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Vermont Enhanced Life Estate Deed
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Vermont Enhanced Life Estate Deed

A Vermont enhanced life estate deed, 27 V.S.A. chapter 6, passes a house at death outside probate. Record it with the town clerk, not a county.

By Settled Editorial

A Vermont enhanced life estate deed lets you keep your house for life and pass it to a named grantee the moment you die, without that parcel going through probate. The Enhanced Life Estate Deed Act sits at 27 V.S.A. chapter 6 and took effect July 13, 2020. You record it with the town clerk where the land lies.

Other states call this document a Lady Bird deed. Vermont's version differs from Florida's and Michigan's in a way that helps you: theirs run on common law, and Vermont's is written into the statutes, with definitions, a revocation mechanic, predeceased-grantee rules, and an optional form the legislature printed. Vermont has no transfer on death deed and no beneficiary deed for real property. Chapter 6 is the instrument that does that job here.

This page covers one tool. The full menu of Vermont probate-avoidance options sits on the avoidance pillar, and anything that still reaches court starts at the Vermont probate guide. Read this as general information and confirm your own plan with a licensed Vermont attorney before you sign or record anything.

What the Enhanced Life Estate Deed Act Does

27 V.S.A. § 652 sets the reach of the chapter. It applies to deeds in which a grantor reserves a common law life estate in real property while expressly reserving rights that leave the grantee with a contingent remainder interest.

Section 653(2) then defines the deed itself. An ELE deed is one where the grantor expressly reserves a common law life estate, expressly reserves the right to convey the property during the grantor's lifetime, gives the grantee a contingent remainder such that the grantee has no vested rights before the grantor dies, and vests title in the surviving grantee at the grantor's death, subject to encumbrances of record.

FeatureHow Vermont handles it
What it transfersAn interest in Vermont real property
When it takes effectAt the grantor's death, under 27 V.S.A. § 654(c)
ProbateThat parcel passes outside probate, unless § 658 sends it back
Control during lifeFull. The grantor may convey without the grantee's joinder, § 654(b)
Where it recordsThe town clerk of the town where the land lies, 24 V.S.A. § 1154
RevocableYes, at any time, without the grantee's consent, § 656
Property transfer taxApplies, § 654(d)
Governing law27 V.S.A. chapter 6, in force since July 13, 2020

Section 653(4) carries a limit worth catching early. A grantor has to be a natural person. A trust, an LLC, or a corporation cannot sign an ELE deed as grantor. Grantees face no such rule, since § 653(3) reads "grantee" as one or more grantees plus their heirs and assigns.

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The Deed Changes Nothing While You Are Alive

This is the part that separates an ELE deed from an ordinary life estate deed, and 27 V.S.A. § 654(a) states it in three pieces. Subject to the rights reserved in the deed, a validly executed and recorded ELE deed does not affect the ownership rights of the grantor or the grantor's creditors, does not transfer any present right, title, or interest to the grantee or create any present legal or equitable interest in the grantee, and does not subject the grantor's property to process from the grantee's creditors.

Section 654(b) turns that into a practical freedom. The grantor may convey the property described in an ELE deed, or any portion of it, with no joinder, consent, agreement, or notice from the grantee. Sell the house, refinance it, carve off a parcel, and nobody has to countersign.

Two more rules run the same direction. Section 655(a) makes the deed effective without acceptance by the grantee during the grantor's life and without consideration, so you never have to tell the person you named. Section 655(b) blocks the grantee from selling what they do not yet own: a grantee may not convey the contingent remainder during the grantor's lifetime, and any conveyance that tries to is void.

Who Can Sign a Vermont ELE Deed

Three gates sit outside chapter 6, and a deed drafted from chapter 6 alone can miss all of them.

A married owner needs the spouse on a homestead. 27 V.S.A. § 141(a) says a homestead or an interest in one shall not be conveyed by a married owner unless the spouse joins in the execution and acknowledgment of the conveyance, and a conveyance made without that joinder is inoperative as to the homestead. 27 V.S.A. § 349(a)(2) repeats the rule from the other side: a person may not convey an interest in a tenancy by the entirety or in homestead property to anyone except the person's spouse, unless the spouse joins in the conveyance. Most Vermont ELE deeds are drawn on the house the grantor lives in, which is exactly the property these two sections protect.

A guardian needs court approval. 27 V.S.A. § 657(a) lets a guardian convey the real property of a person under guardianship by an ELE deed only with the approval of the Probate Division.

