reglab/housing_qa huggingface dataset:
MA Gen L ch 83 § 9 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 9 - Obstruction of Ditches

Section 9. Whoever, by himself, his agents or servants, deposits in or along any ditch or drain constructed under section four any material which will obstruct the flow of water therein shall be punished by a fine of ten dollars, and shall be liable in tort to the commonwealth, the county, city or town controlling the ditch or drain for all damages caused thereby, for the cost and expense of removing the obstructing material and of restoring the ditch or drain to its former condition.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 10 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 10 - Rules and Regulations Regarding Use and Connections

Section 10. A city, town or sewer district may, from time to time, prescribe rules and regulations regarding the use of common sewers to prevent the entrance or discharge therein of any substance which may tend to interfere with the flow of sewage or the proper operation of the sewerage system and the treatment and disposal works, for the connection of estates and buildings with sewers, for the construction, alteration, and use of all connections entering into such sewers, and for the inspection of all materials used therein; and may prescribe civil penalties, not exceeding five thousand dollars for each day of violation of any such rule or regulation. A city, town, sewer district, or a district established for the purpose of managing stormwater, pursuant to section 1A of chapter 40, may from time to time prescribe rules and regulations for the use of main drains and the management of stormwater to prevent the discharge of sediment and pollutants therein which may tend to degrade wetlands, streams, other surface water bodies, and groundwater and to inspect the facilities for the collection and infiltration of stormwater in order to reduce flooding and improve the quality of and decrease the quantity of stormwater runoff; for the connection of estates and buildings with main drains; for the construction, alteration, and use of all connections entering into such main drains; and for the inspection of all materials used therein; and may prescribe civil penalties, not exceeding $5,000 for each day of violation of a rule or regulation. Such rules and regulations shall be published once in a newspaper published in the city or town, if there be any, and if not, then in a newspaper published in the county, and shall include a notice that said rules and regulations shall be available for inspection by the public, and shall not take effect until such publication has been made.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 11 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 11 - Sewer Connections

Section 11. The board of health of a town may require the owner or occupant of any building upon land abutting on a public or private way, in which there is a common sewer, to connect the same therewith by a sufficient drain, and such owner or occupant who fails to comply with such order shall be punished by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 12 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 12 - Repair of Private Drains

Section 12. If a city council or a town accepts this section or has accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws, the board of health may require the owner or occupant of an estate which drains into a private drain in a public or private way to put such drain in good repair and condition. If he fails to comply with said order within ten days after notice thereof, he shall be punished by a fine of not more than twenty dollars for every day during which such failure continues.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 13 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 13 - Equity Jurisdiction

Section 13. The supreme judicial court and the superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity to restrain the unlawful use of common sewers or the placing or depositing of materials therein or the violation of regulations regarding the use thereof made under section ten, and to enforce the provisions of sections five to seven, inclusive.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 14 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 14 - Sewer Assessments; Authorization

Section 14. A person who enters his particular drain into a main drain or common sewer, or who by more remote means receives benefit thereby for draining his land or buildings, shall pay to the town a proportional part of the charge of making and repairing the same, and of the charge, not already assessed, of making and repairing other main drains and common sewers through which the same discharges, which shall be ascertained, assessed and certified by the aldermen, sewer commissioners, selectmen or road commissioners.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 15 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 15 - Sewerage Systems; Adoption; Assessment; Uniform Units; Separation of Costs

