The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 14: Decedents Estates and Fiduciary Relations

Chapter 049: Escheats

• § 681. Persons dying testate or intestate without heirs or known legatees

  When a person dies testate or intestate, seised of real or personal property in this State, leaving no heir nor person entitled to the same, the selectboard members of the town where the deceased last resided, if an inhabitant of the State, or of the town in which estate lies, if the absent person resided out of the State, may file a petition, on behalf of the town, with the Probate Division of the Superior Court for a hearing in accordance with the Rules of Probate Procedure. (Amended 1959, No. 38, § 1, eff. March 12, 1959; 1985, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 34; 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 238a, eff. Feb. 1, 2011.)

• § 682. Repealed. 1985, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 163.

• § 683. Escheat, proceeds from sale

  If sufficient cause is not shown to the contrary, at the time appointed for that purpose, the court shall order and decree that the estate of the deceased in the State, after the payment of just debts and charges, shall escheat. The court shall assign the personal estate to the town where the deceased was last an inhabitant in the State and the real estate to the towns in which the same is situated. If he or she were never an inhabitant of the State, the whole estate shall be assigned to the towns where the same is located. The estate shall be for the use of schools in the towns respectively and shall be managed and disposed of like other property appropriated to the use of the town school districts. Any property decreed to a town by virtue of this chapter or subsequently conveyed to an incorporated school district within the town for the use of its schools may be sold without restriction, provided the proceeds shall be expended for the use of the schools of the town. (Amended 2017, No. 195 (Adj. Sess.), § 4.)

• § 684. Rights of heir subsequently appearing

  If a devisee, legatee, heir, widow, or other person, entitled to some portion or all of an estate, appears within 17 years from the date of the decree and files a claim with the Probate Division of the Superior Court that made the decree, and establishes the claim to the estate, he or she shall have possession of the same to the extent of the claim, or, if sold, the town shall be accountable to him or her for the avails, after deducting reasonable charges for the care of the estate. If the claim is not made within the time mentioned, it shall be barred. (Amended 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 238a, eff. Feb. 1, 2011; 2017, No. 195 (Adj. Sess.), § 4.)