Los Angeles Municipal Code Ch. 8 Assessments for Essential Public Utilities

Section 6.500 Findings. 6.501 Definitions. 6.502 Alternative Method of Collection and Severability. 6.503 Application for Assessment. 6.504 Notice. 6.505 Withdrawal of Application. 6.506 Hearing. 6.507 Confirmation of Assessment. 6.508 Collection of Assessment. 6.509 Deposit in Fund. 6.510 Payments from Fund. 6.511 Conventional Billings for Essential Utilities Services. 6.512 Effective Date of Chapter; Prior Overdue and Unpaid Billings. 6.513 Priority of Assessment. 6.514 Trash Disposal Services. 6.515 Time Extension. 6.516 Clearing Title.

(a) The City Council of the City of Los Angeles hereby finds that the providing of essential public utilities to residential real properties is essential to the health and welfare of the residents occupying the residential real properties, contributes to the usefulness and value of residential real properties and when such essential public utilities are not provided the health, welfare, and the public safety of the residents are placed at risk due to the fact that the failure to provide essential public utilities causes premises to become uninhabitable by law (Civil Code Section 1941 et seq.) as well as hazardous and substandard, causing the creation of a nuisance pursuant to Los Angeles Municipal Code

(b) The City Council of the City of Los Angeles further finds that the providing of essential public utilities services to residential real properties constitutes a special benefit to such real properties and to the owners thereof.

(c) The City Council of the City of Los Angeles further finds that tenants of these residential real properties pay rent with the reasonable expectation that the utilities will be paid by the owner and that when an owner or owners of real property are unwilling to pay the costs of providing essential public utilities services to residential real properties the termination of utilities to these properties would create uninhabitable premises and constitute a direct threat to the health and safety of the residents of the properties. Such a threat would in fact be a nuisance placing the health and welfare of the residents of the properties at risk. In such cases, the cost of providing essential public utilities services, as well as the unpaid cost of such services provided to properties in the past, under the same ownership, should be assessed to such real properties, made a lien upon such properties by the City of Los Angeles pursuant to its authority to abate nuisances, and thereafter paid in the same manner as payment is made for other essential public services furnished to and benefiting real properties.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87. Amended by: Subsec. (a) and (c), Ord. No. 170,164, Eff. 1-19-95.

“Application for assessment” as used in this chapter means the procedure whereby a department of the City of Los Angeles which provides one or more essential public utilities services requests that an assessment be levied for the cost of providing its service.

“Cost of providing essential public utilities service” as used in this chapter means the established rates for furnishing of water and electric power, together with all lawfully established taxes, surcharges, and fees upon such costs or service and other charges generally collected with utility payments. With respect to trash disposal service, the said “cost” shall be that charged to comparable real properties, considering the size of the improvement and the number of persons residing thereon, in the vicinity of the real property to be assessed by private trash pick-up and disposal services as determined by informal solicitation of written or oral proposals to furnish such services.

“Essential public utilities or utility service” as used in this chapter means the furnishing of water or electricity, where more than one residential unit is served through a single meter and trash disposal services.

“Overdue” as used in this chapter means that payment for an essential public utility service was not made when payment was due, and said payment is defined to be “due” five days after the placement of the billing for such service in the United States mail. The time periods stated hereafter shall be calculated from said “due” date.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87.

(a) The procedures of this chapter provide an alternative means of securing and/or obtaining payment for the costs of providing essential public utilities services to residential real properties. Nothing herein shall preclude a department using other methods of securing the payment or obtaining payment for such services, including any other lawful method of placing liens on real property, civil suit and or discontinuance of service.

(b) If any portion of this chapter is found to be invalid or unconstitutional, whether on its face or as applied, such invalidity or inapplicability shall not affect the remaining portions of this chapter or applicability to other circumstances or persons, it being the intention of the City Council that this chapter be construed and applied to the extent constitutionally permissible notwithstanding it is not fully enforceable.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87.

