Vermont Quitclaim Deed (Individual Grantor by Attorney-in-Fact)

The signature on this deed belongs to someone who conveys nothing of their own: the attorney-in-fact signs, and the grantor's title moves. This is a Vermont quitclaim deed built for one individual grantor whose deed is executed by an attorney-in-fact under a power of attorney, the agent-signed configuration of the quit claim deed, or quick claim deed, that searchers also reach as a power of attorney deed or POA deed.

The statute that records the power with the deed

Vermont gives this configuration a recording rule of its own. 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 of attorney is signed, acknowledged, and recorded in the office where the deed is required to be recorded. The deed does more than mention the power: a numbered section carries its date and book and page, the operative text recites its recording status, and a first-page notice states the condition in capital letters. A power of attorney not yet of record travels to the clerk with the deed and records beside it; the power of attorney is prepared and recorded separately and is not included in this package.

What the agent's written authority reaches

The Vermont Uniform Power of Attorney Act, 14 V.S.A. chapter 127, in force since July 1, 2023, measures what the signature can do. General authority over real property under section 4034 includes selling, conveying with or without covenants, quitclaiming, and releasing. Three acts stand outside it unless the power of attorney grants them in so many words, section 4031: making a gift, creating or changing rights of survivorship, and conveying by enhanced life estate deed. An agent outside the principal's family line may not use the power for the agent's own benefit without express permission; within the grant, the deed takes the same effect as if the principal had performed the act.

One grantor, one agent, two names on the record

The form recites exactly one individual grantor, the principal, with the attorney-in-fact named directly after and the power of attorney identified by date and recording reference in the section that follows. Twelve numbered sections lead to the operative conveyance, in which the grantor, acting by and through the attorney-in-fact, remises, releases, and forever quitclaims to the grantee whatever right, title, and interest the grantor holds at delivery. It carries no covenant or warranty of title; Vermont has no statutory quitclaim form, so the deed's express words are the entire undertaking. The signature block prints the grantor's name over a By line for the agent's signature, and the acknowledgment certificate takes the representative-capacity wording of 26 V.S.A. section 5368(2): acknowledged by the named individual as attorney-in-fact for the named principal. A conditional homestead joinder section under 27 V.S.A. section 141 waits for the married-grantor case and states on its face when it is unused. An owner in a care residence whose agent completes a planned transfer, an owner half a continent away on closing day, and an agent winding down a principal's Vermont affairs present the pattern this deed recites. The form is not set up for an owner signing personally, for two record owners, for a trustee, or for an entity grantor; each of those signs under a different architecture.

At the clerk's window, two instruments and one return

The deed records with the clerk of the town or city where the land lies, at $15 per page, and a power of attorney not already on file there records at the same fee. Under 32 V.S.A. section 9608 the clerk cannot accept a deed evidencing a transfer without a completed Property Transfer Tax Return, Form PTT-172, and the required Act 250 certificate. The transfer tax runs 1.25 percent of value plus the 0.22 percent clean water surcharge, subject to the brackets and to the exemptions of 32 V.S.A. section 9603 claimed on the return.

What arrives in the download

The package contains the attorney-in-fact quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF opening with a non-recorded instructions page, a completed example filled in for a Newport, Orleans County fact pattern in which a daughter, as attorney-in-fact under a recorded durable power, conveys her father's former home, and a plain language guide that treats each numbered section, grantee vesting under Vermont law, the power of attorney statutes, the representative-capacity certificate, and the recording and transfer tax steps. The materials describe Vermont law in general terms and are not legal advice.