(a) The county government may charge and collect rents, rates, fees or other charges (in this chapter sometimes referred to as “service charges”) for direct or indirect connection with, or the use or services of, any sewerage or water system. Such service charges may be charged to and collected from any person contracting for such connection or use or service, or from the owner or occupant, or both of them, of any real property which directly or indirectly is or has been connected with a sewerage or water system, or from or on which originates or has originated sewerage which directly or indirectly has entered or may enter into a sewerage system, or into which water from a water system may enter directly or indirectly, and the owner or occupant, or both of them, of any such real property shall be liable for and shall pay such service charges to the County at the time when, and place where, the county government by ordinance, resolution, rule or regulation determines that such charges are due and payable.

Terms Used In Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 6709

  • County: means Sussex County. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 6701
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • real property: is synonymous with the phrase "lands, tenements and hereditaments. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Service charges: means rents, rates, fees or other charges charged or collected under § 6709 of this title. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 6701
  • Sewerage system: means the plants, structures and other real and personal property acquired, constructed or operated or to be acquired, constructed or operated by the County for the collection, treatment, purification or disposal in a sanitary manner of any sewage, liquid or solid wastes, night soil or industrial wastes, garbage and storm water, including sewers, conduits, pipelines, mains, pumping and ventilating stations, sewage treatment or disposal system, plants and works, connections and outfalls, and other plants, structures, boats, conveyances, and other real and personal property, and rights therein, appurtenances necessary or useful and convenient for such purposes. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 6701
  • Water system: means all real and personal property necessary or useful in the collection, acquisition, treatment, purification, and distribution of water, together with any principal or ancillary rights appurtenant thereto. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 6701

(b) Such service charges shall, as near as the county government deems practicable and equitable, be uniform throughout the area served by the sewerage or water system, and may be based or computed either on the consumption of water on or in connection with the real property, making due allowance for commercial use of water, or on the number and kind of water outlets on or in connection with the real property, or on the number and kind of plumbing or sewerage fixtures or facilities on or in connection with the real property, or on the number of persons residing or working on or otherwise connected or identified with the real property or on a front footage basis, or on other factors determining the type, class and amount of use or service of the sewerage or water system, or on any combination of any such factors.

9 Del. C. 1953, § ?6709; 55 Del. Laws, c. 263; 57 Del. Laws, c. 762, § ?10A; 66 Del. Laws, c. 320, § ?12;