A title examiner, who discovers a mortgage securing a note calling for the payment of a sum and the mortgage was executed more than 45 years in the past, may presume that a mortgage deed became due at least 15 years in the past and is therefore no longer enforceable by a mortgage foreclosure action when: (a) there is no specific term in the mortgage creating a due date more than 30 years after the execution of the mortgage; and (b) the encumbered property has transferred at least once at least 15 years in the past in what appears as an arms-length transfer; and (c) the mortgage remains undischarged of record.
Comment 1. The 45-year period was selected based on the assumption that most mortgages historically have had a term of 30 years or less, meaning the mortgage would have become due and the 15-year statute of limitations on the entry into lands (see, 12 VSA §502) would also have passed.
History
September 2024: Standard was added.