Vermont Special Warranty Deed (Trustee Grantor)

The grantor line of this deed carries an office as well as a name: a trustee, identified with the trust and the date of its instrument, conveying Vermont real property the trust holds of record. This form prepares a Vermont special warranty deed for a trustee grantor, with the capacity recitals, trust identification, and representative-capacity notary certificate built in, and covenants of title bounded by the grantor's own period of ownership.

The trustee conveys, and the deed says so everywhere

Vermont law puts a trustee at the granting end of a deed without ceremony. 27 V.S.A. Section 301 authorizes conveyance by a deed executed by a person having authority to convey, and the Vermont Trust Code supplies that authority: 14A V.S.A. Section 815 gives a trustee the powers of an outright owner over trust property except as the trust instrument limits them, and Section 816 adds specifics: sale at public or private sale, signing and delivering instruments, and distribution to the persons entitled when the trust winds up. The deed recites those statutes, states that the grantor acts solely as trustee and not individually, and identifies the trust by name and date of instrument, so the capacity claimed at the signature line matches an identifiable trust. The trust agreement itself stays private: 27 V.S.A. Section 303 asks only for a signed writing, and Vermont title practice documents a trustee's powers with a certification of trust under 14A V.S.A. Section 1013, a short sworn instrument prepared and recorded separately from this deed and not included in this package.

One trustee signature, one representative acknowledgment

The form carries one grantor section reciting the trustee, a section identifying the trust, a single signature line signed in the trustee capacity, and one acknowledgment certificate on the representative-capacity short form of 26 V.S.A. Section 5368(2): the record is acknowledged by the named individual as trustee of the named trust, with the printed notary name and commission number lines Vermont accepts in place of a stamp. A successor trustee selling the settlor's former home after the settlor's death, a trustee deeding a parcel to a beneficiary as the trust terminates, and a settlor-trustee selling a long-held camp present the pattern this deed recites. The form is not set up as a deed from co-trustees signing together, from an owner conveying personally held title, or from an owner retitling property into a trust; each of those configurations recites different parties and different capacity language than this deed carries.

Covenants measured by the trust's years in title

No Vermont statute writes covenants into an ordinary deed, so this form states them expressly and in the trustee capacity: good right and title to convey, freedom from encumbrances the grantor made or suffered except as the deed lists, and a duty to warrant and defend against claims arising by, through, or under the grantor or the trust, but against no other claims or demands. A defect older than the trust's ownership sits outside the promise. Vermont examiners meet the same instrument under two other names, the limited warranty deed and the trustee's deed, and the covenant boundary, not the label, is what defines it.

The return that decides whether tax is due

The signed deed records with the clerk of the town or city where the land lies, at fifteen dollars per page, and 32 V.S.A. Section 9608 makes a completed Property Transfer Tax Return, Form PTT-172, together with its Act 250 certificate, the condition of recording at the counter. What a trustee deed adds is the exemption question: 32 V.S.A. Section 9603(5) exempts transfers out of a trust, free of trust and without actual consideration, as between the donor and the family members the statute lists, so a distribution deed to a beneficiary can owe no tax, while a trustee's sale to a purchaser pays at the ordinary combined rate of 1.47 percent. The return is filed either way, with any exemption claimed by number; the guide's Recording section covers the rates, brackets, and exemption list.

The package contains the special warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing a trustee's sale of an Addison County home with every entry made, and a plain language guide to each numbered section, the trust recitals, grantee vesting under Vermont law, notarization for a representative signer, and municipal recording. The materials describe Vermont law in general terms and are not legal advice; how these rules act on a specific trust instrument, title, or sale belongs with a Vermont attorney.