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 IX

STANDARD 9.1

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 EXECUTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Deeds and other conveyances of an interest in lands must be signed by the party or parties granting the interest, acknowledged by the grantor as provided by statute, and recorded in the clerk's office of the town in which such lands are located.

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Comment 1. The examining attorney should assure himself/herself that the execution of the instrument has been performed in accordance with the following standards:

(a) The requirements for execution and acknowledgment are set forth in 27 V.S.A. §§ 341 and 342.

(b) Omission of the date of execution and/or acknowledgment from a conveyance or other instrument affecting title does not impair marketability.  Even if the date of execution/acknowledgment is of particular significance, an undated instrument should be presumed to have been timely executed/acknowledged if the date of
 execution/acknowledgment or of recordation supports that presumption.

Inconsistencies in the recitals or indication of dates, as between dates of execution and acknowledgment or recordation, do not impair marketability.  Absent a particular significance of one of the dates, a proper sequence of formalities will be presumed, notwithstanding such inconsistencies.  See Spero v. Bove, 116 VT 76 (1950).

(c) An executor, administrator or guardian may not appoint an attorney in fact for the purpose of executing a document affecting title to real property.  See Watkins' Estate v. Howard National Bank & Trust Company, 113 Vt. 126 (1943), at page 133.

(d) Absent evidence of authority to the contrary, a trustee, corporate officer, designated partner, or anyone else acting in an elected or appointive capacity may not appoint an attorney in fact for the purpose of executing a document affecting title to real property.  A designated partner is one appointed under a written resolution or aut¬horization to act on behalf of the partnership.  A general partner may appoint an attorney in fact as to matters affecting only the interest of that general partner.

(e) See 27 V.S.A. §348 for the exceptions to the rule for defective instruments which have been on record for a period of years.

(f) See 27 V.S.A. §379 for the requirements for acknowledgment of deeds and other conveyances of interests in land, or powers of attorney affecting such lands, in another state, province or kingdom.

(g) The requirement of a witness was omitted as of July 1, 2004. The change applies retroactively.

 History

March 29, 2000:  The first sentence of the standard was revised to reflect the statutory change so that “one or more” witnesses are sufficient.

Comment 1(c) was rewritten generally for clarification of the circumstances in which a fiduciary may grant a power of attorney.

Comment 1(d) – The case of the letters was changed from all caps to mixed case to match the context of the remaining standards.

September 26, 2008:  Original Comment 1(e) and 1(f) omitted; Comment 1(g) and 1(h) renumbered as 1(e) and 1(f) respectively. New Comment 1(g) added. Stylistic changes to statutory citations were made in comment 1(a) and in newly renumbered comments 1(e) and (f).

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