(a) The cost of providing an essential public utility service may be assessed upon the benefiting real property only when it appears that the owner or other person in charge of the real property is unable or unwilling to make payments for such services within a reasonable time following the billing for such services. No assessment shall be levied unless, at the time of application for assessment, payment for the essential public utility service for the property is more than seventy five (75) days overdue, whether or not the present customer of record was

the owner during all or any portion of said period. Except as provided elsewhere, said assessment lien shall not be made more than six months after the application for assessment was filed. If an assessment was levied upon a real property in the previous year, so that the cost of essential public utility service has been paid through collection of assessments on the property tax bill, an application for assessment may be made notwithstanding that delinquencies did not exist during the previous year.

(b) No assessment lien shall be levied more than six months after the application for assessment was filed, unless the property is the subject of litigation in State or Federal Court.

(c) The City shall mail to the owner or owners of record at their respective address as shown on the last equalized tax roll, as well as any lenders of record at their respective last known address, of the property to be assessed by registered mail return receipt requested, a copy of the application for assessment within 45 days after said application for assessment was filed. Failure to receive said notice does not invalidate the herein proceedings.

(d) The application for assessment shall contain:

(1) A resolution of the governing board of the department providing the essential public utility service requesting that the City Council of the City of Los Angeles levy assessments upon real properties to pay for service provided and to be provided to real properties.

(2) A statement (i) that payments are or have been overdue as set forth in Subsection (a) of this Section; (ii) the address, legal description and assessor’s parcel number of the real properties proposed to be assessed; (iii) the names of the owner or owners, and their respective addresses as shown on the last equalized assessment roll of the County of Los Angeles; (iv) the names of the recorded lenders at their respective last known addresses; (v) the names of the persons and their respective addresses who were last billed for the public utility service; (vi) an accounting documenting the delinquencies prior to the date of application and the payments and dates of payments made on the account which justifies the application for assessment for each real property; (vii) the amount of past due billings, including all taxes, surcharges, fees, interest and charges thereon, at the time of application; (viii) the estimated total billings for the utility service, including all taxes, surcharges, fees and charges thereon, and including interest which will accrue until payment, during the period of the fiscal year after the date of filing the application, less any amounts not expended from previously made assessments; (ix) the estimated total billings for the utility service, including all taxes, surcharges, fees and charges thereon and including the net amount of interest which will accrue until payment during the next fiscal year, and (x) an estimate of the reasonable additional cost to the department to make the application for the assessment and collect the assessment, which reasonable cost will be included in the amount of the assessment.

(e) Said application for assessment shall be filed with the City Clerk of the City of Los Angeles and the County Recorder of Los Angeles County within 45 days after the property was more than 75 days overdue. Said application may be for assessments to more than one property. When received, the City Clerk shall forward the applications for assessment to the City Engineer. The City Engineer shall advise the City Council of the making of an application.

(f) The City Engineer shall cause the application to be noted on the records utilized in preparing the City Engineer’s report for the Report of Residential Property Records and Pending and Recorded Liens issued pursuant to Division D of Chapter 9 of Article 6 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, commencing with Section 96.300.

(g) The City Engineer shall process said application for assessment received as follows:

(1) Estimate the total amount of proposed assessment for the department making the applications, including all of the items listed in Subsection (b)(2) of this section and including any estimated costs to the City in giving notice, holding hearings, and collecting and distributing the assessment when it is paid.

(2) Prepare an Assessment Roll listing:

(i) Each property to be assessed by address and by legal description;

(ii) The name of the owner or owners and the addresses as shown on the last Equalized Assessment Roll, and the names and the addresses of the persons last billed for the utility service, as such names and addresses have been furnished by the department making the application for assessment; and

(iii) The amount of each proposed assessment and the department and utility service for which it is proposed to be levied.

