§ 17-153 Statement of expenses of executing orders.

   a.   When the department shall have executed, or so far executed as the department may require, any order, a certificate setting forth the expenses of such execution, itemized generally, and the date thereof shall be filed among the records of the department with the order so executed; and the department shall take care by, or through some proper officer, or otherwise, that the expenses of such execution be so stated with fairness and accuracy.

   b.   When it shall appear that such execution or the expenses thereof, related to several lots or buildings belonging to different persons, such certificate shall state what belongs to, or arose in respect to each lot of such several lots or buildings, as the department or its authorized officer may direct; and the department may revise the correctness of such apportionment of expenses as truth and justice may require.

   c.   Whenever the expenses attending the execution of any order of the department may be made the subject of a suit by it, there may be joined in the same suit a claim or claims for any penalty or penalties for violation of any health provisions, or for the violation or omission to perform or obey such order, or any prior order of the department, or for the not doing of that, or any portion of that, for the doing of which such expenses arose or were incurred; and the proper joint or several judgment may be had against one or more of the defendants in the suit, as they or either of them may be liable in respect of both such claims, or either or any of them.

§ 17-154 Service of order or judgment.

The department may serve a copy of the order under or by reason of which such expenses were authorized or incurred with a copy of the affidavit stating the expenses of the execution of such order, or if the claim be a judgment, may serve a transcript of such judgment, and an affidavit showing the expense of its execution if there be any, upon any person or corporation, owing, or who is about to owe any such compensation, or owing or about to owe any rent or compensation for the use or occupation of any grounds, premises or buildings or any part thereof, to which such order or judgment relates, and in respect of which such expenses embraced in such judgment related or were incurred, and may, at the time of such service, demand in writing that such rent, or any such compensation to the extent of such claim for such expenses, or for any such judgment or expenses in executing the same, when such rent or compensation becomes due and payable, be paid to the department.

§ 17-155 Payments to department.

After the service of such papers and such demand, any tenant, lessee, occupant, or other person owing, or about to owe, any such rent or any such compensation when it shall mature, or become payable, shall pay the same, and from time to time pay any other amount thereof, as the same may become due and payable, or so much thereof as is sufficient to satisfy any such judgment or claim for expenses, or both, so served, to the department, and a receipt shall be given therefor, stating on account of what order or judgment and expenses the same has been paid and received; and the amount so received shall be deposited where other funds of the department are kept, to the special account of the department.

§ 17-156 Refusal to pay department.

Any person or corporation refusing or omitting to make such payment to the department after service of such paper and demand, shall be personally liable to the department for the amount that should have been paid to it, and may by the department be sued therefor; and such persons shall not in such suit dispute or call in question the authority of the department to incur, or order such expense or the validity or correctness of such expenses of judgment in any particular, or the right of the department to have the same paid from such rent or compensation.

§ 17-157 Payment to department; effect.

The receipt of the department for any sum so paid, in all suits and proceedings, and for every purpose, shall be as effectual in favor of any person holding the same as actual payment of the amount thereof to the proper landlord, lessor, owner, or other person or persons who would, except for the provisions of section 17-155 of this title, and of such demand, have been entitled to receive the sum so paid. No tenant or occupant of any lot, building or premises, shall be dispossessed or disturbed, nor shall any lease or contract, or rights, be forfeited or impaired, nor any forfeiture or liability be incurred by reason of any omission to pay to any landlord, owner, lessor, contractor, party, or other person, the sum so paid to the department, or any part thereof.

§ 17-158 Department to retain moneys until twelve days after notice.

The department shall retain money so paid until twelve days after it shall be made to appear to it or some proper officer thereof, by satisfactory affidavit, that the party or parties, or his, her or their agent for the collection of any such rent or compensation, who, but for the provisions hereof would have been entitled to receive the same, has had written notice of such payment being made; and if at the end of such twelve days such party or parties, so notified, have not instituted suit to recover such money, then it shall, by the department be paid to the commissioner of finance.

§ 17-159 Infected and uninhabitable houses; vacation orders.

Whenever it shall be certified to the department by an officer or inspector of the department that any building or any part thereof in the city is infected with communicable disease, or by reason of want of repair has become dangerous to life or is unfit for human habitation because of defects in drainage, plumbing, ventilation, or the construction of the same, or because of the existence of a nuisance on the premises which is likely to cause sickness among its occupants, the department may issue an order requiring all persons therein to vacate such building or part thereof for the reasons to be stated therein. The department shall cause such order to be affixed conspicuously in such building or part thereof and to be personally served on the owner, lessee, agent, occupant, or any person having the charge or care thereof. If the owner, lessee or agent can not be found in the city or does not reside therein, or evades or resists service, then such order may be served by depositing a copy thereof in the post-office in the city, properly enclosed and addressed to such owner, lessee or agent, at his or her last known place of business and residence, and prepaying the postage thereon; such building or part thereof within ten days after such order shall have been so posted and mailed, or within such shorter time, not less than twenty-four hours, as in such order may be specified, shall be vacated, but the department whenever it shall become satisfied that the danger from such building or part thereof has ceased to exist, or that such building has been repaired so as to be habitable, may revoke such order.

§ 17-160 Proceedings for condemnation.

Whenever any building or part thereof in the city, in the opinion of the department, by reason of:

   1.   Age, or

   2.   Defects in drainage, plumbing or ventilation, or

   3.   Infection with communicable disease, or

   4.   The existence of a nuisance on the premises, which is likely to cause sickness among its occupants, or among the occupants of other property in such city, or

   5.   Its stopping ventilation in other buildings, or otherwise making or conducing to make them unfit for human habitation, or dangerous or injurious to health, or

   6.   Its preventing proper measures from being taken for remedying any nuisance injurious to health, or

   7.   Other sanitary evils in respect of such other buildings, is so unfit for human habitation that the evils in, or caused by such building, can not be remedied by repairs or otherwise except by the destruction of such building or a portion thereof, the department having first made an order to vacate such building, if it deem such course just and proper, may condemn the same and order it removed. The department may institute proceedings in the supreme court in the city for the condemnation of such building, provided, however, that the owner or owners of such building may demand that it be surveyed in the manner provided for in case of unsafe buildings.

§ 17-161 Institution of proceedings.

Such proceeding shall be instituted through a petition addressed to such court containing a brief statement of the reasons therefor, and shall not be required to contain further allegations of facts than those which have actuated the department in this proceeding, which shall then be carried on in the manner prescribed for a capital project proceeding by subchapter one of chapter three of title five of the code. The owner of such building or any person interested therein may in his or her answer dispute the necessity of the destruction of such building or part thereof, as the case may be. In such case, the court shall not take steps to ascertain the value of the property unless proof is made of the necessity of such destruction.