Legal Question in Family Law in Arizona

Community Property

Arizona is a community property state; this means the earnings of both spouses belong to what is called the "community," which consists of both the husband and wife. For that reason, when a husband and wife divorce, the most likely way of dividing the community property (and the community debts) is to give half to each party. A husband and wife may, however, agree to divide property some other way; so long as their agreement is fair to both, a judge normally will not reject it. In the scenario you describe, each spouse likely is entitled to some interest in the property presently occupied by the other; a judge might give one the house and the other the mobile home if the interests are approximately equal in value. If they are not, and the parties do not agree who should get what, some other property division might result; since I don't know what you have, I couldn't speculate about what division might result.

A legal separation fixes property rights in a way similar to a divorce. In fact, if either party to a legal separation action wants a divorce instead of a legal separation, and requests a divorce instead of a legal separation, the action automatically becomes an action for dissolution of the marriage.