Sec. 11a. The board of trustees of any sanitary district shall have full power at any time to contract with the corporate authorities of the municipality or municipalitie.
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Sec. 11a. The board of trustees of any sanitary district shall have full power at any time to contract with the corporate authorities of the municipality or municipalities situated either wholly or partly within that sanitary district for the treatment and disposal of the sewage of that municipality or municipalities, and for the use of the drains, conduits, treatment plants, pumping plants, and works maintained by that sanitary district for the carrying off, disposal, and treatment of sewage and industrial wastes, in lieu of charging the inhabitants of that municipality or municipalities.
The corporate authorities so contracting shall adopt an ordinance imposing rules and regulations with respect to the use of sewers within that municipality and provide for a charge to the inhabitants thereof for the use thereof and for the payment of the charge to be paid to the sanitary district under that contract. Such contracts shall be irrevocable as long as any revenue bonds of the sanitary district are outstanding, but the charge to be paid to the sanitary district shall be payable only from the revenue derived by the municipalities from the charges made to the inhabitants thereof.
The charges and rates fixed by the corporate authorities shall be sufficient at all times to pay the charge to be paid to the sanitary districts. Such charges or rates shall be liens upon the real estate upon or for which sewerage service is supplied; provided, however, such liens shall not attach to such real estate until such charges or rates have become delinquent as provided by the ordinance of the municipality fixing a delinquency date. A lien is created under the preceding sentence only if the sanitary district sends to the owner or owners of record of the real estate, as referenced by the taxpayer's identification number,
(i)a copy of each delinquency notice sent to the person who is delinquent in paying the charges or rates or other notice sufficient to inform the owner or owners of record, as referenced by the taxpayer's identification number, that the charges or rates have become delinquent and
(ii)a notice that unpaid charges or rates may create a lien on the real estate under this Section. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to give the municipality a preference over the rights of any purchaser, mortgagee, judgment creditor or other lien holder arising prior to the filing in the office of the recorder of the county in which such real estate is located, or in the office of the registrar of titles of such county if the property affected is registered under "An Act concerning land titles", approved May 1, 1897, as amended, of notice of the lien. The notice shall consist of a sworn statement setting out
(1)a description of the real estate, sufficient for the identification thereof, upon or for which the sewerage service was supplied,
(2)the amount or amounts of money due for such sewerage service, and
(3)the date or dates when such amount or amounts became delinquent. The sanitary district shall send a copy of the notice of the lien to the owner or owners of record of the real estate, as referenced by the taxpayer's identification number. The municipality shall have the power to foreclose such lien in like manner and with like effect as in the foreclosure of mortgages on real estate.
The municipality also has the power, from time to time, to sue the occupant or user of the real estate in a civil action to recover the money due for sewerage services, plus a reasonable attorney's fee, to be fixed by the court. However, when a judgment is obtained in such a civil action, the foregoing provisions in this section with respect to filing sworn statements of such delinquencies in the office of the recorder and creating a lien against the real estate shall not be effective as to charges sued upon and no lien shall exist thereafter against the real estate for that delinquency.
Judgment in such a civil action operates as a release and waiver of the lien upon the real estate for the amount of the judgment.
Such contract may contain appropriate provisions to authorize the sanitary district to proceed, in the name of the municipality, in the collection of such charges and rates as are provided in this section, in the event that the municipality fails to pay when due the charge to be paid to the sanitary district. Any sanitary district, by a civil action, may compel the officials of the municipality to perform all duties imposed upon them by this section, including the making and collection of sufficient charges and rates for that purpose and the application of the revenue therefrom.