Court Opinion

ID: 9697044
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:04:33.302957+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:28.765136
License: Public Domain

Allen, C.J.,
concurring. While I concur with the result, I would substantially narrow the majority’s holding. The majority presupposes that the failure to obtain a certificate of occupancy, which is a violation of local regulations, can somehow be ascertained from perusal of municipal records that are not required to be kept. Municipalities are not required to record, index, or even make copies of certificates of occupancy. See 24 V.S.A. § 4443(a)(2) (municipalities may require that certificates of occupancy be issued prior to use of land or structure where such land or structure has been created, erected, changed, converted, altered or enlarged) (emphasis added); cf. id. § 4443(b)(1), (2) (administrative officer must deliver copy of zoning permit to listers and post copy of permit in at least one public place in municipality for fifteen days from date of issuance). Because the absence of a certificate of occupancy in local records does not *564necessarily signify that a certificate was never issued, a seller cannot determine from municipal records whether a parcel is in violation of local zoning law.
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. See 24 V.S.A. § 1161 (“A town clerk shall keep a general index of transactions affecting the title to real estate ... 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 . . . .”); Hunter Broadcasting, Inc. v. City of Burlington, 164 Vt. 391, 394, 670 A.2d 836, 838-39 (1995) (failure to obtain state subdivision permit results in fine secured by lien against real estate). In Hunter Broadcasting the seller knew that a state subdivision permit had not been obtained when it conveyed the property. A subsequent seller could easily verify the existence or nonexistence of the state subdivision permit by contacting the issuing agency for permits required to be issued before September 1,1994, or by searching the land records for permits issued after that date. Municipalities have been authorized to require occupancy permits for over thirty years. See 24 V.S.A. § 4443(a)(2). In Jericho they are issued by the zoning administrator, but neither the enabling statute nor the zoning regulation requires that a copy be made or kept, or if made, where it is kept. A seller conveying'by a deed warranting against encumbrances, a buyer searching for the existence of encumbrances, and title insurers insuring titles to real estate can no longer rely upon the land records but now will be required to examine “municipal records” for instruments that may or may not have ever existed.*
Contrary to the majority’s characterization of the failure to obtain a certificate of occupancy as an “obvious” violation of the zoning ordinance, 166 Vt. at 560, 701 A.2d at 1040, the violation is not in fact “obvious” when the failure was the fault of the first seller in the chain of title and there is no way to determine from municipal records whether a certificate has issued. In light of the lack of a requirement *565that certificates of occupancy be indexed and recorded or that copies be kept, the rule enunciated in Frimberger v. Anzellotti, 594 A.2d 1029 (Conn. App. Ct. 1991), should be applied: “Latent violations of state or municipal land use regulations that do not appear on the land records, that are unknown to the seller of the property, as to which the agency charged with enforcement has taken no official action to compel compliance at the time the deed was executed, and that have not ripened into an interest that can be recorded on the land records do not constitute an encumbrance for the purpose of the deed warranty.” Id. at 1033-34.
In the present case a state-certified site technician testified that she designed sellers’ septic system based upon a proposed three-bedroom house and that she discussed her design with one of the sellers. In addition, the conditional septic permit obtained by sellers specifically required that the house be constructed in accordance with the site technician’s design. It also states that an occupancy permit is required and will not be issued until after “successful completion and inspection of the septic system.”
Sellers thus knew that the design for the system was based upon a three-bedroom house, the system was to be constructed in accordance with that design, and an occupancy permit would issue only upon successful completion and inspection of the system. While they may not have been aware that the system was poorly constructed or that it was not constructed in accordance with the septic plan, they certainly knew that they were conveying a four-bedroom house with a septic system designed for a three-bedroom house, a violation of the septic permit and the local zoning ordinance. See Jericho, Vt., Zoning Regulations § 1118 (1981) (no zoning permit shall issue for any structure unless plans are certified to be in compliance with applicable regulations). Because sellers knew that they were in violation of municipal regulations, the violation constitutes an encumbrance under Frimberger, and sellers are therefore liable to buyers.
While I concur in the result of the majority opinion, I dissent from the mischief that will occur from holding that the absence of a certificate of occupancy in municipal records signifies a violation of local regulations and results in an encumbrance. Under the majority holding the covenant against encumbrances would be breached where a certificate of occupancy was actually issued, but could not be located in the “municipal records.” I am authorized to state that Justice Johnson joins in this concurrence.

 "While the majority does not define the term “municipal records,” they clearly intend it to mean something more than the land records. Municipal clerks can now anticipate requests to search their files, desks, and storage facilities, and zoning administrators and their predecessors in office can look forward to similar requests regarding their attics, basements, and garages.