Vermont Memorandum of Lease (Individual Lessor)

A Vermont lease that runs longer than one year can appear in the town land records without placing the entire lease on public file. This Vermont Memorandum of Lease prepares that record notice under 27 V.S.A. § 341(c) in the individual lessor configuration: one natural person as the property owner and landlord, one lessee, and signature and acknowledgment blocks for both parties to the lease.

Notice in the Land Records, Privacy for the Lease

Under 27 V.S.A. § 342, a lease for more than one year is not effectual to hold the estate against anyone but the grantor and the grantor's heirs unless it is acknowledged and recorded. Recording the whole lease satisfies that rule, but it also puts the rent, the security arrangements, and every negotiated concession on permanent public display. Section 341(c) supplies the alternative this form implements: a short notice or memorandum of lease, executed and acknowledged by the parties and recorded in the land records of the town where the leased property is situated, stands in for recording the lease at length. The leasehold, and record rights like a renewal option or a right of first refusal, become part of the town record; the financial terms stay in the parties' files.

The Nine Items Vermont Requires

The statute lists the minimum contents of the notice, and the form presents them as numbered sections:

• The names of the parties as set forth in the lease, with any addresses the lease states as theirs
• The date the lease was executed and the term of the lease
• A statement of any rights to extend or renew
• A description of the leased property
• A statement of any right to purchase the property or exercise a right of first refusal
• A statement of any restrictions on assignment of the lease
• The location of an original lease

The form closes with an operative paragraph in which the parties give notice of the lease under § 341(c) and state that the memorandum describes, and does not amend, the lease itself.

The Individual Lessor Configuration

The form recites exactly one individual lessor signing in a personal capacity, plus the lessee. Both parties sign, and the form carries a separate acknowledgment certificate for each signer, so the landlord and the tenant can appear before different notaries, on different dates, in different states. A sole owner leasing a storefront, farmland, or a commercial building for a multiyear term presents the pattern this memorandum recites. The form is not set up for a landlord that is a limited liability company, corporation, or trustee, and a property owned by co-owner lessors presents a different signature pattern than the single lessor recital here.

Recording With the Town Clerk

Vermont records land documents by town or city, not by county, so the completed memorandum goes to the clerk of the municipality where the property is situated, at the statewide fee of fifteen dollars per page under 32 V.S.A. § 1671. Most fixed term leases record without a Vermont Property Transfer Tax Return, but a perpetual leasehold or a lease in the statute's fifty year class is treated as a transfer of title to property under 32 V.S.A. § 9601, and the clerk cannot record a memorandum evidencing that kind of lease without the completed return. The guide walks through that distinction, the notary certificate contents, and each numbered section of the form.

The download includes the memorandum of lease as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing a realistic Woodstock, Vermont fact pattern, and a plain language guide to every section and to recording. The materials describe Vermont law in general terms and are not legal advice.