Section 553.560 - Foreclosure of assessment; procedure; district may bid and purchase; deed; right of redemption(1) After the date fixed as the time when an assessment shall become due, the board, by resolution, shall direct that all delinquent assessments then unpaid, whether for operation and maintenance, improvement, construction, or other purposes, shall be foreclosed by the district. Such foreclosure shall follow the general procedures of a suit in equity and shall be filed in the circuit court of the county in which the land to be foreclosed is situated. If land in two or more counties is to be foreclosed, separate proceedings shall be commenced in each county as to the lands therein. The district may recover in such suit the costs and disbursements and other expenses of foreclosure. Any number of tracts of lands, whether they are delinquent for the same or any number of assessments or for the same or several years, may be foreclosed in the same suit. The court may award reasonable attorney fees to the district if the district prevails in a foreclosure action under this section. The court may award reasonable attorney fees to a defendant who prevails in a foreclosure action under this section if the court determines that the district had no objectively reasonable basis for asserting the claim or no reasonable basis for appealing an adverse decision of the trial court.(2) The judgment in such suit shall order the sale of such property and fix the time for holding the sale, which shall be not more than four weeks from the date of the judgment, and shall order the sheriff of the county to hold the same as other foreclosure sales, upon giving notice thereof for two consecutive weeks prior to the day of sale, by publication of notice once each week in a newspaper published in the county in which the land to be sold is situated and by posting notices in three public and conspicuous places in the county at least two weeks prior to the day of sale.(3) The district may be a bidder and purchaser of property upon such sale. Upon such sale the sheriff immediately shall issue a deed to the property sold, and no right of redemption shall exist. Amended by 1981 c.897 §64; 1995 c.696 §30; 2003 c. 576, § 520