An agent needs an express grant, and the power of attorney has to be recorded. 14 V.S.A. § 4031(a)(12) puts "convey, or revoke or revise a grantee designation, by enhanced life estate deed pursuant to chapter 6 of Title 27 or under common law" on the list of authorities an agent holds only where the power of attorney expressly grants them. 27 V.S.A. § 657(b) requires the power of attorney to comply with 14 V.S.A. chapter 127 for a deed executed on or after July 1, 2023, or chapter 123 for one executed before that date, including the gifting and self-dealing provisions. Then 27 V.S.A. § 305(a) adds the trap: a deed made by virtue of a power of attorney has no effect and is inadmissible in evidence unless the power of attorney is signed, acknowledged, and recorded in the office where the deed is recorded. A general-purpose form will not carry the right language. Start from the Vermont power of attorney rules if an agent is going to handle this.

Signing and Recording With the Town Clerk

Vermont deed formalities are short. 27 V.S.A. § 341(a) asks that the deed be signed by the party granting it, acknowledged by the grantor before a notary public, and recorded in the clerk's office of the town in which the lands lie. The section asks for no witnesses, and it says the acknowledgment is valid without an official stamp on the notary's signature.

Recording is what makes the deed hold against the world. 27 V.S.A. § 342 says a conveyance of land in fee simple or for a term of life is not effectual to hold the land against any person but the grantor and the grantor's heirs unless it is acknowledged and recorded.

The office is municipal. 24 V.S.A. § 1154(a)(1) makes the town clerk the officer who records deeds in the land records. Vermont has no county registry of deeds, so the instruction you have read on a national form site, telling you to file with the county recorder, does not describe this state. The Secretary of State publishes the directory of Vermont town clerks with addresses and counter hours.

Here is the sequence.

  1. Pull your recorded deed from the town clerk and copy the property description exactly as it reads.
  2. Decide the grantees and the tenancy. The § 660 form asks you to state the nature of the tenancy, and that choice controls what § 658 does if a grantee dies first.
  3. Draft the deed using the § 660 form or a version a Vermont attorney prepares.
  4. Check the homestead question. If you are married and this is the homestead, your spouse joins in the execution and acknowledgment.
  5. Sign before a notary public.
  6. Fill out the property transfer return. 32 V.S.A. § 9606(a)(1) requires it to reach the town clerk at the same time as the deed.
  7. Record with the town clerk of the town where the land lies. 32 V.S.A. § 1671(a)(6) sets the fee at $15.00 per page for recording a document that becomes a matter of public record, plus $15.00 for the property transfer return, and $10.00 per page for a certified copy. Section 1671(f) charges the per-page fee again for each previously recorded instrument the new one affects, so a short deed that touches several older records costs more than its own page count.
  8. Keep a copy and tell whoever will settle your estate the town, the book, and the page.

The Optional Statutory Form at Section 660

27 V.S.A. § 660 prints a form the legislature says may be used to create an enhanced life estate deed. Almost no competing page on this topic mentions that it exists, and it is the cheapest way to keep your wording inside the statute.

The form is headed "ENHANCED LIFE ESTATE DEED (Vermont statutory form deed)" and moves through the grantor names and town, the grantees and the nature of the tenancy, a property description or attached schedule, and then a block called GRANTORS RESERVED RIGHTS. That block is the operative language. It states that the deed is executed pursuant to 27 V.S.A. chapter 6, the ELED Act, and that the grantors, or the survivor of them, reserve to themselves a common law life estate with the exclusive use, possession, and enjoyment of the property, and the right to convey the property.

The form closes with an ordinary Vermont habendum and warranty clause, a signature line, and a bracketed instruction to add the notary clause. Using it does not remove the need for a lawyer's eye on the property description, the tenancy choice, and the homestead question.

How to Revoke or Revise the Deed

27 V.S.A. § 656(a) says a grantor may revoke or revise an ELE deed, and § 656(b) says joinder, consent, agreement, and notice from the grantee are all unnecessary. The mechanics live one section earlier, in the definitions, which is where people miss them.

  • Revoke. 27 V.S.A. § 653(5) defines revoking as negating the ELE deed, accomplished when the grantor records a deed from the grantor to the grantor. Tearing up your copy does nothing. The land records have to show the reversal.
  • Revise. Section 653(6) defines revising as changing the grantee, accomplished when the grantor records a new ELE deed to a grantee other than, or in addition to, the grantee named before. A revised deed supersedes and replaces the prior one. Adding a grantee requires the new deed to name all of the grantees, so a second deed naming only the new person does not stack on top of the first.

Mortgages get their own rule. 27 V.S.A. § 656(c) says granting a mortgage does not revoke or revise an ELE deed, but the interests conveyed and reserved in the deed are encumbered by that mortgage and by any future advances made under it. Refinancing does not undo your plan, and it does not clean the debt off the property either.

When the Grantee Dies First

27 V.S.A. § 658 splits three ways, and the tenancy you chose on the face of the deed decides which one applies. Each rule yields to contrary language in the deed itself.

