Vermont Assignment of Mortgage (Individual Trustee)

This fillable assignment of mortgage transfers a recorded Vermont mortgage held by an individual serving as trustee of a trust. The form carries one assignor, one signature line, and one acknowledgment certificate, and its operative section recites that the signer acts solely in the fiduciary capacity of trustee stated on the face of the instrument and not individually. The assignment moves the mortgage, together with the promissory note or other obligation it secures, to a named assignee, and it is built for recording in the Vermont town or city land records where the mortgage itself is recorded.

One trustee signature and a capacity recital

The assignor section identifies the trustee by name and mailing address and then states the fiduciary capacity: the trust's full name and the date of the trust instrument. That capacity carries through the whole instrument. The operative assignment language runs from the trustee in the stated capacity, the signature block is labeled for the trustee, and the notary's certificate names the signer with the representative capacity, in the manner of the short form certificates in 26 V.S.A. 5368. Two patterns commonly present this configuration in Vermont land records: a seller-financed sale in which the buyer's note and mortgage were taken directly in the name of the owner's revocable trust, and a mortgage moved into a trust by an earlier recorded assignment and now assigned onward by the trustee. A mortgage held by a bank, by cotrustees who all join, or by an individual in a personal capacity presents a different signing configuration than the single fiduciary signature this form recites.

Why the assignment is recorded

Vermont names the instrument directly: under 24 V.S.A. 1158, an assignment of a mortgage is duly recorded in the records of the town, and the clerk cross-references it to the mortgage record by volume and page. The recorded chain matters most at payoff. Under 27 V.S.A. 464, the mortgagee of record delivers the discharge when the debt is fully performed, together with any instrument necessary to establish record ownership of the mortgage and the authority to discharge it, and Vermont title practice reads a discharge against a chain of recorded assignments running unbroken from the original mortgagee to the discharging holder. The form's mortgage identification section collects exactly what that chain needs: the original mortgagor and mortgagee as the mortgage names them, the mortgage date, the volume and page of the mortgage record, and the volume and page of the most recent recorded assignment, if there is one.

Town recording, municipal fees, no transfer tax return

Vermont records land instruments by town and city, not by county, so the assignment goes to the clerk of the municipality where the land lies, the same office that holds the mortgage record. The statewide recording fee under 32 V.S.A. 1671 is fifteen dollars per page. An assignment of mortgage travels lighter than a deed at the recording counter: the Vermont property transfer tax return that accompanies deeds transferring title does not apply to mortgage assignments, so the instrument records without a PTT-172. The trustee signs before a notary public under 27 V.S.A. 341, no witnesses are required, and the printed name line under the signature follows the name-under-signature practice of 32 V.S.A. 1405.

What the package prepares

The assignment states its consideration, identifies the property the mortgage covers in the words of the mortgage itself, and leaves an additional provisions section for terms such as an express warranty or a statement of the unpaid balance; the operative language otherwise transfers the mortgage without warranty. The trustee's underlying authority is documented to third parties by a certification of trust under 14A V.S.A. 1013, a sworn instrument prepared and recorded separately and not included in this package. The download contains the fillable assignment of mortgage form, a completed example showing a realistic Chittenden County fact pattern, and a guide that walks through each section, notarization, and recording; the materials are informational and are not legal advice.