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
  • 15.1 Deeds Retaining Life Estates With Reserved Powers
  • 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)
  • 19.1 Tax Collector's Deed
  • 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 XIX

STANDARD 19.1

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TAX COLLECTOR'S DEED

A tax collector’s deed supported by a report of sale meeting the requirements of 32 V.S.A. §5255 operates as a conveyance of legal title to the interest in the land sold at tax sale when the tax collector’s deed has been properly executed and recorded after the time for redemption has passed.  Marketable title will require that: (i) the title examiner make additional inquiry to determine that notice of the tax sale was given consistent with the requirements of 32 V.S.A. §5252 and §5253 and constitutional due process; and, (ii) the three year statute of limitations has passed (32 V.S.A. §5263).   In addition, marketable title may be established when the grantee named in the tax collector's deed and such grantee’s successors in title have held continuous, open and notorious possession of the property described in the tax collector's deed for a period of at least fifteen years.

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Comment 1.   Adequate statutory notice may nonetheless violate constitutional due process, in that Vermont Statutes do not require proof of actual receipt of notice. See, Jones v. Flowers, NNN U.S. NNN (2006); see also, Turner v. Spera, 140 Vt. 19 (1980). The Standard recognizes that fifteen years of adverse possession is the ultimate form of notice, despite any defects there may have been in the original tax sale process.

Comment 2.  The tax collector’s deed conveys title against the taxpayer and anyone claiming under the taxpayer.  32 V.S.A. §5261. However, the State of Vermont Tax Department has expressed a position that tax sales do not extinguish State Tax liens recorded against the property. The Committee takes no position on the State's asserted rights. The United States may take the same position with respect to Federal Tax liens.

Comment 3. The statutes of limitations applicable to the tax sale titles include:

(a) 32 V.S.A. §5294(4) and §5295(3).   
(b) 32 V.S.A. §5263.
(c) 12 V.S.A. §501. 

Comment 4.  Another area of judicial inquiry, also with a constitutional due process element, has been the disparity between tax sale price and property value,   Bogie v. Town of Barnet, 129 Vt. 46 (1970); Price v. Leland, 149 Vt. 518 (1988).  However, in response to Bogie and its progeny, current best tax sale practices incorporate a method for determining whether the premises are divisible (so that less than the whole can satisfy the obligation), and for protecting the excess proceeds for the taxpayer.  The 1995 amendment to 32 V.S.A. §5254 adding subsection (b) is also clearly directed towards the “divisibility” issue.  The Vermont Supreme Court has not had this issue before it since the amendment was enacted.

Comment 5.  A notice of tax sale should inform the taxpayers that they may seek an abatement of the taxes. Windsor v. Blanchard, Windsor Superior Court, April 4, 2000. S528-11-99 Wrcv.

History

September  24, 2010   This standard was added.