  1. A single grantee who predeceases the grantor. At the grantor's death, title vests in the heirs of an intestate grantee, or the interest is distributed or conveyed to the grantee's heirs or beneficiaries as directed by the Probate Division.
  2. Multiple grantees as tenants in common, one or more of whom predecease the grantor. Same outcome for the deceased grantee's share.
  3. Multiple grantees as joint tenants, one or more of whom predecease the grantor. Title vests in whichever grantee survives the grantor, and no court is involved.

Rules 1 and 2 route the property back to the Probate Division, which is the outcome the deed was bought to avoid. Rule 3 does not. That makes the tenancy line on the § 660 form a real decision rather than boilerplate.

Vermont's default cuts against survivorship. 27 V.S.A. § 2(a) construes conveyances and devises to two or more people as estates in common and not in joint tenancy, unless the instrument expresses that the grantees take jointly, as joint tenants, in joint tenancy, or to them and the survivors of them. Conveyances made in trust, conveyances to spouses, and instruments where joint tenancy manifestly appears are carved out. Silence on the tenancy line lands you in rule 2, not rule 3.

If everything fails and the parcel ends up in an estate, Vermont intestate succession decides who takes it.

Taxes: the Property Transfer Tax Applies

27 V.S.A. § 654(d) is blunt. An executed and recorded ELE deed is subject to the property transfer tax under 32 V.S.A. chapter 231. Several other states exempt their death-transfer deed from transfer tax, so this is the field a form copied from across a border gets backwards.

Whether tax is owed depends on who is on the deed. 32 V.S.A. § 9602 imposes the tax at 1.25 percent of the value transferred, with a reduced rate of 0.5 percent on the first $200,000.00 where the property will be the transferee's principal residence. 32 V.S.A. § 9603(5) then exempts transfers between two spouses, or parent and child or child's spouse, or grandparent and grandchild or grandchild's spouse, without actual consideration. Most family ELE deeds land inside that exemption, and a deed to a niece, a sibling, or a friend does not.

Exempt or not, the paperwork is the same. 32 V.S.A. § 9606(a)(1) requires a property transfer return to reach the town clerk when the deed is delivered for recording, and § 9606(b) requires a return filed for an exempt transfer to set out the basis for the exemption.

Two other tax answers do not move. Vermont's estate tax is computed from federal figures: 32 V.S.A. § 7402(13) defines the Vermont gross estate as the federal gross estate under 26 U.S.C. § 2031, excluding property with situs outside Vermont. Skipping probate does not shrink that number. And the federal income tax basis your grantee takes is a federal question, answered by IRS Publication 551 rather than by anything in Title 27. Ask a tax professional before the grantee sells.

What the Deed Does Not Do

An ELE deed keeps one parcel out of probate. Read the following before you treat it as a shield.

Encumbrances follow the land. 27 V.S.A. § 653(2)(D) and § 654(c) both vest title in the grantee subject to encumbrances of record. A mortgage, a lien, or an easement survives the grantor's death and greets the grantee.

Chapter 6 says nothing about the grantee answering estate debts. Vermont wrote express clawbacks into two other nonprobate rules. 8 V.S.A. § 14205(c) makes a payable-on-death payee liable to the personal representative for debts and expenses the estate cannot cover, with no proceeding commenced later than two years after the death. 9 V.S.A. § 4359(b) does the same to a securities beneficiary, capped at what that beneficiary received, and § 4359(g) sets a one-year window. Chapter 6 carries no matching provision. That silence is not the same as a promise, and a creditor question about a specific estate belongs with a Vermont attorney. The ordinary probate clock is on the Vermont creditor claims page.

Medicaid estate recovery reaches the probate estate, and Vermont has published no rule position on this deed. Vermont recovers under Medicaid Covered Services Rule 7108.3, which says the Department will file a claim with the probate court as a creditor of the estate, and rule 7108.3.3 defines an estate as the real and personal property and other assets listed on an inventory filed in the probate court. The phrase "life estate" appears nowhere in the Covered Services Rules. Section 659 lists "Medicaid Deed" as one of the names Vermonters have used for this instrument, which tells you why people ask. Nobody should read this page as a Medicaid outcome. Talk with a Vermont elder law attorney before you sign an ELE deed for long-term care reasons.

It moves one parcel, not an estate. A car, a bank account, and a brokerage account each travel their own route. Where a plan has to move several assets at once, compare the deed against a Vermont revocable living trust.

Deeds Signed Before July 13, 2020

Vermont lawyers were drafting these long before the ELED Act existed, under a handful of names. 27 V.S.A. § 659 protects that work. Nothing in chapter 6 shall be construed to affect the validity of an enhanced life estate deed, a "Life Estate Deed with Reserved Powers", a "Lady Bird Deed", a "Medicaid Deed", an "Italian Deed", or a similar deed executed and recorded before July 13, 2020.

