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

CHAPTER XIII

STANDARD 13.1

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CONVEYANCE BY HEIRS' DEED

A deed by heirs, whether in warranty or quitclaim form, shall be effective to pass title to real estate where the same has been of record for a period of at least fifteen years and it is established by corroborative evidence that the signatories of said deed are all of the decedent's heirs-at-law.

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Comment 1. Title to real estate of an intestate passes immediately to the intestate's heirs upon death, subject to the lien of the administrator for the payment of debts, expenses of administration., and other expenses legally chargeable against the estate. In Re Estate of Bettis, 133 Vt. 310 (1975). The heir upon the death of the ancestor has a vested interest in the estate which the heir may immediately convey by deed. The grantee by the deed gets the title of the heir holding the land subject to the lien of the administrator. Austin v. Bailey, 37 Vt. 219, 222 (1864).

Comment 2. Evidence of heirship may be established through probate or other public records in this or other states or by affidavit based upon personal knowledge from one closely acquainted with decedent's family history. Jones v. Jones Estate, 121 Vt. 111, 114 (1959). When reasonably possible, the collateral evidence thus established shall be placed of record and cross-indexed to the instrument of conveyance it purports to corroborate.

Comment 3. The fifteen year time period for this standard has no specific Vermont statutory basis, but is adopted because: (a) it extends beyond any applicable statute of limitations for defeasance by the administrator's or any tax lien, and (b) the likelihood of a successful adverse claim to title arising after fifteen years is remote, reduced inter alia by the number of instances in which the record owner also takes possession establishing an additional independent claim to title by long user.

Comment 4. An heirs' deed of record for a period of at least forty years, which purports to convey the entire interest of the decedent, is effective to pass title to real estate without substantiation, independent of this standard, pursuant to 27 V.S.A. §601.

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