Vermont Warranty Deed (Trustee Grantee)

The grantee line of this Vermont warranty deed names no individual owner outright: it names a trustee, the trust that trustee serves, and the date of the trust instrument, so the town land records show title held in trust from the day the deed goes on record. The form prepares a Vermont general warranty deed conveying real property from one individual grantor to a named trustee, with the full common law title covenants running to the trustee and the trustee's successors in trust.

A grantee who takes title as trustee

The grantee section of this deed recites three things a deed to an individual never carries: the trustee's full name and mailing address, the exact name of the trust, and the date the trust instrument was signed. Vermont law requires an express trust concerning land to exist in a written instrument signed by its creator, under 27 V.S.A. Section 303, and the deed's granting and habendum language runs to the grantee as trustee and to the grantee's successors in trust, so the capacity in which title is held shows on the face of the record. The trust agreement itself stays private. The deed identifies it without reciting its terms, and Vermont's certification of trust statute, 14A V.S.A. Section 1013, gives a trustee a sworn certificate, prepared and recorded separately and not part of this package, that documents the trust's existence and the trustee's powers in the land records without exposing who inherits what.

Moving Vermont land into a trust

An owner deeding a home, a camp, or acreage into a revocable living trust presents the pattern this deed recites most often, and Vermont law removes the step that looks strangest on paper: 27 V.S.A. Section 349 validates a conveyance from a person directly to that same person in another capacity, so the owner may sign as grantor and be named as trustee grantee in one instrument. A conveyance to the trustee of a trust settled by someone else follows the same architecture. The form recites exactly one individual grantor and one trustee; conveyances from co-owner grantors, from a trustee conveying property out of a trust, or to several individual grantees follow different recital patterns and are not what this form is set up as. A conditional joinder entry with a signature line and certificate of its own covers the married grantor whose property is the homestead, where 27 V.S.A. Sections 141 and 349 call for the spouse to join in the execution and acknowledgment; for an unmarried grantor it stays blank.

Full covenants, held in trust

Because no Vermont statute reads covenants into a deed, this form states them in express text: lawful seisin in fee simple, good right and title to convey, freedom from every encumbrance except the matters the deed lists, and warranty and defense against the lawful claims and demands of all persons. The promises follow the office of trustee, so they do not evaporate when a successor trustee takes over administration. The exceptions entry earns attention on a trust funding deed in particular: an existing mortgage stays on the property when title moves to a trustee, and listing it keeps the recorded warranty honest.

The tax return that rides along to the town clerk

A Vermont deed is a municipal filing: the clerk of the town or city where the land lies records it, at fifteen dollars per page, and 32 V.S.A. Section 9608 forbids the clerk to accept it without a completed Vermont Property Transfer Tax Return, Form PTT-172. A trust funding deed changes the arithmetic more than the paperwork. 32 V.S.A. Section 9603 exempts transfers in trust to the extent of the benefit to the donor or listed family members, and separately exempts transfers that merely change the form of ownership with no change in beneficial ownership, the descriptions a no consideration conveyance into a revocable trust commonly engages; the return is still completed and filed with the deed, with the exemption claimed on it, because the recording bar turns on the return's presence rather than on tax being owed.

The download contains three pieces: the blank trustee grantee warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing an Addison County owner conveying her home to the trustee of her revocable living trust, and a plain language guide that walks through each numbered section, the trust identification entries, the signing and recording steps, and the transfer tax treatment. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.