Vermont Attorneys Title Corporation

• Vermont Title Standards Index ›

  • 1.1 The Role of the Examining Attorney
  • 1.2 The Examining Attorney's Attitude
  • 1.3 Definition of Marketable Title
  • 1.4 Reference to Title Standards in Real Estate Sales Contract
  • 2.1 Period of Search
  • 2.2 The Concept of the Chain of Title and its Relationship of the Rule of Record Notice and the Scope of the Title Searcher's Obligation
  • 2.3 Effect of Recording Instruments Claiming an Interest in Real Estate
  • 2.4 Wild Instruments: Instruments by Strangers to the Record Chain of Title
  • 2.4A After Acquired Property
  • 2.5 Priority of Conveyances
  • 2.6 Time When a Conveyance is Considered as Properly "Recorded"
  • 2.7 Record of Expired Leases or Expired Interests
  • 4.1 Limitation on the Use by Grantor of Corrective Deeds
  • 6.1 Grantors
  • 6.2 Majority
  • 6.3 Mental Capacity
  • 6.4 Marital Interests
  • 6.5 Powers of Attorney
  • 7.1 Grantees
  • 8.1 Name Variances
  • 9.1 Execution, Witnessing and Acknowledgement
  • 11.1 Delivery
  • 13.1 Conveyance by Heirs' Deed
  • 13.2 Conveyance by Devisees in Lieu of Probate Administration
  • 13.3 Omitted Real Estate or Faulty Description of Closed Estate
  • 13.4 Conveyance by Trustee of a Non-Probate Trust
  • 14.1 Conveyance to Two or More Persons
  • 18.1 Federal Special Gift Tax Lien
  • 18.2 Irregularities and Discrepancies in Discharges of Mortgage and other Documents
  • 18.3 Discharges of Corrected, Re-Recorded, or Modified Mortgages
  • 18.4 Effect of Failure to Discharge Assignments of Leases and/or Rent, Riders or Financing Statements
  • 18.5 Discharges Involving Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS)
  • 20.1 Presumptions Applicable to Corporate Conveyances
  • 22.1 Limited Liability Companies
  • 23.1 Federal General Tax Lien
  • 24.1 Federal Special Estate Tax Lien
  • 25.1 Federal Gift Tax Lien
  • 27.1 Vermont Estate Tax Lien
  • 28.1 Establishing Marketable Title To Interests In Real Property Owned By Failed Financial Institutions
  • 28.2 Title of the Receiver of a Failed Financial Institution to the Assets of That Institution
  • 28.3 Title of the Immediate Transferee of the Receiver of a Failed Financial Institution
  • 28.4 Marketability of Title In a Real Estate Interest of a Failed Financial Institution for Which No Conveyance, Transfer or Assignment Appears of Record Prior to the Dissolution of the Bridge Institution Which Had Continued The Business of the Failed Institution
  • 28.5 Discharges, Partial Releases, Assignments and Foreclosure of Mortgages of a Failed Institution By a Transferee of the Receiver For Such Failed Institution

STANDARD 2.3

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EFFECT OF THE RECORDING OF INSTRUMENTS CLAIMING AN INTEREST IN REAL ESTATE

When an instrument is recorded which claims an interest in real estate and the claim is one which is authorized by law, then the examiner is on inquiry notice to determine the basis of the claim and the impact of the claim on the title to the interest being searched. If, however, the claim is one not authorized by law, then the recorded notice of the claim is not effective to encumber title to the property in which the interest is claimed.

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Comment 1. Certain claims by strangers to the chain of title are authorized by law such as a notice of claim under 27 V.S.A. 605, mechanics liens (9 V.S.A. Chap. 51); judgment liens (12 V.S.A. Chap. 113); pre-judgment attachments (12 V.S.A. Chap. 123 and V.R. Civ. P. 4.1); and, a claim of adverse possession documented in the land records.

Comment 2. Claims not authorized by law such as a non-judicial attachment or lis pendens, a real estate listing agreement, or a lien for fuel oil filed by the supplier to the owner not otherwise authorized by 9 V.S.A. Chap. 51 (mechanics liens) are not sufficient to put the title examiner on inquiry notice of the matters stated therein.

Comment 3. If the record discloses a recorded Purchase and Sale Agreement or Deposit Receipt and Sales Agreement and there does not appear of record an instrument conveying the title to the property interest subject to such Agreement to the purchaser/buyer named in the Agreement, the title examiner should not assume that such Agreement is unenforceable. Such an agreement may result in an encumbrance on the title. Hemingway v. Shatney, 152 Vt. 600 (1989). See Colony Park Associates v. Gall et al. , 154 Vt. 1 (1990).

History

March 29, 2000 Comment 4. -- Removed.

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