Section 15. The city council of a city or a town may adopt a system of sewerage for a part or the whole of its territory, and may provide that assessments under section fourteen shall be made upon owners of land within such territory by a fixed uniform rate or a rate based upon a uniform unit method.  A fixed uniform rate shall be based upon the estimated average cost of all the sewers therein, according to the frontage of such land on any way in which a sewer is constructed, or according to the area of such land within a fixed depth from such way, or according to both such frontage and area; but no assessment in respect to any such land, which by reason of its grade or level or any other cause cannot be drained into such sewer, shall be made until such incapacity is removed. If the assessment is according to the area within such fixed depth, the lien therefor shall attach to the parcel assessed.  A uniform unit method shall be based upon sewerage construction costs divided among the total number of existing and potential sewer units to be served, after having proportioned the cost of special and general benefit facilities. Each sewer unit shall be equal to a single family residence. Potential sewer units shall be calculated on the basis of zoning then in effect. Existing and potential multifamily, commercial, industrial and semipublic uses shall be converted into sewer units on the basis of residential equivalents.  A city by ordinance or a town by by-law may separate the costs of general benefit facilities, including but not limited to pumping stations, trunk and force mains, from that of special benefit facilities, including but not limited to the sewer mains, serving adjacent properties. A portion of costs of the general benefit facilities may be apportioned by the uniform unit method on all areas to receive benefits within the pumping district or combination of districts. The cost of the general benefit facilities, attributable to undeveloped land not abutting a sewered street, may not be assessed until properties are serviced by public sewerage. The proportional cost of the special benefit and general benefit facilities may be assessed against all properties abutting a sewered street.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 15a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 15a - Redetermination of Assessment

Section 15A. Any city at any meeting of the proper municipal authority, or any town at a town meeting, may, from time to time, redetermine the uniform rate or uniform unit fixed under section 15, or under any special law, and charged to abutters for, or to the existing and potential sewer units to be served by, the construction of sewers, but this section shall not apply to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 15b (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 15b - Estimated Sewer Assessments; Construction of Water Pollution Control Facilities

Section 15B. A city or town may assess and collect estimated sewer assessments in connection with the construction of water pollution collection, pumping, treatment and disposal facilities. The total amount of such estimated sewer assessments shall not exceed one-half of the municipality's liability under all contracts it has entered into for the construction of such facilities, and the total of such estimated assessments shall be allocated by the same method to be used for the allocation of the actual assessments upon the completion of the work.  When the final costs of construction of the facilities has been determined, the city or town may assess and collect actual sewer assessments. The provisions of chapter eighty relative to the apportionment, division, interest and collection of assessments shall apply to estimated assessments under this section, but the provisions of chapter eighty relating to abatements shall not apply to estimated assessments under this section.  Revenues from estimated assessments under this section shall be dedicated to the payment of the costs of constructing the facilities or to paying the principal and interest on any debt issued in connection with the construction of the facilities, until all such costs and debt service obligations have been paid in full.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 15c (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 15c - Interest on Unpaid Balance of Sewer Betterment Assessment

Section 15C. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, a city or town that accepts this section may assess and collect interest on an unpaid balance of a sewer betterment assessment at a rate up to 2 per cent above the net rate of interest chargeable to the city or town for the project to which the assessment relates.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 15d (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 15d - Apportionment of Future Sewer Assessments or Unpaid Balances

Section 15D. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, a city or town that accepts this section may apportion all future sewer assessments or unpaid balances of assessments over a period not to exceed 30 years, and may structure the payments so that the amounts payable in the several years for principal and interest combined are as nearly equal as practicable. These equal payments may be further apportioned and collected by the city or town on quarterly tax bills at the option of the city or town. An owner of land assessed may pay the total remaining principal amount due without a prepayment penalty.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 16 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 16 - Charge for Use of Sewers

Section 16. The aldermen of any city or the sewer commissioners, selectmen or road commissioners of a town, may from time to time establish just and equitable annual charges for the use of common sewers and main drains and related stormwater facilities, which shall be paid by every person who enters his particular sewer therein. The money so received may be applied to the payment of the cost of maintenance and repairs of such sewers or of any debt contracted for sewer purposes. In establishing quarterly or annual charges for the use of main drains and related stormwater facilities, the city, town, or district may either charge a uniform fee for residential properties and a separate uniform fee for commercial properties or establish an annual charge based upon a uniform unit method; but, the charge shall be assessed in a fair and equitable manner. The annual charge shall be calculated to supplement other available funds as may be necessary to plan, construct, operate and maintain stormwater facilities and to conduct stormwater programs. The city, town or district may grant credits against the amount of the quarterly or annual charge to those property owners who maintain on-site functioning retention/detention basins or other filtration structures as approved by the stormwater utility, conservation commission, or other governmental entity with appropriate authority.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 16a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 16a - Certificate of Acceptance; Effect; Recordation

