§ 514.030.Duty of Levying Officer After Taking Possession

Once the levying officer has possession, the property doesn't just sit there indefinitely — this section sets the clock for what happens next. If ten days pass after levy without notice of a filed redelivery undertaking or an objection to the plaintiff's undertaking, the officer delivers the property to the plaintiff, once the plaintiff pays the officer's fees and expenses for taking and keeping it.

If the defendant does file a redelivery undertaking within that ten-day window and nobody objects to it, the officer redelivers the property to the defendant once the objection period expires, on payment of any fees and expenses not already covered by the plaintiff. If either the plaintiff's undertaking is objected to, or the defendant's redelivery undertaking is filed and then objected to, the officer holds the property until the court resolves the dispute under § 515.030.

Subdivision (b) gives the court a separate escape valve for property that won't wait: where no redelivery undertaking has been filed and no contract addresses the situation, the court may order the property sold — if it's perishable, will greatly deteriorate or depreciate, or the parties' interests are otherwise best served that way — with the proceeds deposited with the court to abide the judgment.