(a) (1) The payment for the assessments made pursuant to Section 890.05 shall be due and payable within 60 days of notice of the assessment, unless application for installment payments as hereinafter provided is made. No assessment shall be levied or made payable prior to the date that Borough Council executes an agreement of contract to perform the work referenced in Section 890.04. If any owner of property against which an assessment has been made and who has not applied for installment payments refuses or neglects to pay such assessment within 60 days after service of the notice of assessment has been made in the manner provided by law and within the time permitted by law, the Borough Solicitor shall file a municipal claim or lien therefor, together with interest at the rate of 6% compounded annually from date of completion of the work.
(2) The Treasurer of the Borough shall certify to the Solicitor all unpaid assessments and the Solicitor shall file municipal claims or liens therefor in the proper office of Delaware County, as provided by law, against the property or properties with respect to which such assessment or assessments have been charged. The Solicitor thereupon shall proceed to collect all such assessments under general laws relating to collection of municipal claims, including, if so directed by the Borough, the filing of suit or suits in assumpsit. In no event shall any municipal claim be filed later than the last day permitted by law for such filing. Certificates of the Borough Engineer or the consulting engineers filed with the Borough pursuant to law shall be conclusive with respect to the times of completion as therein set forth.
(b) Any owner or owners of property against which an assessment has been made shall have the privilege, upon written request, in form specified by the Borough filed with the Borough within 30 days after notice of assessment has been given to the property owner and payment of the costs of preparation and filing of the required lien form, to make payments of such assessment in 20 equal annual installments. The first installment thereof shall be due and payable within 60 days of the date the assessment is levied pursuant to division (a) of this section and each subsequent installment shall be due the same date each calendar year thereafter, together with interest on the balance due at the rate of interest charged to the Borough by its financing agent, but in no event to exceed 6% compounded annually. However, the granting of such privilege of paying any assessment in installments shall not prevent the Borough from or relieve the Borough of the duty of filing a municipal claim or lien for every assessment not paid in full within 60 days of service of notice of assessment for such district improvements.
(c) Notwithstanding the filing of such claims, all assessments which are made payable in installments shall constitute liens and encumbrances upon the respective benefitted properties at the beginning of each calendar year in an amount equal to the sum of the annual installment becoming payable in such year, with interest and penalties, if any, thereon, and the total of all installments, with interest and penalties thereon, which became due during prior years and which remain due and unpaid at the beginning of the current year.
(d) In the event any installment payment of principal or interest payable under the installment basis is not paid when due, and such installment payment remains unpaid 60 days after it first became due, the Treasurer shall, when such default has occurred, notify the Solicitor of such fact promptly, and the Solicitor shall proceed to collect the same under the general laws relating to collection of municipal claims, including, if so directed by the Borough, the filing of suit or suits in assumpsit only as to the overdue installment with interest and penalties. However if any installment or portion thereof remains due and unpaid for one year after it has become due and payable, then the entire assessment with accrued interest and penalties shall become due and become a lien from the date of the installment.
(e) No action taken to enforce a claim for any installment or installments shall affect the status of any subsequent installment of the same assessment, each of which shall continue to become a lien upon the property annually pursuant to division (d) of this section.
(f) Any owner of property against whom an assessment has been made may pay the same in full, at any time, with accrued interest and costs thereon, and such payment shall discharge the lien of assessment or installments then constituting a lien, and also release the claim to any later installments.
(Ord. 951. Passed 5-8-00.)