Local Government Code of 1991
Section 175. Distraint of Personal Property. - The remedy by distraint shall proceed as follows:
(a) Seizure - Upon failure of the person owing any local tax, fee, or charge to pay the same at the time required, the local treasurer or his deputy may, upon written notice, seize or confiscate any personal property belonging to that person or any personal property subject to the lien in sufficient quantity to satisfy the tax, fee, or charge in question, together with any increment thereto incident to delinquency and the expenses of seizure. In such case, the local treasurer or his deputy shall issue a duly authenticated certificate based upon the records of his office showing the fact of delinquency and the amounts of the tax, fee, or charge and penalty due. Such certificate shall serve as sufficient warrant for the distraint of personal property aforementioned, subject to the taxpayer's right to claim exemption under the provisions of existing laws. Distrained personal property shall be sold at public auction in the manner hereon provided for.
(b) Accounting of distrained goods. - The officer executing the distraint shall make or cause to be made an account of the goods, chattels or effects distrained, a copy of which signed by himself shall be left either with the owner or person from whose possession the goods, chattels or effects are taken, or at the dwelling or place or business of that person and with someone of suitable age and discretion, to which list shall be added a statement of the sum demanded and a note of the time and place of sale.
(c) Publication - The officer shall forthwith cause a notification to be exhibited in not less than three (3) public and conspicuous places in the territory of the local government unit where the distraint is made, specifying the time and place of sale, and the articles distrained. The time of sale shall not be less than twenty (20) days after the notice to the owner or possessor of the property as above specified and the publication or posting of the notice. One place for the posting of the notice shall be at the office of the chief executive of the local government unit in which the property is distrained.
(d) Release of distrained property upon payment prior to sale - If at any time prior to the consummation of the sale, all the proper charges are paid to the officer conducting the sale, the goods or effects distrained shall be restored to the owner.
(e) Procedure of sale - At the time and place fixed in the notice, the officer conducting the sale shall sell the goods or effects so distrained at public auction to the highest bidder for cash. Within five (5) days after the sale, the local treasurer shall make a report of the proceedings in writing to the local chief executive concerned.
Should the property distrained be not disposed of within one hundred and twenty (120) days from the date of distraint, the same shall be considered as sold to the local government unit concerned for the amount of the assessment made thereon by the Committee on Appraisal and to the extent of the same amount, the tax delinquencies shall be cancelled.
Said Committee on Appraisal shall be composed of the city or municipal treasurer as chairman, with a representative of the Commission on Audit and the city or municipal assessor as members.
(f) Disposition of proceeds - The proceeds of the sale shall be applied to satisfy the tax, including the surcharges, interest, and other penalties incident to delinquency, and the expenses of the distraint and sale. The balance over and above what is required to pay the entire claim shall be returned to the owner of the property sold. The expenses chargeable upon the seizure and sale shall embrace only the actual expenses of seizure and preservation of the property pending the sale, and no charge shall be imposed for the services of the local officer or his deputy. Where the proceeds of the sale are insufficient to satisfy the claim, other property may, in like manner, be distrained until the full amount due, including all expenses, is collected.