(70 ILCS 3010/17) (from Ch. 42, par. 319.17)

Sec. 17. If after the public hearing the board of trustees of the sanitary district adopts a resolution to proceed with the construction or acquisition of the project, the board of trustees has the power to make and enforce all needful rules and regulations in connection with the construction, acquisition, improvement, or extension, and with the management and maintenance of the project to be constructed or acquired. The board of trustees also has the power to establish the rate or charge to each user of the sewerage system or improvement or extension at a rate which will be sufficient to pay the principal and interest of any bonds, issued to pay the cost thereof, maintenance, and operation of the system, improvement, or extension and to provide an adequate depreciation fund therefor. Charges or rates shall be established, revised, and maintained by ordinance and become payable as the board of trustees may determine by ordinance. 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 sanitary district 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 sanitary district 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 the Torrens System, of notice of said 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, (4) the owner of record of the premises. 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 sanitary district 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 sanitary district 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, whenever a judgment is obtained in such a civil action, the foregoing provision in this section with respect to filing sworn statements of such delinquencies in the office of the recorder of deeds and creating a lien against the real estate shall not be effective as to the 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. The charge provided in this section to be made against each user of an improvement or extension shall be in addition to the charge, if any, made of all users of the system under Section 7 hereof, and shall be kept separate and distinct therefrom.

(Source: P.A. 87-1197.)