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Attorneys Blanchard and McPhee successfully defended Taft Hill Tree Farm and owners Eric and Patricia Scott from a title action brought by adjacent landowners.

We recently met with a new estate planning client who is not a native Vermonter, but a West-coast transplant. This client felt compelled to meet with us after he had read somewhere that Vermont was “not a good place to die owning real property”.

As a result of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, a person receiving rental income from real estate is treated as engaged in the trade or business of renting property (amended IRC §6041(h), effective for payments made after 31 December 2010).

Firm partner Jack Facey has recently been answering questions for New England Condominium Magazine readers, a magazine published for owners, board members, lawyers and businesses working for condominium associations. The column is called “Ask a Lawyer.” The questions and answers posed to Mr. Facey follow.

By John C. Newman, Esq. & Matthew D. Getty, Esq. There has been a recent change in Vermont's homestead filing law. Read on to see how this affects the creation of life estates and/or transfers to trusts.

By Matthew D. Getty, Esq. Anyone planning to transfer real estate into any kind of business entity needs to be aware of the provisions of the Vermont property transfer tax.

Attorneys John Newman, Jack Facey and Ron Morgan discuss various tax implications on U.S. real property owned by a non-resident, non-US citizen.

The following handout on the pitfalls of preparing LBJ deeds was presented at the 2008 Winter VBA Program in Burlington. It has been updated with information from the Vermont Department of Taxes on the PTR tax imposed on certain of such transfers. We have also added model language for joint representation, an issue raised during the two-hour program.

The Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Estate of Mainolfi, 178 Vt. 588, illustrates the antiquated nature of Vermont’s probate laws and the need for reform efforts to instill certainty in the results of modern estate planning methods. Specifically, Mainolfi deals with the transfer of a home for estate planning purposes and the resulting implications of the statutory homestead interest for the surviving spouse. Neither the facts nor the law of the case are very clear from this 2-page decision, but the ruling casts uncertainty over any conceivable estate plan that involves the transfer of a home.

This article was first published in Vermont Property Owners Report, a Montpelier-based subscription newsletter about Vermont and Vermont real estate.

Buying a home in Vermont has never been more challenging. But with the right guidance, you can still come out ahead.

Many people owning Vermont real estate today are not aware that the Vermont Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire Prevention (hereinafter, “DFP” and formerly known as “Labor and Industry”) has jurisdiction over their homes.

There are have always been three methods of taking title to real estate in Vermont, “tenants in common,” “tenancy by the entirety” and “joint tenancy with the right of survivorship.” Recently the Legislature passed legislation allowing “civil unions” which, essentially, created a fourth type of title, “partners to a civil union.”

In Vermont, hearings before a municipality’s planning commission, zoning board, or development review board historically have been relatively informal affairs. Whether participants appear before the panel to propose development, to respond to an alleged zoning violation, to object to a proposed project, etc., they frequently will appear without legal representation, and rarely will come armed with much more than a survey or building plans – sometimes only sketch drawings – of the property in question and/or of the work to be done. At the hearing, participants typically will present an unrehearsed narrative describing their reasons for being there. Otherwise, no formal presentation or exhibits are prepared for or submitted at the meeting.

Question Presented: Are there any laws allowing or regulating a non-profit organizations’ ability to organize, conduct, administer or otherwise facilitate gambling events or activities?

In 2008 the Vermont Legislature amended 18 V.S.A. Chapter 38 in an effort to better protect individuals from lead poisoning within the State. Owners of pre-1978 housing have a duty of reasonable care to prevent exposure to or creation of lead hazards.

Because of this ruling, Mr. Baechle can pursue his original assertion that the Town of Mendon failed to take efforts to notify him of the tax sale.

Download the Church Property Tax Decision PDF.