Legal Question in Family Law in California
Facts:
Husband owns residential rental property prior to marriage
Husband adds wife to title of house during marriage and together they refinance 2x.
Husband & wife remodel and upgrade house during marriage, making it worth more than it was worth before marriage
Only a single joint bank account maintained during marriage
Funds from all sources and all expenses were paid from the joint checking account with no mention or attempt to segregate separate property
During many periods of marriage � wife worked and husband did not work. Wife was always contributing more money to house payment.
Marriage lasted 11 years
Question:
Does husband have right to more than 50/50 split of net proceeds when the house is sold as part of divorce agreement?
2 Answers from Attorneys
These questions are always hard to predict the outcome on, even when it is a client sitting in my office with all the documents and evidence in front of us. So there is no way to give a really reliable answer. That said, however, the overall situation sounds like a pretty solid case for Wife to take the position that the deed was intended as a gift of separate property to the community, further supported by the way the property was paid for and handled over the course of the marriage, and therefore the property is entirely community property.
There is a presumption that property that is titled in joint form is community property. But whether that presumption is conclusive or rebutted by other factors will require an attorney to sit down and evaluate.
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