Chapter 12. Cancellation And Refund Of Unnecessary Assessments of California Water Code >> Division 14. >> Part 9. >> Chapter 12.

When a district has levied an assessment and it appears to the board that the assesssment or some part thereof, together with the interest thereon, will provide an amount greater than is required to meet all obligations incurred or to be incurred for the purposes for which the assessment or part thereof was levied, the board may, by resolution, declare its intention to cancel all or any portion of the assessment, including any interest thereon, or all or any portion of such interest. For the purposes of this chapter, the term "assessment balance" means the assessment and the interest thereon, and the board, in the manner and subject to the limitations provided in this chapter, may cancel any part of such assessment balance, including all of the assessment and the interest thereon, a part of the assessment and the interest thereon, all of the interest on the assessment or a part of the interest on the assessment.

In the resolution of intention the board shall specify the portion of the assessment balance proposed to be canceled and appoint a time not less than three weeks nor more than five weeks from the date of the resolution when it will hold a meeting and hear any objections.

A copy of the resolution of intention shall be published once a week for three successive weeks before the time appointed by the board for the meeting in a newspaper of general circulation in each affected county.

Objections shall be written, verified, and filed with the secretary, and no objection shall be considered by the board or allowed in any other action or proceeding unless made in writing and filed with the secretary prior to the meeting.

At the meeting the board shall hear any evidence offered in support of the written objections, after which the board may, by resolution, cancel all or a part of the assessment balance to the extent that the board finds that the assessment balance will provide an amount greater than is required to meet all obligations incurred or to be incurred for the purposes for which the assessment was levied. The board shall specify in the resolution the portion of the assessment balance which is to be canceled with respect to each tract against which the assessment was levied, describing each tract as described in the assessment roll or by the number of the tract as used in the assessment role. In adopting a resolution to cancel the board may make such revisions in the original plan set forth in its resolution of intention as it sees fit.

When a resolution to cancel is adopted, a copy thereof, certified by the secretary, shall be attached to the assessment roll by the county treasurer of each county in which the assessment roll is filed.

When the resolution to cancel is attached to the assessment roll the secretary shall endorse upon the assessment roll after each tract assessed the amount of the assessment balance which has been canceled with respect to such tract.

When a landowner, in a district in which the board has canceled any assessment balance or portion thereof, has paid all or a part of his share of the canceled assessment balance or portion thereof, the board shall issue a warrant of the district in favor of the landowner in an amount equal to the paid portion of his assessment balance which was canceled, with such interest thereon as the board shall, by resolution, determine to be appropriate to recompense landowners who have paid their assessments for any benefit obtained by other landowners as a result of the cancellation of the interest otherwise payable on their assessment.

The warrants shall be payable out of the fund of the district into which the proceeds of the assessment had been paid. The board shall not cancel so much of an assessment balance as to leave insufficient funds for this purpose.

No assessment balance or part thereof shall be canceled pursuant to this chapter if bonds based thereon and secured thereby have been issued and remain unpaid and provision has not been made for the payment thereof.