Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

It's not that simple. In the event of divorce, property acquired before the marriage but paid for in part after the marriage out of earnings during the marriage, is subjected to a formula to calculate what portion of the property was paid for with community funds. Then the spouse that owns the property owes the other spouse 1/2 of the value paid for by the community, not 50% of the entire value of the house. If the other spouse is added to the deed, there is a presumption that the spouse who purchased the house intended to make a gift of the house to the community. In that case it would be divided 50/50 unless the spouse who made the purchase can establish that there was no gift, and the deed was for different reasons.