§ 8.01-490.No unreasonable distress or levy; sustenance provided for livestock; removal of property.

Section 8.01-490 layers three separate protections onto the distress and levy process. First, and most broadly, officers are barred outright from making an unreasonable distress or levy — a general check on overreach that applies regardless of what specific property is involved.

Second, the section addresses livestock directly. Horses or other animals that are distrained or levied on do not sit and wait untended; the officer must provide sufficient sustenance for them for as long as they remain in the officer’s possession.

Third, the section restricts where seized property can go. As a rule, nothing distrained or levied on may be removed outside the officer’s own county or city. The one significant exception allows the officer to hire a Virginia-licensed auctioneer or auction firm to sell the property and, in doing so, to transport that property to wherever the auction takes place, whether inside or outside the officer’s own jurisdiction — unless some other statute specially provides otherwise.