Section 16A. If the rates and charges due to a city, town, municipality, or sewer district, which accepts this section and sections sixteen B to sixteen F, inclusive, and by its clerk, files a certificate of such acceptance in the proper registry of deeds, and files a copy of said certificate with the collector of taxes of the city or town in which the lien hereinafter mentioned is to take effect, for supplying or providing for a sewer system or rendering service or furnishing materials in connection therewith to or for any real estate at the request of the owner or tenant are not paid on or before their due date as established by local regulations, ordinances or by-laws, which due date shall be so established as to require payments at least as often as annually, such rates and charges, together with interest thereon and costs relative thereto, shall be a lien upon such real estate as provided in section sixteen B. The register of deeds shall record such certificate of acceptance in a book to be kept for the purpose, which shall be kept in an accessible location in the registry. Sections sixteen B to sixteen F, inclusive, shall also apply to a sewer district which has accepted sections sixteen A to sixteen F, inclusive, and whose clerk has so filed the certificate of acceptance. Wherever in said sections the words ''board or officer in charge of the sewer department'' or their equivalent appear, they shall also mean and include the officers exercising similar duties in any city, town or district. A fire or water district authorized to provide a sewer system shall, for the purposes of sections sixteen A to sixteen F, inclusive, be deemed to be a sewer district.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 16b (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 16b - Effective Date of Sewer Charge Lien; Termination; Methods of Collection and Enforcement of Rate or Charge

Section 16B. Such lien shall take effect by operation of law on the day immediately following the due date of such rate or charge, and, unless dissolved by payment or abatement, shall continue until such rate or charge has been added to or committed as a tax under section sixteen C, and thereafter, unless so dissolved, shall continue as provided in section thirty-seven of chapter sixty; provided, however, that if any such rate or charge is not added to or committed as a tax under section sixteen C for the next fiscal year commencing after the inception of the lien under this section, then said lien shall terminate on October first of the third year following the year in which such charge becomes due.  Notwithstanding such lien any such overdue rate or charge may be collected through any legal means, including the shutting off of a sewer connection, which may be deemed advisable; provided, that after the termination of such a lien, no city, town or sewer district shall attempt to enforce, by shutting off the sewer connection, collection of such rate or charge from any person, not liable therefor, who has succeeded to the title or interest of the person incurring such rate or charge. All such rates and charges excluded by court decree under section seventy-six B of chapter sixty shall, to the extent that they were properly chargeable to the person owning, or to the tenant occupying, the premises for which such rates and charges were incurred, be recoverable from such person or tenant, as the case may be, in an action of contract or otherwise. If at the time of the entry of such decree such person or tenant is still the owner or tenant of the premises, whether through redemption or otherwise, such rates and charges to the extent that they were properly chargeable to him, may be enforced in any other manner provided or available for collection and enforcement of sewer connection rates and charges.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 16c (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 16c - Certification of Rate or Charge to Assessors; Commitment as Tax

Section 16C. If a rate or charge for which a lien is in effect under section sixteen B has not been added to or committed as a tax and remains unpaid when the assessors are preparing a real estate tax list and warrant to be committed by them under section fifty-three of chapter fifty-nine, the board or officer in charge of the sewer department, or the town collector of taxes, if applicable under section thirty-eight A of chapter forty-one, shall certify such rate or charge to the assessors, who shall forthwith add such rate or charge to the tax on the property to which it relates and commit it with their warrant to the collector of taxes as a part of such tax. If the property to which such rate or charge relates is tax exempt, such rate or charge shall be committed as the tax.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 16d (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 16d - Application of Other Law; Powers of Tax Collectors

