When affidavit and bond have been made and delivered as required in Code Sections 9-13-90 and 9-13-91, it shall be the duty of the sheriff or other levying officer to postpone the sale of the property until otherwise ordered.
§ 9-13-93.Postponement of sale
Chapter 13. Executions and Judicial Sales · Article 5. Claims · Last amended 1933 · Last verified July 17, 2026
In one sentenceO.C.G.A. § 9-13-93 makes it the levying officer’s duty to postpone the sale of levied property once the claimant has made and delivered the affidavit and bond required by Code Sections 9-13-90 and 9-13-91, holding the sale off until a court orders otherwise.
Full Text of § 9-13-93
Plain-English Summary
Filing a claim means little if the sheriff can still sell the property out from under the claimant while the paperwork sits in a file. This section supplies the payoff: once the oath and bond are made and delivered, postponing the sale stops being discretionary and becomes the officer’s duty.
That duty holds the sale in place “until otherwise ordered.” There is no fixed number of days built into the postponement — it runs indefinitely, tracking the pace of the claim proceeding itself, until a court with authority over the case says the sale may go forward or the claim is resolved. Code Section 9-13-92 reaches the same result through a different door: an affidavit of indigence suspends the sale the same way a completed bond does, so a claimant using that route gets the identical protection without needing the bond itself.
What the officer cannot do is treat the postponement as optional once the paperwork is complete. The next steps in Article 5 — the return of the claim to the proper court under Code Section 9-13-98, and the jury trial under Code Section 9-13-100 — assume the property is sitting still while the dispute over its ownership plays out.
Frequently Asked Questions
What must happen before the officer is required to postpone the sale?
The claimant must have made and delivered both the oath required by Code Section 9-13-90 and the bond required by Code Section 9-13-91, or the indigence affidavit permitted by Code Section 9-13-92.
How long does the postponement last?
The statute does not set a fixed period — the sale is postponed until otherwise ordered, meaning until a court authorizes it to proceed or the claim is resolved.
Is postponing the sale left to the officer’s discretion?
No. Once the affidavit and bond have been delivered, the statute makes postponement the officer’s duty.
Does an affidavit of indigence trigger the same postponement duty?
Yes. Code Section 9-13-92 gives the indigence affidavit the same suspending effect as bond and security, so this postponement duty follows either route.
What happens if the claimant files the oath but never delivers the bond or indigence affidavit?
The officer is not required to postpone the sale, since the postponement duty depends on the oath and the security — whether by bond or by affidavit of indigence — both being delivered.
Amendment History
Laws 1821, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, p. 532; Code 1863, § 3652; Code 1868, § 3677; Code 1873, § 3727; Code 1882, § 3727; Civil Code 1895, § 4613; Civil Code 1910, § 5159; Code 1933, § 39-803.
Source & verification. Section text and amendment history are
reproduced verbatim from the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, published by the
Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Georgia Code Revision Commission / LexisNexis. Last verified July 17, 2026.
· Official source
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