(h) At the request of the City Engineer, the City Attorney is hereby authorized and directed to prepare a draft of an ordinance declaring the Council’s intention to levy assessments pursuant to this chapter and to forward the draft of ordinance to the City Engineer for transmittal with the assessment roll to the City Council.

(i) If the City Council in its sole discretion determines to do so, the Council may adopt the ordinance and declare its intention to levy assessments for past due billings for essential utility services and future billings for essential utility services and setting a time, date and place of hearing. The ordinance shall provide that an initial hearing shall be held before a hearing officer or officers designated by the Board of Public Works and that all persons desiring to protest the assessment before the City Council must, prior thereto, appear before the hearing officer or officers.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87. Amended by: Subsecs. (d), (e), and (g), Ord. No. 165,518, Eff. 4-1-90; Subsec. (a) amended, Subsecs. (b) through (g) relettered (d) through (i), new Subsecs.

(b) and (c) added, Subsecs. (d), (e) and first paragraph Subsec. (g) amended, Ord. No. 170,164, Eff. 1-19-95.

(a) Notice of the time, date and place of hearing before the City Council shall be given by the City Engineer as follows, with all of said notices being mailed and published no less than 15 days prior to the date of hearing. If the ordinance provides that there must be an appearance before a hearing officer, hearing commission, or committee of the City Council before protest may be made to the Council, the mailing and notice must be completed prior to 10 days before the earliest date for such appearance.

(b) The notice shall be mailed by first class mail to each owner and, if different from the owner, to each person last billed for utility services as their names and addresses were furnished to the City Engineer by the department making the application, as well as to each lender of record, at their last known address. It shall also state the legal description and address of the property to be assessed, as furnished to the City Engineer, the amount proposed to be assessed, including all costs and expenses of the department furnishing utility services and costs and expenses of making the assessment, that it is proposed to add the assessment to the next county tax bill, and shall also set forth the time, date and place of hearings as well as a short explanation of the hearing procedure. The notice shall also contain one or more telephone numbers of the department which made the application for assessment and a telephone number in the office of the City Engineer, at which information regarding the billings, proposed assessments, or procedures be obtained.

(c) The City Engineer shall keep a record of the notices, the persons to whom such notices were mailed, the date of mailing, and the person responsible for the mailing. A declaration by the person responsible for such mailing that it was made shall be sufficient evidence that notice was given. Failure of an addressee to receive such notice shall not invalidate a good faith attempt to give actual notice of the proposed assessment.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff 7-23-87. Amended by: Subsec. (b), Ord. No. 170,164, Eff. 1-19-95; Subsecs. (a) and (c), Ord. No. 181,595, Eff. 4-10-11.

(a) At any time before the date set for hearing before the City Council, the department applying for assessment may withdraw its application or may reduce, but not increase, the amount it requests to be assessed. Said withdrawal or reduction request shall be in writing signed by an authorized representative of the department furnishing utility services. The withdrawal or reduction request shall be filed with the City Engineer three days or more prior to the date of the City Council hearing. The City Engineer shall modify the assessment roll accordingly. Payment of past due billings shall not prohibit the City from levying assessments for billings to come due for the balance of the fiscal year and for the next fiscal year unless it is clearly established that conditions of ownership or operation have changed so that there are reasonable assurances that future billings will be paid when due.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87.

(a) Whenever possible, hearings shall be held on a quarterly basis.

(b) At the hearing the application for assessment and the assessment roll shall be prima facie evidence of the matters contained therein. The burden of going forward with the evidence to establish the incorrectness of the application or the assessment roll shall be upon the person opposing the proposed assessment.

(c) If there has been a hearing before a hearing officer, hearing commission, or committee of the City Council its written findings or conclusions may be considered by the City Council.

(d) Any person opposing an assessment upon real property which is owned or controlled by such person may submit the person’s protest either in writing, orally or both. The oral hearing may be continued from time–to–time as schedules require. The time allotted for oral presentation may be reasonably limited by order at the time of the oral presentation.

