§4766. Lien and privilege for cost of demolition, removal, and maintenance by parish or municipality; interest; attorney fees

A. The parish or municipality has a privilege and lien upon an immovable and its improvements, and the owner is personally liable for:

(1) The cost to the parish or municipality of maintenance of the immovable or improvements; and

(2) The cost to the parish or municipality of demolishing or removing, or both, a building or other structure situated upon the immovable or improvements, and all attorney fees incurred by the parish or municipality in connection with such demolition or removal.

B. "Maintenance" shall include but not be limited to grass cutting, weed abatement, and trash and garbage removal.

C. The privilege and lien shall be preserved and enforced only after the owner has refused, after notification by the parish or municipality and reasonable opportunity to be heard, to pay the costs incurred by the parish or municipality.

D. The privilege and lien shall be preserved by the filing and recording of an affidavit signed by the parish president, police jury, mayor of the municipality, or his designee in the mortgage office of the parish in which the immovable is situated. The affidavit shall include a description of the property sufficient to reasonably identify the immovable and a statement of facts listing the approximate cost or costs incurred by the parish or municipality.

E.(1) The privilege and lien shall be enforced by ordinary process in the district court having jurisdiction of the immovable within three years after it is perfected. Alternatively, the privilege and lien may be enforced by assessing the amount of the privilege and lien against the immovable as a tax against the immovable, to be enforced and collected as any ordinary property tax lien to be assessed against the property; the lien and privilege may be collected in the manner fixed for collection of taxes and shall be subject to the same civil penalties for delinquencies. After the parish, levee board, or municipality has incurred such costs as constitute the lien and privilege on the property, the parish president, police jury, mayor, president or executive director of the levee board, or any director of any community development department of the parish or municipality may send an attested bill of said costs and expenses which constitute the lien and privilege to the director of administration or tax assessor of the parish in which the property is located, who shall add the amount of the bill to the next tax bill of the owner. The lien obtained by the parish, levee board, or municipality pursuant to proper notification and filing shall include not only the costs provided for in Subsection A of this Section but shall include all attorney fees and all costs of court incurred in the locating of the owner, the notification of the owner, and the enforcement and collection of the amount secured by the lien against the immovable and the improvements.

(2) If authorized by parish or municipal ordinance, the parish or municipality may also recover interest on the amounts secured by the lien. The interest shall not exceed the rate of legal interest provided in R.S. 9:3500 and shall be computed from the date of recordation of the lien until paid. The privilege and lien of the parish or municipality shall prime all other liens or privileges against the property filed after the notice to the owner to show cause is filed with the recorder of mortgages pursuant to R.S. 33:4762(D), regardless of the date on which the lien and privilege of the parish or municipality is perfected, except that the lien and privilege of the parish or municipality will not prime other tax liens against the property.

F. The lien of the parish or municipality shall not be cancelled until after payment of all amounts, including costs, attorney fees, and interest.

G. In addition to the lien and enforcement procedures authorized under this Section, the parish or municipality has a cause of action against the owner personally for the costs incurred by the parish or municipality, if such owner is not indigent and has the ability to pay a judgment obtained by the parish or municipality. Such action may be brought by ordinary proceeding in any court of competent jurisdiction.

H.(1) If property, which may be subject to a lien and privilege granted in favor of a parish or municipality under this Section, is owned in indivision and the owners in indivision, with their proportionate share in the property, are listed separately by the tax assessor on the ad valorem tax roll for the parish or municipality, then the parish or municipality shall notify each owner in indivision of his liability under this Section.

(2) Upon failure of each owner in indivision to pay his proportionate share of the charges incurred under this Section, that part of the property for which the charges are not paid shall be subject to a lien and privilege in favor of the parish or municipality as provided in this Section.

(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection F of this Section to the contrary, upon payment by an owner in indivision of his proportionate share listed on the ad valorem tax roll for the parish or municipality of the charges, attorney fees, and interest incurred under this Section, and after certification of such proportionate interest by the assessor, the lien and privilege granted under this Section shall be removed from the proportionate interest of the paying owner in indivision. If outstanding charges levied under this Section are added to the annual ad valorem tax bill, the proportionate payment by the paying owner in indivision shall be reflected on the bill, and his interest in the property free of such charge shall be distinguished on the tax bill.

(4) Notice of the lien and privilege required herein shall be made upon the owners in indivision at their actual address or the last known address listed on the tax rolls of the parish.

Amended by Acts 1982, No. 827, §1; Acts 1987, No. 434, §1; Acts 1988, No. 553, §1, eff. July 14, 1988; Acts 1989, No. 62, §1; Acts 1990, No. 965, §2; Acts 2001, No. 949, §1; Acts 2008, No. 601, §1; Acts 2010, No. 437, §1; Acts 2010, No. 586, §1, eff. July 1, 2010.

NOTE: See Acts 1988, No. 553, §2.