Vermont Statutes Annotated

Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 24, § 1161 (2026)

General index

✓ current as of May 2026

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(Cite as: 24 V.S.A. § 1161)

§ 1161. General index

(a)(1) A town clerk shall keep a general index of transactions affecting the title to real estate wherein he or she shall enter in one column, in alphabetical order, the name of the grantor to the grantee and, in a parallel column, the name of the grantee from the grantor, of every deed, conveyance, mortgage, lease, or other instrument affecting the title to real estate, and each writ of attachment, notice of lien, or other instrument evidencing or giving notice of an encumbrance on real estate which is filed or recorded in the town clerk’s office, with the name of the book, volume, or other manner of recording and the page of record in the following form:

Book	Grantor	Page	Book	Grantee	Page
	to			from
	Grantee			Grantor
1	A. to B.	1	1	B. from A.	1

(2) If the instrument is executed on behalf of or to convey the interest of another party, the same shall be indexed in the name of the other party as grantor. In case the instrument is executed by more than one grantor and to more than one grantee, the name of each grantor and each grantee shall be indexed. When the party is a natural person the name shall be indexed under the first letter of such person’s surname, and when the party is a corporation the name shall be indexed under the first letter of the first word of its name disregarding articles and initials. For purposes of this section, a defendant against whose property a writ of attachment is filed or a person against whose property a lien is asserted shall be considered a grantor, and a plaintiff filing a writ or a person asserting a lien shall be considered a grantee. The general index may be kept electronically.

(b) For the purposes of this section, “transactions affecting title to real estate” shall include the instruments described in subsections 1154(a) and (b) of this title. Each owner of record title to the property at the time such an instrument is issued shall be listed as the grantor. The State of Vermont shall be listed as the grantee for instruments described in subdivisions 1154(a)(4), (5), and (8) of this title. The municipality issuing the instrument shall be listed as the grantee for instruments described in subdivision 1154(a)(6) of this title. (Amended 1969, No. 235 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 1997, No. 125 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; 1999, No. 46, § 3, eff. May 26, 1999; 2001, No. 133 (Adj. Sess.), § 9; 2007, No. 96 (Adj. Sess.), § 11; 2009, No. 91 (Adj. Sess.), § 15, eff. May 6, 2010.)

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 3 cases, 1985–2007 · leading case: Haner v. Bruce, 499 A.2d 792 (Vt. 1985).

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Haner v. Bruce, 499 A.2d 792 (Vt. 1985). · cites it 5× “Although the city clerk recorded and indexed the attachment in an "attachment book," she did not index it in the general index of land records, as required by 24 V.S.A. § 1161. The record does not disclose whether the "attachment book" was the volume in which attachments of…”

Bianchi v. Lorenz, 701 A.2d 1037 (Vt. 1997). · cites it 2× “Traditional encumbrances, such as mortgages, easements, liens, judgments, restrictive covenants, and the like, must be recorded in the land records and indexed so that one may readily ascertain their existence or nonexistence.”

Lively v. Northfield Sav. Bank, 940 A.2d 700 (Vt. 2007). “In order for persons to be able to search documents recorded in the land records, the town clerk must keep a general index of such documents, 24 V.S.A. § 1161(a), as well as an index of each volume.”

— Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 24, § 1161(a) — 1 case

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