(e) The City Council or the committee of the City Council considering the proposed assessment may refer the matter to the City Engineer for further review prior to making its recommendation or decision. If such referral is made, the City Engineer may consult with whomever the City Engineer sees fit, and shall make written recommendations and the reasons therefor to the committee or Council. The department-making the application for assessment and the owners and persons billed for the utility service shall be given written notice of the date of the committee or Council consideration of the City Engineer’s report and recommendations and shall be permitted to comment thereon in writing or orally.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87. Amended by: Subsecs. (a) through (d) relettered (b) through (e) and new Subsec. (a) added, Ord. No. 170,164, Eff. 1-19-95.

A final Assessment Roll containing the names of each owner and the descriptions of the real properties to be assessed, the purpose of the assessment, and the amount of the assessment, all as determined by the City Council, must be confirmed by the City Council by a majority vote of all the members of the Council. Upon confirmation, the City Engineer shall record a Notice of Assessment and Lien with the County Recorder in such form as to give suitable notice of the assessment and lien to any potential buyer. Upon confirmation, the amount of assessments become a lien upon the real property until such time as the first installment of the property tax bill incorporating the assessment becomes payable. At the time the property tax bill, which includes the assessment, becomes payable, the assessment has the same priority as taxes and other assessments on the property tax bill.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87. Amended by: In Entirety, Ord. No. 165,518, Eff. 4-1-90.

The amount of assessment shall be collected upon the County of Los Angeles property tax bill, and the City Engineer is hereby authorized to enter into an agreement with the County of Los Angeles pursuant to Section 51800 of the Government Code of the State of California for the collection and enforcement by the County of Los Angeles of the assessments levied pursuant to this chapter. If the assessments are not paid prior to delinquency, then they shall bear interest and carry penalties to the same extent and on the same conditions as ad valorem taxes bear interest and carry penalties.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87.

(a) The amount of assessment and any interest or penalties thereon, less any sums charged by the County of Los Angeles to administer and collect the assessments, shall be credited to a fund in the treasury of the City of Los Angeles to be known as the “Essential Public Utilities Assessment Fund.”

(b) The Fund shall be divided into separate accounts for each department for which assessments are made.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87.

(a) When payments of assessments are received the Controller, upon the request of the City Engineer, may draw from the Essential Public Utilities Assessment Fund and place in the General Fund such reasonable amounts or percentage of the assessments which were included in the assessments as necessary to reimburse the City for its costs and expenses in levying assessments, holding hearings and otherwise administering the procedure established by this chapter. All other funds shall be paid by the Controller, at the request of the City Engineer, to the department which has provided and will provide the essential public utilities services.

(b) The department receiving payment from the Controller shall determine from the records maintained by the County of Los Angeles the real properties for which assessments were made. Such department shall first credit, as of the date of its receipt of payment from the Controller, the unpaid billings, including any interest or penalties thereon, for each real property for which payments were made. Thereafter, it shall deduct from any excess amounts received the billings for services as such billings become payable, until all amounts received from the Controller have been accounted for.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87.

Utilization of the procedures set forth in this chapter by a department shall not preclude the department from billing the owner or applicants for services in a conventional manner. If payments are made pursuant to such billings, and at such time as the department is reasonably satisfied that it is no longer necessary that funds be held in order to assure that payments for the utility services shall be made, the department may refund any amounts not yet utilized to pay billings for utilities services to the person or persons entitled thereto.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87.

The procedures set forth in this chapter, as amended, shall become effective July 1, 1995. Any overdue and unpaid billings which became “due” after July 1, 1993 and prior to the effective date of this chapter, as amended, may be subject to assessment liens pursuant to this chapter, provided any such assessment lien is assessed within one year after the effective date of this chapter, as amended.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162, 383, Eff. 7-23-87. Amended by: Title and Sec., Ord. No. 170,164, Eff. 1-19-95.

