(1)On the failure to recover any sum due on account of the taxes on any land or building from the person primarily liable therefore under section 143, the Chief Officer of a Municipality shall, notwithstanding anything contained or in any other law for the time being in force, recover, from every occupier of such land or building, by attachment of the rent payable by such occupier, a portion of the total sum due, which bears, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to that sum, as the rent annually payable by such occupier bears to the total amount of rent annually payable in respect of the whole of such land or building.