Legal Question in Family Law in California
If property is owned prior to a marriage, sold in the first year of that marriage but the proceeds kept secret and still intact by the fourth year, are those proceeds community property or still the individuals personal property when the marriage ends in the fourth year?
2 Answers from Attorneys
If the property was owned prior to marriage, no money earned during the marriage was used to pay the mortgage or make improvements, and the sale proceeds were kept in an account holding only separate property funds, there is no community property interest in the funds to be divided upon the dissolution of the marriage.
Even if community funds were used to increase the value of the property, the sale proceeds would still be separate property. The community would just have a credit claim that the other spouse would get credit for 1/2 of in dividing the community property. There would be no community interest in the property itself or the proceeds of the sale.
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