ASSEMBLY, No. 2947
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
INTRODUCED MAY 12, 1997
By Assemblyman ARNONE
An Act authorizing municipalities to require house connections and supplementing chapter 48 of Title 40 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. In any municipality in which there is a sewer system or where there is a public water supply system in any part thereof, the governing body may make, enforce, amend and repeal ordinances to require that all buildings be connected therewith, and regulating and providing for the construction of those connections, and to provide for the improvement, maintenance and repair of those connections, and to prescribe the kind of materials to be used in the original connection and in improving and repairing them, and the method of doing so. The governing body may provide for the inspection of any of the work provided for above. Whenever any of the work herein provided for is done, it shall be at the expense of the owner or owners of the land in front of or upon which the work is done.
2. After the passage of an ordinance as provided in section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), if the owner of any property affected thereby neglects to make any connection, the governing body may proceed to cause the connection or installation to be made under the direction and supervision of the proper officer of the municipality, or to award one or more contracts for the making of the improvement.
3. In proceeding to make any connection or award any contract in connection therewith:
a. the governing body first shall notify the owner or owners of any properties affected thereby that unless the connection or installation shall be completed within 60 days after the service thereof, the municipality will make the connection or cause it to be made pursuant to the authority of this act. The notice shall contain a description of the property affected in sufficiently definite terms to identify it, as well as a description of the required connection.
b. Notice may be served upon the owner or owners either personally or by registered mail. Notice to a partnership owner may be made by service upon any partner.
c. If the property owner is unknown or service cannot be made as above directed, notice shall be published at least once not less than 60 days before the making of the connection by the municipality in a newspaper circulating in the municipality. There may be inserted in the advertisement notice to the owner or owners of several different properties.
d. Proof of service or publication of notices shall be filed within 10 days after such service with the municipal tax assessor, but failure to so file shall not invalidate the proceedings if service has actually been made as herein provided.
4. When any connection shall be made, a true and accurate account of the cost and expense shall be kept and apportioned to the property or properties thereby connected, and a true statement of those costs under oath shall be forthwith filed by the officer of the municipality in charge of the connection with the municipal clerk. The governing body shall examine the statement, and, if properly made, shall file it with the municipal tax collector. The clerk shall record the connection charge in the same book in which he records sidewalk and other assessments.
5. Every connection charge shall bear interest and penalties from the same time and at the same rate as assessments for local improvements in the municipality and from the time of confirmation shall be a first and paramount lien against the respective property or properties so connected with the sewer or public water supply main to the same extent as assessments for local improvements, and shall be collected and enforced in the same manner. Every officer charged with the enforcement and collection of assessments for local improvements is hereby charged with the same duties in regard to the collection and enforcement of all charges for sewer or water connections.
6. No charge for sewer or water connections shall be invalid by reason of any error or omission in stating the name of the owner or owners of properties affected by the connections nor for any other informality where the property or real estate has actually been improved by the sewer or water connection.
7. The governing body imposing any sewer or water connection charge upon any property may provide for the payment of the charge in installments in the same manner as assessments for local improvements are payable in installments in any municipality, in which case those installments shall bear the same rate of interest and be collected and enforced in the same manner as are installments for assessments on local improvements.
8. The governing body may award contracts for the construction of sewer or water connections as provided pursuant to P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.); and may, in lieu of awarding separate contracts for the making of those connections, award a contract for making all connections which the municipality may desire to have made within a period of one year or less.
9. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would authorize any municipal governing body in a municipality wherein there exists a sewer system or public water supply system to enact ordinances requiring that all buildings be connected therewith, to provide for the construction of those connections and to provide for the improvement, maintenance and repair of those connections. In addition, the bill authorizes municipalities to make the connection in the event that the property owner does not do so. Finally, the bill sets forth the parameters within which a municipality may charge property owners in cases where the municipality makes the connection on behalf of the property owner.
This bill essentially reenacts R.S.40:63-52 through 40:63-64, which were inadvertently repealed in section 1 of P.L.1991, c.53 (C.40A:26-22).
Authorizes municipalities to require house connections.