Vermont Disclaimer of Interest (Personal Representative)

This Vermont Disclaimer of Interest is drawn for one particular signer: the personal representative of an estate, signing in a representative capacity rather than a personal one. The form performs a refusal, on the estate's behalf, of an interest in Vermont real property that would otherwise pass to the person the estate represents, under the Vermont Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act, 14 V.S.A. chapter 129, and it records in the land records of the town where the property lies.

A refusal made in a representative capacity

The configuration is the product. The form recites a probate appointment (the court unit, the docket number, and the date of appointment), identifies the estate the fiduciary administers, and states that the disclaimer is executed solely in that representative capacity. Its statutory footing is 14 V.S.A. section 4105(b): except to the extent expressly restricted by another Vermont statute or by the instrument creating the fiduciary relationship, a fiduciary may disclaim, in whole or in part, any interest in or power over property, whether acting in a personal or representative capacity. One signature line and one notary acknowledgment certificate, in the representative-capacity pattern of Vermont's short-form certificate statute, complete the execution block.

The record pattern that presents this instrument is the beneficiary who dies before distribution. An owner dies leaving Vermont real property to a relative; the relative dies soon after, before the devise is distributed; the right to take then sits in the relative's own estate, and that estate's personal representative executes the disclaimer, sending the interest along the statute's path instead of through two successive administrations. The form recites a fiduciary appointment throughout, and a renunciation signed personally by a living heir or beneficiary follows a different pattern than this instrument recites.

Vermont's 2026 disclaimer act

Vermont replaced its disclaimer law in 2026. S.179, signed on June 8, 2026 and effective on passage, enacted chapter 129 and repealed the former act at 14 V.S.A. chapter 83. The new chapter carries the national uniform act's mechanics: the disclaimer declares itself, describes the interest disclaimed, and is signed by the person making it; it becomes irrevocable on delivery or filing; and it is expressly not a transfer, assignment, or release. Under section 4106 the disclaimed interest passes as though the disclaimant died immediately before the time of distribution, unless the creating instrument says where disclaimed interests go. The former nine-month state-law delivery window did not carry forward; chapter 129 instead bars a disclaimer after acceptance or transfer of the interest, while the nine-month clock keeps its separate federal role for a disclaimer intended to qualify under 26 U.S.C. section 2518.

From signing to the town land records

Vermont records land instruments by town rather than by county, and this disclaimer records with the clerk of the town or city where the property lies, at the statewide fee of 15 dollars per page. Recording is permissive under section 4115, and the recorded copy does the title work: it completes the chain a later purchaser, examiner, or probate court reads, so the land records and the probate file tell the same story. The form reserves the top of its first page for the clerk's recording information, keeps ten point type, and carries the printed name under the signature line that Vermont's recording-fee statute contemplates.

The package delivers a fillable disclaimer form, a completed example filled in for a Middlebury, Addison County estate scenario, and a section-by-section guide covering the statute, the signing formalities, and the recording steps. The materials are informational and are not legal advice; a Vermont attorney can address how chapter 129 operates on a specific estate.