Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 27 > Chapter 5 - Conveyance of Real Estate

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Americans with Disabilities Act: means the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and regulations promulgated under the Act, as amended at any time. See
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attorney-at-law: A person who is legally qualified and licensed to practice law, and to represent and act for clients in legal proceedings.
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Burial: means the final disposition of human remains, including interring or cremating a decedent and the ceremonies directly related to that cremation or interment at the gravesite. See
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living. See
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner for Children and Families and "Department" means the Department for Children and Families. See
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner for Children and Families. See
• Commissioner: means Commissioner of Motor Vehicles unless otherwise stated. See
• Communication or language mode: means verbal or nonverbal communication that includes listening, speaking, American Sign Language (ASL), Signed English, Signed Support, reading, and writing in all domains of a language. See
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Council: means the Council for Equitable Youth Justice. See
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• DCF: means the Vermont Department for Children and Families. See
• Deaf: means having a severe or complete absence of auditory sensitivity that impairs processing of linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification or cochlear implants. See
• DeafBlind: means having concomitant hearing and visual impairments. See
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means the Department of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living. See
• Department: means the Department of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living. See
• Department: means the Department for Children and Families. See
• Department: means Department of Motor Vehicles unless otherwise stated. See
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Domestic: when applied to a corporation, company, association, or copartnership shall mean organized under the laws of this State; "foreign" when so applied, shall mean organized under the laws of another state, government, or country. See
• Enforcement officers: shall include :

• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Family: means persons whom the recipient of General Assistance is required by law to support. See
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fees: shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation. See
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Found: means discovered, come upon, chanced upon, or met with by accident. See
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Funeral: means the ceremonies prior to burial by interment, cremation, or other method. See
• General Assistance: means financial aid to provide the necessities of life, including food, clothing, shelter, fuel, electricity, medical care, and other items as the Commissioner may prescribe by rule, when a need is found to exist and the applicant is otherwise found eligible. See
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Hard of Hearing: means a reduced level of functional hearing and reliance on residual hearing and technology, including hearing aids, cochlear implants, FM listening systems, and other types of assistive listening devices to communicate via verbal language, with or without use of ASL. See
• Home care services: include room, board, safety services, household services, and any specialized services to meet the unique needs of the individual. See
• House: means a structure in which people live, including a hospital. See
• Household: means any individual or group of individuals who live together as one economic unit:

• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• JJRA: means the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1973 as reauthorized and as amended by the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018, 34 U. See
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Justice: when applied to a person, other than a Justice of the Supreme Court, shall mean a justice of the peace for the county for which he or she is elected or appointed. See
• Law enforcement officer: means a person designated in subdivision 4(11) of this title and includes deputy State game wardens and auxiliary State Police officers. See
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Marine toilet: means any toilet on or within any vessel except those that have been permanently sealed and made inoperative. See
• Month: shall mean a calendar month and "year" shall mean a calendar year and be equivalent to the expression "year of our Lord. See
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Motorboat: means any vessel equipped with machinery capable of propelling the vessel, whether or not such machinery is the principal source of propulsion. See
• Municipality: shall include a city, town, town school district, incorporated school or fire district or incorporated village, and all other governmental incorporated units. See
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Older Americans Act: means the federal Older Americans Act of 1965 and regulations promulgated under the Act, as amended at any time. See
• Older persons: means individuals who have attained the age of 60 years. See
• Operate: includes an attempt to operate and shall be construed to cover all matters and things connected with the presence and use of snowmobiles whether they be at motion or rest. See
• Operator: shall include all persons 18 years of age or over properly licensed to operate motor vehicles. See
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Owner: means a person, other than a lienholder, having the property in or title to a vessel. See
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See
• Person: means an individual, partnership, firm, corporation, association, or other entity. See
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal watercraft: means a class A vessel that uses an inboard engine powering a water jet pump as its primary source of motive power and that is designed to be operated by an individual or individuals sitting, standing, or kneeling on or being towed behind the motorboat rather than in the conventional manner of sitting or standing inside the vessel. See
• Persons with disabilities: means individual Vermonters who have functional limitations by virtue of physical, psychiatric, cognitive, or psychological conditions. See
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Privilege to operate: includes the privilege of a nonresident to operate a motor vehicle within the State and includes the privilege of a resident to obtain a license. See
• Probate: Proving a will
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real estate: shall include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and all rights thereto and interests therein, and pews or slips in places of public worship shall be treated as real estate. See
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Rehabilitation Act: means the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and regulations promulgated under the Act, as amended at any time. See
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Residence: means a person's domicile. See
• road: shall include bridges thereon and their approaches. See
• said: when used by way of reference to a person or thing shall apply to the same person or thing last mentioned. See
• seal: shall include an impression of the official seal made upon paper alone or by means of a wafer or wax affixed thereto. See
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Social Security Act: means the federal Social Security Act and regulations promulgated under the Act, as amended at any time. See
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• sworn: shall include affirmed. See
• Tenancy by the entirety: A type of joint tenancy between husband and wife that is recognized in some States. Neither party can sever the joint tenancy relationship; when a spouse dies, the survivor acquires full title to the property.
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Town: shall include city and wards or precincts therein; "selectboard members" and "board of civil authority" shall extend to and include the mayor and aldermen of cities; "trustees" shall extend to and include bailiffs of incorporated villages; and the laws applicable to the inhabitants and officers of towns shall be applicable to the inhabitants and similar officers of all municipal corporations. See
• Transient: means an individual who does not intend to establish a permanent residence within the State of Vermont. See
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Vessel: means every description of watercraft, other than a seaplane on the water or a racing shell or rowing scull occupied exclusively by individuals over 12 years of age, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water. See
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.