Vermont Gift Deed (Married Couple as Grantors)

When a Vermont married couple gives real estate away, both spouses sign the same deed. This Vermont gift deed is built around exactly that configuration: two married grantors, one Vermont property, and a conveyance to the named grantee for no monetary consideration, in consideration of love and affection.

Two grantors, two signatures, one gift

The form names two grantors who state that they are married to each other, and it conveys all right, title, and interest of each of them, including any interest held as tenant by the entirety and any homestead interest. That structure tracks two Vermont statutes. 27 V.S.A. Section 141 makes a married owner's conveyance of homestead property inoperative as to the homestead unless the spouse joins in the execution and acknowledgment of the deed, and 27 V.S.A. Section 349 bars conveying an entireties or homestead interest to anyone but the other spouse without that spouse's joinder. With both spouses signing as grantors, the joinder appears on the face of the recorded deed. The form carries a signature block and a separate acknowledgment certificate for each spouse, so the two can acknowledge on different dates, before different notaries, or in different states. Parents deeding a home to an adult child, and spouses passing a family camp to a grandchild, present the two-grantor pattern this deed of gift describes; a sole unmarried owner, or co-owners who are not married to each other, present a different signature architecture than this form carries.

A gift with warranty covenants

Vermont has no statutory short forms for ordinary deeds, so a deed does what its express words do. This deed conveys with the traditional Vermont operative words, GIVE, GRANT, CONVEY, AND CONFIRM, and states the classic covenants: the grantors are the sole owners with good right and title to convey, the property is FREE FROM EVERY ENCUMBRANCE except as stated in the deed, and the grantors will WARRANT AND DEFEND the title. A gift deed drafted this way passes a warranted title rather than a bare release, and the encumbrances section lets the couple except the mortgages, easements, and covenants of record that the gift remains subject to.

Transfer tax on a gift, and the family exemption

A gift is still a transfer under Vermont's property transfer tax, and its value for tax purposes is the property's fair market value, not the zero dollars paid (32 V.S.A. Section 9601). What removes most family gifts from the tax itself is 32 V.S.A. Section 9603(5), which exempts transfers without actual consideration between two spouses, parent and child or child's spouse, and grandparent and grandchild or grandchild's spouse; the Department of Taxes treats adopted children and stepchildren as children for this purpose. Exempt or not, a Vermont Property Transfer Tax Return, Form PTT-172, goes to the town clerk with the deed, together with the Act 250 certificate, because 32 V.S.A. Section 9608 bars the clerk from recording a deed without them. The return is prepared separately and is not part of this package.

Recorded with the town clerk, not a county

Vermont land records are municipal. The deed is recorded with the clerk of the town or city where the land lies, at the statewide fee of fifteen dollars per page plus fifteen dollars for the transfer tax return filing, and 27 V.S.A. Section 342 makes acknowledgment before a notary and recording the condition of holding the estate against anyone beyond the grantors and their heirs. The form reserves the top of the first page for the clerk's recording information and keeps its text within the statutory page definition of 32 V.S.A. Section 1671.

The download includes the gift deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing a Washington County fact pattern filled in from start to finish, and a plain language guide that walks through every section of the form, the signing formalities for both spouses, and the recording package the town clerk expects. The materials describe Vermont law in general terms and are not legal advice.