Section 16D. Except as otherwise provided, the provisions of chapters fifty-nine and sixty shall apply, so far as pertinent, to all rates and charges certified to the assessors under section sixteen C. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, upon commitment as a tax or part of a tax under said section sixteen C, all such rates and charges shall be subject to the provisions of law relative to interest on the taxes of which they become, or, if the property were not tax exempt would become, a part; and the collector of taxes shall have the same powers and be subject to the same duties with respect to such rates and charges as in the case of annual taxes upon real estate, and the provisions of law relative to the collection of such annual taxes, the sale or taking of land for the nonpayment thereof and the redemption of land so sold or taken shall, except as otherwise provided, apply to such rates and charges.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 16e (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 16e - Remedies of Aggrieved Real Estate Owners

Section 16E. An owner of real estate aggrieved by a charge imposed thereon under sections sixteen A to sixteen F, inclusive, in addition to such remedy as he may have under section ten of chapter one hundred and sixty-five, may apply for an abatement thereof by filing a petition with the board or officer having control of the sewer department within the time allowed by law for filing an application for abatement of the tax of which such charge is, or, if the property were not tax exempt, would have been, a part, and if such board or officer finds that such charge is more than is properly due, a reasonable abatement shall be made; and except as otherwise provided herein, the provisions of chapter fifty-nine relative to the abatement of taxes by assessors shall apply, so far as applicable, to abatements hereunder. If such petition is denied in whole or in part, the petitioner may appeal to the appellate tax board upon the same terms and conditions as a person aggrieved by the refusal of the assessors of a city or town to abate a tax.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 16f (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 16f - Recovery of Real Estate Owner Against Tenants

Section 16F. An owner of real estate who, in order to prevent the imposition of a lien thereon or to discharge the same, has paid charges for sewer connections furnished to a tenant or other person who was bound to pay the same, may recover from such tenant or other person in an action of contract the amount of the charges so paid with all incidental costs and expenses.
MA Gen L ch 83 § 16g (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XIV - Public Ways and Works|Chapter 83 - Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks|Section 16g - Deferral of Charges

Section 16G. In a city, town or district which accepts the provisions of this section, the board responsible for assessing charges for the use of the common sewers under section sixteen of chapter eighty-three or any other provision of law, shall, upon the application of the owner of the real property served by the common sewers, if such owner is receiving an exemption from property taxes under clause Forty-first A of section five of chapter fifty-nine with respect to such property, defer charges for said use of the common sewers. An application for deferral may be filed with said board within the time limit established for the filing of an application for exemption under said clause Forty-first A.  The board that imposes such charges shall notify the board of assessors of any deferral granted under the provisions of this section, and shall annually thereafter notify said board of assessors of any unpaid sewer charges to be added to the tax bill. Such charges shall be committed by the assessors along with the real estate taxes for each fiscal year, and abated along with such taxes, and secured by the statement of lien executed pursuant to said clause Forty-first A. Upon such qualification for deferral, no further application under this section need be filed in order to qualify for deferral of sewer charges in subsequent years. No additional notice or statement of lien need be recorded or registered with respect to such deferred sewer use charges, but the amount of such deferred charges shall be listed on any certificate of liens issued under section twenty-three, twenty-three A or twenty-three B of chapter sixty. Whenever a person who has received an exemption under said clause Forty-first A is no longer eligible for such exemption, the board of assessors shall cease deferring sewer use charges added to the tax bill, and shall notify the board responsible for the assessment of such charges of the discontinuance of such deferral of said charges.  Interest shall be charged upon deferred sewer use charges at the same rate as interest on taxes deferred under said clause Forty-first A. The deferred charges, together with accrued interest shall be due and collectible at the same time and upon the same terms and conditions as taxes deferred under said clause Forty-first A.  The amount of sewer use charges deferred under this section, plus accrued interest, shall not be used in determining whether a taxpayer continues to be eligible for exemption under said clause Forty-first A.