Vermont Grant Deed (Executed by Attorney-in-Fact)

The owner named as grantor in this Vermont deed never picks up the pen. This is a Vermont grant deed drawn for execution by an attorney-in-fact: one individual grantor conveys Vermont real property under a grant deed's two express, limited covenants of title, and the signature that completes the instrument belongs to the agent the owner appointed in a power of attorney.

One Grantor, One Agent, and the Instrument Between Them

The deed keeps the principal and the agent in separate frames. Section 1 identifies the record owner whose title moves and whose covenants the deed gives; Section 2 identifies the attorney-in-fact who signs, then anchors the agency to the record with the date of the power of attorney and its recording reference in the municipal land records. The signature block reads grantor, by attorney-in-fact, and the certificate beneath it takes the acknowledgment in a representative capacity, naming the signer as attorney-in-fact for the named owner. An owner who has moved out of state while the Vermont property sells, a principal who signed a durable power against later incapacity, and a seller whose closing date arrives while the seller is unavailable present the pattern this deed recites. The form is not set up as a deed the owner signs personally, as a conveyance by co-owner pairs, or as an instrument executed for a company or a trust; each of those carries a different signing architecture. A joinder block for a married grantor's spouse or civil union partner waits at the end for homestead property and stays empty in every other case.

The Statute That Reaches the Power Itself

Vermont ties this execution pattern to the land records with unusual force. Under 27 V.S.A. section 305, a deed made by virtue of a power of attorney is of no effect, and is not admissible in evidence, unless the power is signed, acknowledged, and recorded in the office where the deed is required to be recorded; the same section preserves a power executed in another state in compliance with that state's law. The deed restates that rule on its face, and its power-of-attorney section is drafted for either posture, citing the volume and page of a power already of record or identifying a power presented to the clerk for recording with the deed. The power itself is governed by the Vermont Uniform Power of Attorney Act, 14 V.S.A. chapter 127, in effect since July 2023, whose statutory forms carry authority over real property among their subjects.

Covenants Given Through an Appointed Hand

Vermont implies no covenants of title, so this deed writes its two promises out and hands the pen, not the promises, to the agent. The grantor covenants that the estate conveyed here went to no other person first, and that nothing the grantor made or suffered encumbers the property beyond what the deed's exceptions section discloses; a limiting sentence holds both covenants to the grantor's acts and to claims tracing by, through, or under the grantor. The agent's signature carries the owner's covenants without adding the agent to them. Searchers comparing a limited covenant deed or a special warranty style conveyance with a full warranty deed or a quitclaim find this instrument holding the familiar middle ground.

Two Instruments at the Clerk's Window

Recording is municipal in Vermont, and this configuration often records in pairs: the deed at $15.00 per page with the town or city clerk, and the power of attorney in the same office when it is not already of record, since 27 V.S.A. section 305 points both instruments to the same books. The completed Property Transfer Tax Return travels with them under 32 V.S.A. section 9608, the ordinary combined rate standing at 1.47 percent and falling to the transferee.

The download carries the deed as a fillable PDF that opens with a removable instructions page; a completed example worked through a Rutland, Rutland County sale, signed by the owner's agent under a recorded power, from the principal's name block to the commission number line; and a plain language guide to each numbered section, the vesting forms open to grantees, the representative-capacity notarization, and the recording and transfer tax steps. These materials describe Vermont law in general terms and are not legal advice.