Authority of sheriffs, etc., to store and sell personal property removed from premises; recovery of possession by owner; disposition or sale
Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-156
in effectIn any county or city, when personal property is removed from premises pursuant to an action of unlawful detainer or ejectment, or pursuant to any other action in which personal property is removed from premises in order to restore such premises to the person entitled thereto, the sheriff shall oversee the removal of such personal property and it shall be placed in a storage area designated by the governing body of the county or city if such an area has been so designated, or, in the case of a manufactured home, at the request of the owner of the real property, to be placed into a storage area designated by the owner of the real property which may be the manufactured home lot or other location within the manufactured home park, unless the owner of such personal property then and there removes it from the public way. The sheriff and the owner of the real property shall not have any liability for the loss of any such manufactured home remaining on the manufactured home lot, nor shall they have any liability for the loss of any removed personal property.
The owner, before obtaining possession of such personal property so placed in a storage area shall pay to the parties entitled thereto the reasonable and necessary costs incidental to such removal and storage. Should such owner fail or refuse to pay such costs within 30 days from the date of placing the property in storage, the sheriff shall, after due notice to the owner and holders of liens of record, dispose of the property by publicly advertised public sale. The proceeds from such sale shall be used to pay all costs of removal, storage, and sale, all fees and liens, and the balance of such funds shall be paid to the person entitled thereto. Should the cost of removal and storage exceed the proceeds realized from such sale the county or city shall reimburse the sheriff for such excess, except that any such excess costs related to the disposal of a manufactured home shall be paid by the owner of the real property from which the manufactured home was removed. The sheriff, in his discretion, may refuse to remove or dispose of such manufactured home until the owner of the real property pays to the sheriff the estimated cost of such removal and disposition. Subsequent to disposition, the sheriff shall reimburse the owner to the extent the actual cost is less than the estimated cost, or shall request additional payment to the extent the actual cost exceeds the estimated cost.
Code 1950, § 8-825.1; 1964, c. 387; 1977, c. 617; 1992, c. 454; 1993, c. 16; 2005, c. 791 ; 2006, c. 129 .
Source: Open US Law by Vaquill AI (CC BY 4.0)URL: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/8.01-156/Fetched: 10/17/2026