(a) On any acreage tract of land embraced in any municipal improvement district located in the municipality, where two (2) or more property owners own different portions of such an acreage tract, the benefits to which were assessed as a unit or with one (1) assessment of benefits for the entire tract, and a majority of the property owners desire to pay their just part of the assessment of benefits but cannot pay it because the assessment is on the entire tract and not apportioned to each parcel of the tract as owned, any one of the respective owners may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction for an apportionment of the assessment, making the other owners of the tract embraced in the unit assessment defendants.
(b) Upon payment of the apportioned assessment as fixed by the court, the person so paying shall be relieved of all penalties accruing prior to the apportionment of the assessment as fixed by the court.