16-682 Municipal utilities; service; delinquent rents; lien; collection.
16-682. Municipal utilities; service; delinquent rents; lien; collection.Such cities shall have the right and power to tax, assess, and collect from the inhabitants thereof such rent or rents for the use and benefit of water, gas, power, light or heat used or supplied to them by such waterworks, mains, pump, or extension of any system of waterworks, or water supply, or by such gas, light or heat system, as the council shall by ordinance deem just or expedient. With respect to water rates, taxes or rents only, such water rates, taxes or rents, when delinquent, shall be a lien upon the premises or real estate upon or for which the same is used or supplied; and such water taxes, rents or rates shall be paid and collected and such lien enforced in such manner as the council or commission, as the case may be, shall by ordinance direct and provide. Any delinquent water rentals which remain unpaid for a period of three months after they become due may be, by resolution of the said council or commission, assessed against said real estate as a special assessment, which said special assessment shall be certified by the city clerk to the county clerk of the county in which said city is situated. Said county clerk shall thereupon place same on the tax rolls for collection, subject to the same penalties and to be collected in like manner as other city taxes; Provided, that the local governing body of said city shall notify in writing nonoccupying owners of premises or their agents whenever their tenants or lessees are sixty days delinquent in the payment of water rent. Thereafter if the owner of said real estate or his agent within such city shall notify the council or commission in writing to discontinue water service to said real estate or the occupants thereof, it shall be the duty of the officer in charge of the water department promptly to discontinue said service; and rentals for any water furnished to the occupants of said real estate in violation of said notice shall not be a lien thereon. SourceLaws 1937, c. 26, § 1, p. 147; C.S.Supp.,1941, § 16-655; R.S.1943, § 16-682.