New CAFS Resource: State Incentives to Clear Title and Facilitate Property Transfer: A Focus on Vermont

Vermont is a beautiful state, known for its idyllic countryside, rolling green hills, and working farmland. Despite the controlled development, Vermont’s landscape is burdened by some of the same legal issues that affect property owners across the country—particularly issues related to clouded title and heirs’ property, or land passed informally through generations without a clear title. Heirs’ property ownership is tenuous. In the context of farmland, this type of land ownership can limit access to farm programs and loans. It can even lead to involuntary land loss, likely to consolidation or development. 

 Fortunately, Vermont’s unique cultural, legal, and policy landscape sets a foundation for many property owners in the state to prevent or remedy clouded title and resolve issues related to heirs’ property. Produced by CAFS’s Farmland Access Legal Toolkit and coauthored by CAFS Senior Attorney Fran Miller LLM’17 and Food and Agriculture student clinician Christina Reiter LLM’25, this resource assesses how the state of Vermont helps property owners resolve clouded title and highlights its strategies as examples for other similarly rural states. While Vermont’s incentives to clear title are relevant to both land and homeowners, these lessons are particularly applicable to protecting the farmland on which many local economies in Vermont rely. 

View the Resource