§ 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.