The assessment provided for by this chapter shall have the same priority as the lien for real property taxes and shall be prior to and superior to all other encumbrances and liens upon real property except for liens of special assessments separately billed, and as to such special assessments it shall be on a parity therewith.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No., 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87.

(a) The provisions of this section shall be applicable to assessments for trash disposal services and shall supersede the procedures set forth in Section 6.503 of this chapter. Only the Board of Public Works of the City of Los Angeles may apply for assessments for trash disposal services.

(b) The provisions of this chapter and section shall not affect the ability of the City to abate a public nuisance resulting from the presence of weeds, rubbish and other materials and to assess the real property on which such nuisance exists for the cost of abatement pursuant to Section 22.325.1 of this Code. This section is intended to supplement Section 22.325.1 and to provide a method for the city to cause collection and removal of trash or rubbish from properties before a nuisance condition exists.

(c) The Board of Public Works at any time may apply to the City Council that an assessment be made for the cost of trash disposal services to residential real properties not eligible for trash pickup by the Bureau of Sanitation. Such application may be made only when the owner or other person in charge of the real property refuses to periodically and as reasonably necessary remove trash and rubbish from trash disposal areas on a real property.

(d) The application for assessment shall contain or incorporate the following data:

(i) The name of the owner or owners and the irrespective addresses as shown on the last equalized assessment roll of the County of

Los Angeles;

(ii) The addresses, legal description, and assessor’s parcel number of the property proposed to be assessed as shown on the last

equalized assessment roll of the County of Los Angeles;

(iii) The estimated total cost of trash disposal services to remove trash as necessary from the real property for the portion of the

fiscal year after the date of filing of the application and the estimated total cost for such services during the next fiscal year and an estimate of the reasonable additional cost to the City to administer the process of the City causing trash to be removed and levying the assessment.

(e) The procedure as specified in Subsections (d) through (f) of Section 6.503 of this chapter shall thereafter be followed.

(f) The procedures of Sections 6.504 through 6.510 and 6.513 shall be applicable to assessments for trash disposal services.

(g) If the assessment is confirmed, the Department of Public Works of the City of Los Angeles shall cause trash disposal services to be furnished either through the facilities of the Bureau of Sanitation of the Department of Public Works or by private trash disposal contractors under contract with the City. If the contract is with a private trash disposal contractor, such contractor shall be selected after request for services and inquiry as to prices have been made to at least three trash disposal services, which inquiries may be made in writing, in person, or by telephone, and a record of such inquiries shall be kept in the Department of Public Works. The contract shall be awarded for a period which will end on June 30 of the next fiscal year to the responsible trash disposal service which has offered to perform such work for the lowest price.

(h) A private trash disposal services contractor shall not be retained to perform such work unless the City Council has, at the time of levying the assessment, also appropriated sufficient funds to pay for such trash disposal services, but the cost thereof shall reimbursed to the City from the Essential Public Utilities Assessment Fund.

(i) If an owner or other person in charge of a real property for which assessment has been made pursuant to this section provides reasonable assurances satisfactory to the Department of Public Works that trash will be disposed of from the real property, the Board shall, as soon as reasonably and legally practical, cause services provided pursuant to Subsection (g) of this section to be terminated and shall cause the Controller to refund to the person entitled thereto all funds held for said real property which are in excess of the amounts needed to pay for services which have been provided.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 6.503(e) during the 1987 calendar year the City Engineer may process applications received during the months of January, February and March, 1987 and may commence the processing specified in Sections 6.503(e) and (f) up to April 30, 1987.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87.

The City Engineer is hereby authorized to execute such documents as may be required to clear the title of assessed properties when an assessment is settled, when an assessment is a lien by virtue of the tax bill having been issued or when otherwise appropriate.

SECTION HISTORY

Chapter 8 added by Ord. No. 162,383, Eff. 7-23-87. Amended by: In Entirety, Ord. No. 165,518; Eff. 4-1-90.