(A) In the event charges, including penalty charges, for water service or sewer service are not paid on or before the due date of the bill for such services, such charges shall be deemed and are hereby declared to be delinquent. Thereafter such delinquent charges shall constitute a lien upon the real estate for which such water and sewer services are supplied regardless of whether such service has been supplied upon the application of the owner, and occupant or other user; provided, however, that the owner of the real estate shall have no personal liability for the delinquent charges unless said owner was also the applicant for or user of the services giving rise to the charges. The Superintendent of Public Utilities or the Finance Director or a designee of either is hereby authorized and directed to file a sworn statement showing such delinquencies and claiming such herein in the office of the Recorder of Deeds of Jefferson County, Illinois, after first giving seven (7) days’ notice by regular mail of such delinquency to the owner and occupant of said real estate. This statement shall contain the legal description of the premises served, the amount of unpaid bill, and a notice that the City claims a lien for this amount, as well as for all charges for water and sewer service subsequent to the period covered by the bill; that the lien for water service and sewer service against the premises upon or for which water furnished by the City is used or supplied shall be enforced and foreclosed by a suit in Chancery in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Illinois according to the rules and practice of said court; and that the City shall recover all costs including the reasonable attorney fees incurred by the City in preparing, filing, and foreclosing the lien.
(B) Said lien may also be enforced and foreclosed by intervention in any suit already commenced in said Court or any other Court, whenever said intervention is proper under law. Whenever the City is made a defendant in any suit in account of any lien, it shall have for the furnishing of water full power to enforce its said lien in said proceedings.
(C) The method herein provided for enforcing and foreclosing the lien for water and sewer service charges shall not be considered as excluding any other remedy or any other method of collecting said water and sewer service charges but shall be concurrent with all other remedies and methods. The City shall recover all costs including reasonable attorney fees incurred by the City in effecting collection for water and sewer service charges or incurred by the City in effecting or defending any remedy.
(Prior Code, Art. 16, § 16.3(o))