Distraint

Distraint or distress is "the seizure of someone’s property in order to obtain payment of rent or other money owed",[1] especially in common law countries.

Today, some kind of court action is usually required,[4] the main exception being certain tax authorities – such as HM Revenue and Customs in the United Kingdom and the Internal Revenue Service in the United States – and other agencies that retain the legal power to levy assets (by either seizure or distraint) without a court order.

[5] Article 61 of Magna Carta extended the law of distraint to the monarch's properties, including "our castles, lands, possessions, or anything else saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children".

No individual was to be entitled to seek "revenge or distress of his own authority" against his neighbour for any damage or injury suffered without first obtaining an award from the court.

Secondly, it laid down a prohibition on individuals taking the law into their own hands and seeking remedies (revenge or distress) without the court's sanction.

[9][non-primary source needed] In the United Kingdom the proposals which have been implemented to reduce the area to post-warrant executions by registered court bailiffs (enforcement officers) gained serious traction in the late 20th century.

[14] In contrast, private sector debt collectors can chase a debtor to pay what is owed to a creditor, but they cannot levy distress.

[15] Distraint was adopted into the United States common law from England, and it has recently been challenged as a possible violation of due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

1982), however, the courts have upheld the rule because, as a landlord's self-help remedy, distraint involves no state action and thus cannot violate due process rights.