Vermont Enhanced Life Estate Deed (Married Couple as Grantors)

Two Vermont spouses can sign one deed that names who receives their home after both of them are gone, while keeping every meaningful right of ownership for as long as either of them lives. This Vermont Enhanced Life Estate Deed is set up for that exact configuration: a married couple as grantors, both signing, with the reserved rights running to the couple and then to the surviving spouse alone.

A deed that waits for the second death

Vermont wrote the enhanced life estate deed, often searched as a lady bird deed or ELE deed, into statute in 2020 as chapter 6 of Title 27, the Enhanced Life Estate Deed Act. The grantees named in the deed take only a contingent remainder: no present interest, nothing their creditors can reach, and nothing they can sell while a grantor lives; a transfer that attempts to convey the contingent remainder early is void by statute. If the couple never conveys the property away, title vests in the grantees at the surviving spouse's death, outside probate and subject to whatever encumbrances are then of record.

Until then, the statute keeps the owners in charge. A validly executed and recorded ELE deed does not affect the grantors' ownership rights, and the grantors may sell, mortgage, lease, gift, or otherwise convey the property with no joinder by, consent from, or notice to the grantees. Recording a new deed changes the plan: a deed from the grantors back to themselves revokes, and a new enhanced life estate deed naming all intended grantees revises and supersedes the earlier one.

The married couple configuration

The form recites exactly two grantors who are married to each other, and it states that each spouse joins in the execution and acknowledgment of the deed, the joinder Vermont's homestead and tenancy by the entirety statutes describe for property spouses hold together. The reserved rights clause follows the statutory form's plural wording: the grantors, or the survivor of them, reserve a common law life estate with exclusive use, possession, and enjoyment, plus the right to convey. After the first death, that whole bundle belongs to the surviving spouse alone, and the grantees still hold nothing vested until the second death. Two signature blocks and an acknowledgment certificate for each spouse carry the execution, so the spouses may acknowledge together or on different dates. A sole owner's deed, and a deed for co-owners who are not married to each other, recite different grantor patterns than this one.

Statutory language, Vermont recording

The deed follows the optional statutory form in 27 V.S.A. Section 660, from the granting words GIVE, GRANT, SELL, CONVEY, AND CONFIRM through the reserved rights clause, the habendum, and the statutory covenants, with the property description, source of title, and nature of tenancy collected in numbered sections. The nature of tenancy entry states how multiple grantees hold title when it vests, and the statute supplies default outcomes when a grantee dies before the grantors, one rule for tenants in common and another for joint tenants.

Vermont records deeds with the clerk of the town or city where the land lies; there is no county recording system. The clerk charges the statewide fifteen dollars per page and, by statute, cannot record the deed unless a completed Vermont Property Transfer Tax Return, Form PTT-172, and the required Act 250 certificate come with it. An executed and recorded enhanced life estate deed is subject to the property transfer tax even where the conveyance is without consideration, and the tax statutes include a refund petition when a taxed ELE interest is later revoked or revised. The guide included with this form walks through the return, the rates and exemptions, and the town recording steps.

What is in the download

The package contains the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the whole document filled in for a realistic Chittenden County fact pattern, and a plain language guide that covers each numbered section, the vesting choices for the grantees, signing before the notary, and recording at the town clerk's office. The materials are informational and are not legal advice; a Vermont attorney can apply chapter 6 to a specific title or estate plan.