N.Y. Second Class Cities Law § 95
All water rents shall be collected from the owners of the lots and buildings which shall be situated upon any street or avenue upon which the distributing pipes are now or may hereafter be laid, and from which such lots and buildings can be supplied with water. Water rents, together with the amounts due and unpaid for the introduction and measurement of the supply of water, shall be, like other taxes of the city, a lien upon the lots and buildings against which the same are chargeable. It shall be the duty of the commissioner each year, immediately preceding the time for the making of the annual assessment-roll, to make out a list or roll of each ward or assessment district of the city, in which he shall set out the amount of water rents accrued or chargeable upon each lot, part of lot or building, and which shall not have been paid to him, and file the same with the assessors of the city, who shall in the preparation of the next assessment-rolls for general city taxes, in a separate column thereof, assess such amount upon such property, and hearings shall be had thereon and the same shall be levied, corrected, enforced and collected in the same manner, by the same proceedings, at the same time, under the same penalties, and having the same lien upon the property assessed as the general city tax and as a part thereof.
N.Y. Second Class Cities Law § 95