgment rendered, as attorney's fees provided that said attorney's fees shall be payable by the property owner only if demand by the governing authority of the district through registered or certified mail has been made on the property owner and he has failed to pay the amount due within ten days after such demand.

(2) In any such suit to collect any delinquent assessments, a certified copy of the assessment ordinance, and any affidavits and exhibits annexed thereto which establish the correctness of the delinquent assessment shall be admissible, self-authenticating, and sufficient to establish prima facie proof of such demand.

F. The Jefferson Parish governing authority may, at its option, enact ordinances to add such delinquent assessment charges to the annual ad valorem tax bill of the property involved. In the event such ordinances are enacted, the sheriff effecting collection shall be reimbursed by the governing authority for an amount equal to fifteen percent actually collected from the property owner. This collection charge shall be in addition to such delinquent assessment charges and shall also be added to the ad valorem tax bill of the property involved.

G. Any errors in descriptions or amounts in any assessment ordinance adopted pursuant to this Section may be corrected by the adoption of an amendatory ordinance which need set forth only the corrected descriptions or amounts and which amendatory ordinance shall be recorded in the same manner as the original ordinance levying the assessments. The adoption of any such corrective ordinance shall serve only to postpone the thirty days' period for cash payment in full of the assessment actually affected and corrected by such amendatory ordinance, and the due dates of the installments of such assessments so corrected as are not paid in full in cash within thirty days from the date of adoption of the amendatory ordinance shall be the same as the due dates of the installments of the assessments levied in the original ordinance and not affected or corrected by any such amendatory ordinance or ordinances.

H. Except for the collection costs provided for herein, the payments made in cash shall be expended for no other purpose other than the payment of the cost of said improvements.

Amended by Acts 1950, No. 462, §6; Acts 1958, No. 395, §4; Acts 1968, No. 435, §1; Acts 1970, No. 551, §1; Acts 1987, No. 650, §1, eff. July 9, 1987.