Vermont Special Warranty Deed (Individual Grantor)

One record owner signs this deed alone. The form is a Vermont special warranty deed configured for a single individual grantor: one grantor section, one signature line, one notary certificate, and a labeled joining spouse block for the one situation in which Vermont statute calls a second signature onto a deed made by one owner. The deed conveys Vermont real property with title covenants that reach only the grantor's own period of ownership, and the package prepares it for recording in the land records of the town or city where the property lies.

A warranty measured by one ownership

Vermont has no statutory deed forms for ordinary conveyances, so the difference between a full warranty and a limited one is written on the face of the deed. This deed states the traditional Vermont covenants, lawful possession, good right and title to convey, and freedom from encumbrances made or suffered by the grantor, and then draws the line that defines the instrument: the grantor warrants and defends the property against the lawful claims and demands of persons claiming by, through, or under the grantor, but against no other claims or demands. A defect that entered the chain of title before the grantor took ownership sits outside the covenants, and the deed says so expressly. Vermont practice knows this instrument as a special warranty deed or a limited warranty deed, and it appears in the record where a seller conveys with real covenants but confines them to the seller's own time in title, a familiar pattern in foreclosure resales, estate liquidations, and investor-to-buyer transfers.

One grantor, one certificate, and the joining spouse line

The form recites exactly one grantor, an individual conveying in a personal capacity. The grantor signs before a notary public, and the acknowledgment certificate follows the Vermont short form of 26 V.S.A. Section 5368, with the printed name and commission number lines Vermont law accepts in place of an official stamp. What makes the Vermont version distinctive is the second, conditional block: under 27 V.S.A. Section 141, a married owner's conveyance of a homestead is inoperative as to the homestead unless the owner's spouse joins in the execution and acknowledgment of the deed. The form carries a labeled joining spouse signature block and a separate acknowledgment certificate for exactly that purpose, with operative language stating what the joining signature conveys and releases; the completed example shows a married grantor's sale of a Milton home with the spouse joining. Where the grantor is unmarried, or the property carries no homestead interest of a spouse, those blocks simply remain blank. The form is not set up as a deed for two co-owner grantors, an entity, or a fiduciary; those configurations recite different parties and capacity language than this deed carries.

Recording at the town clerk, with the transfer tax return

Vermont records deeds by municipality, not by county: the deed goes to the clerk of the town or city where the land lies, and under 27 V.S.A. Section 342 an unrecorded deed holds the estate against no one but the grantor and the grantor's heirs. The recording fee is fifteen dollars per page statewide. The deed does not travel alone: under 32 V.S.A. Section 9608 the town clerk cannot record a deed unless a completed Vermont Property Transfer Tax Return, Form PTT-172, accompanies it, together with the Act 250 certificate the return carries. The general transfer tax rate is 1.25 percent of value plus a 0.22 percent clean water surcharge, with lower brackets for a transfer of the purchaser's principal residence, and the guide's Recording section walks through the return, the rates, and the statutory exemptions.

The download includes the special warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the deed filled in for a realistic Chittenden County fact pattern, and a plain language guide that walks through every numbered section, the grantee vesting forms Vermont law recognizes, the signing and notarization rules, and recording at the town clerk's office. The materials describe Vermont law in general terms and are not legal advice; a Vermont attorney can address how these rules operate on a specific title or transaction.