Vermont Quitclaim Deed

Almost nothing on this deed is settled before the parties fill it in. The grantor entry takes one name or two, the grantee entry takes one name or two, and the words fixing how the grantees hold what they receive get typed into a blank rather than printed on the page. This is the Vermont quitclaim deed in its base configuration, natural persons on both sides signing for their own interests, an instrument searchers also spell quit claim deed or quick claim deed.

A deed Vermont never wrote a form for

Vermont authorizes the instrument, then leaves its wording alone. 27 V.S.A. section 301 lets an owner convey by deed; section 341 adds the signature and the notarial acknowledgment. What chapter 5 does not contain is a quitclaim form, or any statute reading covenants of title into an ordinary deed; the one statutory deed form in Vermont law belongs to the enhanced life estate deed at 27 V.S.A. section 660. Express words carry everything, so the operative section states that the grantors remise, release, and forever quitclaim whatever right, title, and interest they hold at delivery, without covenant or warranty of title.

One or two names on each side

The form preprints no party count, no marital status, and no vesting language. A four-line grantor entry accepts one or two individuals with any status recital they write, a matching grantee entry accepts one or two names with any designation Vermont recognizes, and nine numbered sections carry the consideration, the property, the source of title, and matters of record into the operative conveyance. Four count patterns fit one printed page: one grantor to one grantee, one to two, two to one, and two to two. Execution keeps that open shape, a block headed GRANTOR, a second headed SECOND GRANTOR (if applicable), and a certificate under each, so two owners can sign a week apart in different counties while a sole owner leaves the second pair blank. The form is not set up for a signer in a representative capacity, for an agent under a power of attorney, for three or more owners on a side, or for a second block belonging to a spouse joining only to release homestead rights.

The words that decide survivorship

Under 27 V.S.A. section 2, a conveyance to two or more people creates an estate in common unless the instrument says the grantees take jointly, as joint tenants, in joint tenancy, or to them and the survivors of them; conveyances to spouses and to trusts sit outside that default. The section carries a line worth reading twice: Vermont joint tenants may hold equal or unequal interests, and at a joint tenant's death the interest passes to the survivors in proportion to their respective interests rather than in equal parts.

A certificate that can go stampless

27 V.S.A. section 341(a) ends with a line that surprises signers from other states: a Vermont deed acknowledgment is valid without an official stamp affixed to the notary's signature. Certificate content fills the space a stamp would occupy, since 26 V.S.A. section 5367 makes the notary's printed name and commission number part of a tangible certificate, and the short form at section 5368 supplies the operative sentence, that this record was acknowledged before the officer on a stated date by the named individual. Both certificates carry those lines.

What the clerk needs besides the deed

Vermont keeps land records town by town, so the finished instrument goes to the clerk of the municipality where the parcel lies, at fifteen dollars a page under 32 V.S.A. section 1671. It does not travel alone: section 9608 of Title 32 stops a clerk from recording a deed evidencing a transfer until a completed Property Transfer Tax Return, Form PTT-172, and the required Act 250 certificate are in hand, and the return is filed even where a section 9603 exemption leaves nothing to pay. The general rate reaches 1.25 percent of value plus the 0.22 percent clean water surcharge, and the transferee owes it.

What the download contains

The package holds the quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF opening on a non-recorded instructions page, a completed example for a South Hero, Grand Isle County conveyance in which two owners release a surveyed lot to two grantees taking with survivorship, and a plain language guide covering each numbered section, the ways a Vermont grantee may hold title, the homestead statutes, notarization, and recording. The materials describe Vermont law in general terms and are not legal advice.