Grand Isle County Assignment of Mortgage (Personal Representative) Form

A recorded Vermont mortgage outlives its holder. When the person named in the town land records as mortgagee dies, the note, the payments, and the lien become assets of an estate, and moving them to a new holder becomes the work of a fiduciary. This Vermont assignment of mortgage carries that transfer: one individual, signing as personal representative of the deceased holder's estate, assigns the recorded mortgage and the obligation it secures to a named assignee, and the instrument is recorded by the clerk of the Vermont town or city that holds the mortgage of record.

Personal assets in the fiduciary's hands

Vermont statute answers the first question an estate-held loan raises. Under 14 V.S.A. Section 1413, a debt secured by mortgage that belongs to the estate of a deceased person as mortgagee, or as assignee of a mortgagee, is personal assets in the hands of the executor or administrator, administered and accounted for with the rest of the personal estate; the same section lets the fiduciary foreclose as the decedent could have done. Administration then produces the transfers this instrument records: the fiduciary sells the note and mortgage to a purchaser of private loan paper to raise funds for the estate, or conveys the mortgage to the beneficiary entitled to it when the estate winds up. A decedent who financed the sale of a former home and collected payments for years, or who lent privately against Vermont land, leaves exactly this asset behind.

One representative signature, one capacity recital

Section 1 of the form states the architecture. The assignor is a single individual, identified first by name and mailing address and then by capacity: the named estate, the appointing court and case number in the Probate Division of the Vermont Superior Court, and the date of appointment, the entries a fiduciary's certificate of appointment supplies. The Probate Division issues that certificate; it documents the authority to third parties, is obtained separately, and is not included in this package. The operative section recites that the assignor acts solely in the stated representative capacity and not individually, that the estate holds the mortgagee's interest, and that the mortgage stands unassigned and undischarged of record; the transfer then runs without recourse and without warranty beyond any terms the parties add. One signature line and one acknowledgment certificate close the instrument, the certificate's blank carrying the signer's name and representative capacity, matching the representative-capacity short form certificate in 26 V.S.A. Section 5368. The form recites exactly one fiduciary assignor; a holder assigning in a personal capacity, co-executors signing together, and a corporate fiduciary signing through an officer each present an execution pattern this form is not drawn for.

A transfer the discharge statutes anticipate

Vermont's mortgage statutes keep naming this fiduciary. The discharge provisions of 27 V.S.A. Sections 461 through 463 run to the mortgagee or the mortgagee's executor, administrator, or assigns, so the law expects an estate fiduciary on the lender's side of a Vermont loan. When a loan pays off, 27 V.S.A. Section 464 expects the record holder to supply whatever documents show its ownership of the mortgage and its authority to release it. And 27 V.S.A. Section 465 shows what happens when a mortgagee dies and the record simply goes quiet: a Probate Division proceeding to appoint an administrator for the sole purpose of clearing the lien. A recorded assignment made while the estate is open is the orderly path those sections point toward, placing a living, present holder in the chain so the borrowers' eventual payoff finds the right party in the land records.

Town records, a flat page fee, no transfer tax return

Execution and recording follow Vermont's conveyance pattern, because Vermont is a title theory state and the mortgagee's interest is an interest in land. The fiduciary signs and acknowledges before a notary public under 27 V.S.A. Section 341, with no witnesses joining, and recording under 27 V.S.A. Section 342 is what makes the transfer good against everyone beyond the assignor. 24 V.S.A. Section 1158 names the destination, the records of the town, and calls for a marginal note connecting the assignment to the mortgage's book and page, which is why the form gathers the mortgagors, the original mortgagee, the mortgage date, the recording reference, and any prior assignments. Vermont has no county recorder for land instruments; the town or city clerk records the assignment for the statewide fee of $15.00 per page under 32 V.S.A. Section 1671. The property transfer tax return that travels with Vermont deeds stays home, since the Department of Taxes places mortgage assignments outside the PTT-172 filing category, so the instrument, the fee, and a return address ordinarily make up the entire recording package.

The download prepares one instrument for one pass through that process: the assignment of mortgage as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing a St. Johnsbury estate's fiduciary assigning a seller-financed mortgage to a Vermont company, and a plain language guide that walks through every section, the notarization, and recording with the town clerk. The materials describe Vermont law in general terms and are not legal advice.