Short answer. You have five days after the taking. If you don't object to the bond's sufficiency within that period, or you object but the court affirms or approves a new bond, or you demand return but your own bond is found insufficient and not promptly cured, the property is delivered to the applicant.
What the law says
If within five days after the taking of the property by the sheriff, the adverse party does not object to the sufficiency of the bond, or of the surety or sureties thereon; or if the adverse party so objects and the court affirms its approval of the applicant's bond or approves a new bond, or if the adverse party requires the return of the property but his bond is objected to and found insufficient and he does not forthwith file an approved bond, the property shall be delivered to the applicant. If for any reason the property is not delivered to the applicant, the sheriff must return it to the adverse party.
Rule 60, Section 6 — Disposition of property by sheriff. Read the full provision →
A five-day window to object
Rule 60, Section 6 gives the adverse party — the person from whom the property was taken — a five-day period after the sheriff's taking to object to the sufficiency of the applicant's bond or its sureties. Silence within that window is treated as acceptance for purposes of this section. This tight window mirrors the urgency built into replevin generally: the property is already in the sheriff's custody, and the rule does not let the question of who ultimately holds it linger indefinitely.
Three paths that lead to delivery to the applicant
The section identifies three distinct scenarios that result in the property going to the applicant: no timely objection at all; an objection that the court resolves by affirming the original bond or approving a replacement; or the adverse party seeking the property's return but having their own bond rejected as insufficient without promptly filing an approved replacement. In each of these three paths, the common thread is that the adverse party either failed to act within the window given, or acted but did not ultimately succeed in securing the property's return.
The default falls back to the adverse party
The section closes with a catch-all: if, for any reason, the property is not delivered to the applicant, the sheriff must return it to the adverse party. This ensures the property does not simply sit indefinitely in the sheriff's custody once the disposition process under this section has run its course. The sheriff's custody is meant to be temporary in every scenario, resolving in favor of one side or the other rather than becoming an open-ended holding arrangement, and the five-day window for objecting is what usually determines which way that resolution goes. A party who wants to keep the seized property, rather than see it delivered to the applicant, should treat that five-day period as the critical window in which to act, not a formality to address later.
Related provisions
- Rule 60, Section 6 — Disposition of property by sheriff
- Rule 60, Section 4 — Duty of the sheriff
- Rule 60, Section 7 — Proceedings where property claimed by third person