So an older deed in your family's file is not void because it predates the statute. Have a Vermont attorney read it anyway, because the chapter 6 definitions, the § 658 predeceased-grantee rules, and the § 653 revocation mechanics apply to deeds under the Act, and an older document may reserve a different set of rights.

Common Mistakes

  1. Filing with a county office. Vermont has none for land records. 24 V.S.A. § 1154 and 27 V.S.A. § 341(a) both point at the town clerk of the town where the land lies.
  2. Leaving the tenancy line blank. 27 V.S.A. § 2(a) then reads the deed as a tenancy in common, and § 658(2) sends a deceased grantee's share to the Probate Division.
  3. Skipping the spouse on a homestead. 27 V.S.A. § 141(a) makes the conveyance inoperative as to the homestead.
  4. Trying to revoke by destroying the paper. 27 V.S.A. § 653(5) wants a recorded deed from the grantor back to the grantor.
  5. Adding a grantee with a second deed that names only the new person. Section 653(6) requires the new deed to name all grantees.
  6. Using an agent under a general power of attorney. 14 V.S.A. § 4031(a)(12) needs an express grant, and 27 V.S.A. § 305(a) needs that power of attorney recorded in the same town office.
  7. Assuming no transfer tax. 27 V.S.A. § 654(d) says the tax chapter applies, and the return under § 9606 is due even when § 9603(5) exempts the tax.
  8. Naming a grantor that is a trust or an LLC. 27 V.S.A. § 653(4) requires each grantor to be a natural person.
  9. Expecting the grantee to be able to sell early. Section 655(b) makes any lifetime conveyance of the contingent remainder void.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Vermont allow a Lady Bird deed?

Yes, and Vermont wrote it into the statutes. 27 V.S.A. § 651 names chapter 6 the "Enhanced Life Estate Deed Act" or "ELED Act", added by 2019, No. 145 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, effective July 13, 2020. Florida and Michigan run the same instrument on common law. Vermont supplies definitions at § 653, execution and recording rules at § 654, and an optional form at § 660. Section 659 also protects any Lady Bird deed, Medicaid deed, Italian deed, or life estate deed with reserved powers that was executed and recorded before July 13, 2020.

How do you revoke a Vermont enhanced life estate deed?

27 V.S.A. § 653(5) gives the mechanic: the grantor revokes an ELE deed by recording a deed from the grantor back to the grantor. To change the grantee instead, § 653(6) says the grantor records a new ELE deed naming a different or additional grantee, and the new deed supersedes and replaces the old one. Adding a grantee means the new deed has to name every grantee, not just the added one. Section 656(b) confirms the grantee's joinder, consent, agreement, and notice are all unnecessary.

Where do you record a deed in Vermont, the county or the town?

The town. 24 V.S.A. § 1154(a)(1) makes the town clerk the officer who records deeds in the land records, and 27 V.S.A. § 341(a) says a deed is recorded in the clerk's office of the town in which the lands lie. Vermont has no county registry of deeds anywhere in the state, so a form or an instruction that sends you to a county recorder is describing another state. The Secretary of State publishes the directory of town clerks.

Does a Vermont enhanced life estate deed owe property transfer tax?

27 V.S.A. § 654(d) says an executed and recorded ELE deed is subject to the property transfer tax under 32 V.S.A. chapter 231. Whether tax is actually owed depends on the parties. 32 V.S.A. § 9603(5) exempts transfers between two spouses, or parent and child or child's spouse, or grandparent and grandchild or grandchild's spouse, without actual consideration. A property transfer return still goes to the town clerk with the deed under § 9606(a)(1), and § 9606(b) requires an exempt return to state the basis for the exemption.

What happens if the grantee dies before the grantor?

27 V.S.A. § 658 answers it three ways unless the deed says otherwise. For a single grantee who predeceases the grantor, title vests in the heirs of an intestate grantee, or the interest is distributed or conveyed to the grantee's heirs or beneficiaries as directed by the Probate Division. Multiple grantees holding as tenants in common get the same treatment for the share of any grantee who died first. Multiple grantees holding as joint tenants are different: title vests in whichever grantee survives the grantor.

Can an agent under a power of attorney sign a Vermont ELE deed?

Only with express authority. 14 V.S.A. § 4031(a)(12) lists conveying, revoking, or revising a grantee designation by enhanced life estate deed among the powers an agent holds only if the power of attorney expressly grants them. 27 V.S.A. § 657(b) adds that the power of attorney has to comply with 14 V.S.A. chapter 127 for a deed executed on or after July 1, 2023, or chapter 123 before that date. And 27 V.S.A. § 305(a) makes the deed of no effect and inadmissible in evidence unless the power of attorney itself is signed, acknowledged, and recorded in the same town office.

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It is not legal advice.

Information current as of August 4, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Vermont can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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