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 VII

 STANDARD 7.1

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 GRANTEES

An instrument will not operate as a conveyance of the legal title to an interest in land unless it designates an individual or entity authorized by statute as grantee who is (a) in existence and (b) has the capacity to take and hold the legal title to land at the time of the conveyance.  A deed will not pass the legal title if the grantee is: (1) designated in the alternate, (2) unborn, (3) a deceased person or (4) any other entity not in existence.

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Comment 1.  A deed to an incompetent or minor is good, since the same restrictions which apply to incompetent or minor grantors do not apply to grantees.

Comment 2.  If a deed does not pass legal title to the purported grantee or grantees, the legal title remains in the grantor.

Comment 3.  A corporation is not in existence for purposes of taking legal title unless a current certificate of good standing is recorded or is otherwise available or obtainable.  See 11A V.S.A. §§ 2.03, 3.02(4).

Comment 4.  Where a de facto partnership exists as evidenced by a Tradename Registration with the Vermont Secretary of State (11 V.S.A. §1621), a deed to the tradename shall be a conveyance to the partnership.

Comment 5.  Pursuant to 1 V.S.A. §118, a grantor “may include every person by or from whom an estate or interest in land is passed in or by a deed” and a grantee “may include every person to whom such estate or interest passes.”  A “person” is defined as “any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency or subdivision of the State and any partnership, unincorporated association or other legal entity.” 1 V.S.A. §128.

History

March 29, 2000:  Comment 5 revised by incorporating the statutory definition of grantee and grantor.

September 26, 2008:  Standard was revised to omit the prohibition against conveyances to “an estate” or to “a trust” in light of the enactment of 27 V.S.A. 351 validating such conveyances. See 2003, Act 150 (Adj. Sess.) §3.
 

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