Vermont Purchase and Sale Agreement (Individual Seller)

One owner selling Vermont real property signs this agreement alone. The form is a Vermont purchase and sale agreement configured for a single individual seller and one buyer: it recites one seller holding record title in that seller's own name, carries one seller signature line beside the buyer's, and fixes the price, deposit, financing terms, closing date, and deed that carry a Vermont home or land sale from accepted offer to the closing table. It is the written real estate contract that Vermont's Statute of Frauds, 12 V.S.A. Section 181(5), requires before a land sale is enforceable: a writing signed by the party to be charged.

A contract built around one seller's signature

The agreement recites exactly one individual seller, so the signature architecture is simple: the seller signs, the buyer signs, and the contract takes effect on the date of the last signature. No notary certificate is part of the agreement itself; acknowledgment before a notary enters later, on the deed the seller delivers at closing. A sole owner who is married still signs this agreement alone, and Vermont homestead law, 27 V.S.A. Section 141, adds the spouse's joinder at the deed stage; the guide walks through that sequence. Title held by two spouses as tenants by the entirety, by co-owners, by an estate or trust, or by a business entity presents a different signature pattern from the single individual seller this form recites.

Vermont's flood disclosure lives inside the contract

Since June 2024, Vermont law has placed a flood disclosure before or as part of every contract for conveyance. The form carries the three entries 27 V.S.A. Section 380 describes: the FEMA flood insurance rate map showing the property, provided by copy or digital link, or notice that no map is available; whether any part of the property was flooded or damaged, including by inundation or flood related erosion, while the seller possessed it; and whether the seller maintains or is required to maintain flood insurance. A buyer who did not receive the disclosure may terminate before transfer of title or occupancy, and a seller who knowingly fails to disclose faces damages, attorney fees, and possible punitive damages, so the entries sit on the face of the contract where they belong. The form also carries entry space for the water supply and the 27 V.S.A. Section 616 materials, the class 4 highway or legal trail disclosure under 27 V.S.A. Section 617, and the federal lead-based paint disclosure attachment for a dwelling built before 1978, and its printed text covers the smoke and carbon monoxide alarm certification a Vermont seller of a single-family dwelling delivers at closing under 9 V.S.A. Section 2883.

Taxes, withholding, and the road to the town clerk

The printed text allocates the Vermont property transfer tax and the clean water surcharge to the buyer as transferee, following 32 V.S.A. Sections 9602 and 9602a, and the guide states the current rates, including the ordinary combined rate of 1.47 percent and the principal residence brackets. A residency section implements 32 V.S.A. Section 5847: where the seller is not domiciled in Vermont at closing, the buyer withholds 2.5 percent of the consideration unless the seller furnishes the statutory resident certificate or a Commissioner's certificate. The agreement itself is never recorded; at closing the seller delivers the deed the contract calls for, the buyer records it with the clerk of the town where the property lies, since Vermont land records are town records rather than county records, and the town clerk accepts the deed only with the completed Property Transfer Tax Return under 32 V.S.A. Section 9608.

Marketable title, stated on the face of the deal

Vermont has no statutory short form deed with implied covenants, so the deed type the contract names matters: the form takes the deed type as an entry, calls for marketable title free of every encumbrance except the listed permitted exceptions, and leaves default remedies in fixed printed text, with the deposit as liquidated damages on a buyer default and full legal and equitable remedies, including specific performance, on a seller default.

The package delivers the blank agreement as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing every entry filled in for a realistic Brattleboro sale, and a plain language guide that walks through each of the eighteen sections with the statutes behind them. The materials are informational and are not legal advice; a Vermont attorney can address how these rules operate on a specific transaction.