2017 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 5 - Municipal Corporations
CHAPTER 31 - ELECTRICITY, WATER, NATURAL GAS AND SEWERAGE SYSTEMS
Section 5-31-2030. Powers of municipalities enumerated.
Each council is empowered by ordinance duly adopted:
(1) To place into effect and revise whenever it so wishes or may be required a schedule of sewer service and sewer connection charges for the use of and connection to any sewage disposal system which it may operate. Prior to the furnishing of any sewage disposal service for which the prescribed sewer service charge shall, pursuant to Section 5-31-2040, become a lien on the property affected and prior to any subsequent increase in any such sewer service charge, not less than ten days' written notice shall be given to each affected property owner notifying him of the nature and quantum of the sewer service charge and providing such property owner an opportunity if desired and requested, to appear and be heard in person or by counsel before the council. Following such hearing, if such be requested and held, action shall be taken by the council and notice of its decision shall be given to the property owner concerned or to his counsel, as the case may be, not less than ten days prior to the effective date of the sewer service charge. Any property owner aggrieved by the action of the council may proceed by certiorari in the court of common pleas for the county in which the property affected or any part thereof lies to have such court review the action taken by the council, at which time the court will determine the validity and reasonableness of the sewer service charge so made. Sewer service charges not intended to become liens in the case of nonpayment can be imposed and subsequently increased upon any user in the municipality without such notice and hearing.
(2) To enter into contracts with any water distribution agency upon terms and conditions to be mutually agreed upon by which the council shall constitute the water collection agency the agent of the council, for the purpose of collecting such sewer service charges as the council shall from time to time impose upon those who utilize its sewage disposal facilities and shall empower the water collection agency as such agent to disconnect water service upon failure of any user to pay such sewer service charges.
(3) To prescribe and enforce regulations (a) requiring persons who shall be residents of the municipality to make use of any sewer system which the municipality shall from time to time operate; and (b) generally with respect to the discharge of sewage and the use of privies, septic tanks and other sewage facilities within the municipality.
(4) To provide that the actual cost of the establishment and construction of any sewer lateral collection lines hereafter constructed by the municipality and any extensions thereof within the municipality, or so much of the actual cost thereof as the council in its discretion deems appropriate, shall be assessed subject to the provision of the succeeding paragraph, upon the lots and parcels of land abutting directly on such lateral lines or extensions thereof according to the extent of the respective frontage thereon, by an equal rate per foot of such frontage; but the council may, in its discretion, provide, in the instance of corner lots, for an assessment deemed to be equitable. The council may provide in such resolution that the front-foot assessments to be levied in connection with such installations may be paid in equal installments covering a period of not exceeding ten years. Such deferred payments shall be payable annually within the period that county taxes are payable and late payments shall be penalized to the same extent as in the case of county taxes. The General Assembly does not intend through this article to permit assessments against abutting property where no benefit will result to such property or where any such benefit would result only at some remote future time. Accordingly, no council shall, pursuant to this article, impose any front-foot assessment against any property unless the assessment is being used for or is devoted to commercial or residential purposes at the time of the assessment or unless, in the case of properties on which no buildings shall be situate, such properties shall have been platted or otherwise developed as a part of a subdivision devoted to residential or commercial purposes; if any such property, which pursuant to the provisions of this paragraph is exempt from front-foot assessment at the time the assessment is originally levied, is later converted to commercial or residential purposes or is later platted or otherwise developed then at such time front-foot assessments may be levied against such property. No individual parcel shall be assessed on the basis of more than two hundred fifty feet of frontage.
In connection with the imposition of such front-foot assessments:
(a) The ordinance providing for such front-foot assessments shall designate by a general description the improvement to be made and the street or parts thereof whereon the work is to be effected and the actual cost thereof and the amount of the cost to be assessed upon all abutting property subject to the provisions of the preceding paragraph and the terms and manner of payment. Such ordinance shall not become effective until at least seven days after it shall have been published in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipality. Such ordinance may incorporate by reference plats and engineering reports and other data on file in the council's office provided that the place of filing and reasonable hours for inspection by interested persons are specified in the ordinance.
(b) Upon the completion of the construction of any such sewer laterals or any extensions thereof the council shall compute and ascertain the total cost thereof and shall thereupon make an assessment of such total cost or so much thereof as it deems appropriate. For that purpose the council shall make out an assessment roll in which must be entered the names of the persons assessed and the amount assessed against their respective properties with a brief description of the lots or parcels of land assessed.
(c) Immediately after such assessment roll has been completed, the council shall forthwith cause one copy thereof to be deposited in the council's office for inspection by interested parties, and shall cause to be published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation within the municipality a notice of completion of the assessment roll setting forth a description in general terms of the improvements and the time fixed for the meeting of the council for a hearing of objections in respect of the front-foot assessments; such meeting not to be earlier than ten days from the date of the publication of such notice.
(d) As soon as practicable after the completion of the assessment roll and prior to the publication of the notice above-mentioned in subparagraph (c) the council shall mail to the owner or owners of each lot or parcel of land against which a front-foot assessment is to be levied at his or their address, if any, appearing on the records of the treasurer of the municipality, a notice stating the nature of the improvement, the total cost thereof, the amount to be assessed against the particular property and the frontage in feet upon which the front-foot assessment is based, together with the terms and conditions upon which the front-foot assessment may be paid. This notice shall also contain a brief description of the particular property involved together with a statement that the amount assessed shall constitute a lien against the property superior to all other liens except property taxes. The notice shall also state the time and place fixed for the meeting of the council above-mentioned for a hearing of objections in respect of the front-foot assessments. Any property owner who fails, not later than three days prior to the date set for such meeting, to file with the council a written objection to the front-foot assessments against his property shall be deemed to have waived all rights to object to such front-foot assessment; and the notice prescribed herein shall so state.
