Vermont is a “notice” state. Delivery of a deed, a mortgage or other conveyance of land in fee simple or for term of life, or a lease for more than one year to a grantee who has no notice of a prior conveyance to another, establishes priority in the grantee without notice. The instrument constitutes constructive notice as of the time it is recorded.
Comment 1. Vermont is a pure “notice” state, not a “race-notice” state, because a claimant does not have to record to perfect a claim, nor win a race to the land records in addition to giving notice nor even record at all, to have good title. Hemingway v. Shatney, 152 Vt. 600, 603-4 (1989). Under Hemingway, Vermont’s core recording provision 27 V.S.A. §342 is merely a means, albeit a powerful one, of giving constructive notice, and so establishing priority, of one’s claim against the world.
Comment 2. Refer to Standard 2.2 for the obligation of the title examiner with respect to instruments outside the chain of title.