(a) When an exemption under this article of realty and personalty or either has been applied for and set apart out of the property of a defendant in execution and the defendant in execution has no property except the real property on which the defendant resides on which to levy, if the plaintiff in execution seeks to have that real property levied on upon the ground that his debt falls within some or one of the classes for which the real property is bound under this article, such plaintiff, his agent, or his attorney may make an affidavit before any officer authorized to administer oaths that to the best of his knowledge and belief the debt upon which the execution is founded is one from which that real property is not exempt. Thereafter, it shall be the duty of the officer into whose hands the execution and the affidavit are placed to proceed at once to levy and sell as though the property had never been set apart.

(b) The defendant in execution may deny the truth of the plaintiff's affidavit by filing a counteraffidavit with the levying officer. If a counteraffidavit is filed, it shall be the duty of the levying officer to suspend further proceedings under the execution and to return the same together with the two affidavits to the court from which the execution issued.