The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Subchapter
004
:
NOTARIAL ACTS
(Cite as: 26 V.S.A. § 5373)
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§ 5373. Validity of notarial acts
(a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection 5372(b) of this chapter, the failure of
a notary public to perform a duty or meet a requirement specified in this chapter
shall not impair the marketability of title or invalidate a notarial act or a certification
evidencing the notarial act.
(b) An acknowledgment that contains a notary commission expiration date that is either
inaccurate or expired shall not invalidate the acknowledgment if it can be established
that on the date the acknowledgment was taken, the notary public’s commission was
active.
(c) The validity of a notarial act under this chapter shall not prevent an aggrieved person
from seeking to invalidate the record or transaction that is the subject of the notarial
act or from seeking other remedies based on law of this State other than this chapter
or law of the United States.
(d) Defects in the written evidence of acknowledgment in a document in the public records
may be cured by the notary public who performed the original notarial act. The notary
public shall, under oath and before a different notary public, execute a writing correcting
any defect. Upon recording, the corrective document corrects any deficiency and ratifies
the original written evidence of acknowledgment as of the date the acknowledgment
was originally taken.
(e) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, a document that conveys an interest
in real property shall be recordable in the land records and, if recorded, shall be
sufficient for record notice to third parties, notwithstanding the failure of a notary
public to perform any duty or meet any requirement specified in this chapter. Such
failure includes the failure to comply in full or in part with the requirements of
sections 5367-5369 of this title.
(f) This section does not validate a purported notarial act performed by an individual
who does not have the authority to perform notarial acts. (Added 2017, No. 160 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. July 1, 2019.)