If any user, lessee, or owner of the project fails to pay when due, with time being of the essence, any assessments or fees due under this chapter, including, but without limitation, any payments in lieu of taxes, collectively “past due assessment,” then the authorizing subdivision or authority, or their designated agents, collectively the “fee collector,” may commence proceedings to foreclose on the land and improvements of the user, lessee, or owner of the project having land within the State of Alabama, subject to the terms of any executed agreement between the fee collector and the user, lessee, or owner of the project, as follows:
(1)A fee collector shall send a letter by means of United States certified mail, return receipt requested, to the last known address of the user, owner, or
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If any user, lessee, or owner of the project fails to pay when due, with time being of the essence, any assessments or fees due under this chapter, including, but without limitation, any payments in lieu of taxes, collectively “past due assessment,” then the authorizing subdivision or authority, or their designated agents, collectively the “fee collector,” may commence proceedings to foreclose on the land and improvements of the user, lessee, or owner of the project having land within the State of Alabama, subject to the terms of any executed agreement between the fee collector and the user, lessee, or owner of the project, as follows:
(1) A fee collector shall send a letter by means of United States certified mail, return receipt requested, to the last known address of the user, owner, or lessee of the project. The address of the user, owner, or lessee as shown in the tax assessment records of the tax assessor or revenue commissioner for the county in which land of the user, owner, or lessee is located shall be sufficient.
(2) The letter shall specify that if payment of the past due assessment is not made within 10 days of the date of the letter, foreclosure proceedings may be commenced against the land of the user, owner, or lessee.
(3) Any late payment received within the 10-day period will accrue a late fee of the greater of five percent of the payment or fifty dollars ($50).
(4)a. If payment is not made within the 10-day period, the entire past due assessment shall become immediately due and payable, and the fee collector may do either of the following:
1. File a complaint in the circuit court for the county in which the property of the user, owner, or lessee is located requesting that the property be foreclosed. Thirty days following service of process, unless the past due assessment is paid in the meantime, the court shall enter a decree declaring that the property shall be sold to the highest bidder.
2. Proceed to sell the property of the user, owner, or lessee against which the past due assessment is made to the highest bidder for cash.
b. In either case, the property of the user, owner, or lessee shall be sold in the same manner and upon the same notice as provided by law for the sale of lands or property by foreclosure by power of sale for mortgages. The proceeds from the sale shall first be applied to the amount of the past due assessment and all accrued interest thereon, plus penalties specified in subdivision (3), plus the attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred by the fee collector in the foreclosure and suit.
(5) If the fee collector concludes that no bidders are present or that all bids are insufficient, the fee collector may announce that the sale shall be continued to a later date to be announced by public notice.
(6) Upon declaring the highest bidder and receipt of the purchase price, the fee collector shall deliver a foreclosure deed to the highest bidder which shall vest therein legal title to the property sold by the foreclosure, subject to easement or other rights in the property of persons other than the user, owner, or lessee that has failed to pay the past due assessment. The user, owner, or lessee of the property shall have no right of redemption unless otherwise provided in the certificate of incorporation of the authority with respect to the past due assessment.
(7) The purchase price shall be used first for the payment of the past due assessment, then for the cost of collection, suit, foreclosure, and deed preparation, then for penalties, then for accrued interest and interest until the next principal payment date of bonds as provided in any agreement relating to the payments in lieu of taxes or as set forth in this chapter with respect to prepayments of potentially past due assessments, and then as a reserve fund until any bonds are fully paid, and only then any remaining portion shall be paid to the user, owner, or lessee of the land at the user’s, owner’s, or lessee’s last known address as shown in the records of the tax assessor or revenue commissioner with respect to the tract of land.
(8) The fee collector may bid on any sale the same as any other person, and may credit any portion of the past due assessment and other costs as a part of its bid.
(9) If the highest amount bid and accepted is insufficient to pay the entire past due assessment and to fund a reserve to fully pay any bonds of the authority, the fee collector and holders of the bonds shall have no further claim against the user, owner, or lessee of the land assessed by virtue of the past due assessment.
(10) Any foreclosure deed shall make no warranty with respect to the title to the land other than as expressly stated therein.
(11) At any point in the foreclosure proceedings, until a bid is accepted, the fee collector may waive the default on the past due assessment on terms as the fee collector may consider proper and reinstate the past due assessment, subject to any contrary terms of the fee collector’s proceedings with respect to any bonds.
(12) No suit may be brought or maintained to enjoin the collection of any past due assessments under this chapter.