Enforcement of assessments; special privilege; installment payments; notes evidencing deferred payments; transfer to contractor

The amounts assessed against the real estate and railroad track and roadbed shall be due and collectible within thirty days after the completion of the work and its acceptance by the municipality, and if not paid within thirty days the municipal authorities may proceed by suit against the owners to collect the delinquent assessment. The municipality and its transferees shall have a special privilege on the property assessed to secure the payment of the sum assessed against it with eight per cent per annum interest thereon from the date due until paid. The governing authority, instead of enforcing the assessment within the time fixed, may, upon the written application by the property owner and payment by him of twenty per cent of the amount due, extend the payment of the balance of the indebtedness to make it payable in four equal annual installments. As an evidence of such deferred payments, the property owner shall sign and execute four promissory notes payable to the order of the municipality, each for twenty per cent of the amount due by him, dated thirty days after the passage of the ordinance accepting the work, maturing respectively one, two, three, and four years from date, or sooner, at the option of the owner of the property, bearing a maximum rate of eight per cent yearly interest from date until paid and ten per cent additional as attorney's fees if placed in the hands of an attorney for collection after maturity, which notes, when paraphed by the clerk or secretary as being secured by the assessment covering the work, shall carry with them the lien and privilege above provided, and may be transferred by the municipality, without recourse, to the contractor at their face value in payment pro tanto for the work done by him, carrying with them the lien and privilege above provided. Amended Acts 1954, No. 653, §1.