(e) At the time and place specified for the meeting above-mentioned, or at some other time to which it may adjourn, the council shall hear the objections of all persons who have filed written notice of objection within the time prescribed above who may appear and make proof in relation thereto either in person or by their attorney. The council may thereupon make such corrections in the assessment roll as it may deem proper, confirm the same, set it aside and provide for a new assessment. Whenever the council shall confirm an assessment roll, either as originally prepared or as thereafter corrected, a copy thereof certified by the secretary of the council shall forthwith be filed in the office of the clerk of court of common pleas of each county in which any property lies, and against which any front-foot assessments have been levied; from the time of such filing the front-foot assessments impressed in the assessment roll shall constitute and be a lien on the real property against which the same are assessed superior to all other liens and encumbrances except only the lien for property taxes.
(f) After the assessment roll has been confirmed a certified copy thereof shall be delivered to the treasurer of such municipality in which any front-foot assessments are levied thereby who shall prepare and keep a separate book or books in connection therewith and who shall proceed to collect the same in the manner of municipal taxes and shall remit such collections on or before April fifteenth of each year upon the direction of the council. Each year the treasurer of the municipality shall mail out notices of such front-foot assessments at the same time county tax notices are mailed. Past due front-foot assessments shall be turned over by the respective municipal treasurers to the sheriff or delinquent tax collector of the municipality who shall proceed to collect in the same manner as unpaid municipal taxes are collected. The collecting official shall likewise keep separate records in connection with such past due assessments and shall remit all sums collected forthwith upon the direction of the council.
(g) Immediately upon the confirmation of an assessment the council shall mail a written notice to all persons who have filed written objections as hereinabove provided of the amount of the front-foot assessment finally confirmed against his property. If any such person is dissatisfied with the amount of the front-foot assessment so confirmed and shall within ten days after the mailing of the notice confirming the assessment to him may give written notice to the council of his intent to appeal his front-foot assessment to the court of common pleas for the county in which his property is assessed, or any part thereof, is located, and shall within five days after giving such notice to the council serve upon the council a statement of facts upon which he bases his appeal; but no such appeal shall delay or stop the construction of the improvements or affect the validity of the front-foot assessments confirmed and not appealed. The appeal shall be tried at the next term of court as other actions at law with priority over all other cases.
(h) The council may correct, cancel or remit any such front-foot assessment and may remit, cancel or adjust the interest or penalties of any front-foot assessment and is empowered, when in its judgment there is any irregularity, omission, error or lack of jurisdiction in any of the proceedings relating thereto, to set aside the whole of any assessment made by it and thereupon to make a reassessment.
(i) In the event the council provides that such front-foot assessments may be paid in equal annual installments, then in that event the front-foot assessment shall be deemed to be due and payable in the equal annual installments prescribed by the council and shall bear interest at the rate of four per cent per annum from the date of the confirmation of the assessment roll, payable with such annual installment. Any property owner shall have the right at any time in his option to prepay in full the front-foot assessment against his property by the payment of the balance due plus interest calculated to the date of prepayment. If any property owner shall fail or neglect to pay any installment when the same becomes due and payable, then and in that event the council may, at its option, declare all of the installments remaining unpaid at once due and payable and such property shall be sold by the sheriff in the same manner and with the same right of redemption as are prescribed by law for the sale of land for unpaid property taxes.
(j) All moneys realized from front-foot assessments shall be kept in a separate and distinct fund either on deposit with the municipal treasurer or, in the discretion of the council, in a bank located within the county in which the municipality is located and used to defray the cost to the extent prescribed by the council in the ordinance providing for such front-foot assessments of the establishing and construction of the sewage lateral collection lines in connection with which the front-foot assessments were levied, or to provide debt service on bonds issued by the municipality to defray the costs of such construction; and for no other purpose. In the event a municipality issues bonds and uses only a portion of the proceeds thereof to defray all or a part of the cost of constructing sewer lateral collection lines, moneys derived from the front-foot assessments shall be used to provide debt service to the extent prescribed in the ordinances providing for the imposition of the front-foot assessments and authorizing the issuance of the bonds.
(k) Moneys received by the council from front-foot assessments and deposited by it as prescribed in the foregoing paragraph may to the extent practicable be invested in the discretion of the council in obligations of the United States of America, obligations of any agency of the United States of America or obligations guaranteed by any agency of the United States of America, maturing in such fashion as to provide cash moneys for the principal and interest payments of bonds payable therefrom when due. All income derived from any such investment shall be applied to the same purpose to which the invested funds are applicable.
(l) Whenever moneys derived from the front-foot assessments are deposited in a bank, the amount of such deposits in excess of the amount insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation shall be secured by direct obligations of the United States or by obligations of an agency of the United States or by obligations guaranteed by an agency of the United States. Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit the council from requiring such additional security as it may deem appropriate.
HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 59-503; 1965 (54) 614; 1970 (56) 2577; 1971 (57) 83.
