Legal Question in Family Law in California

It raises a strong presumption that you are not entitled to half the value, but it is not necessarily conclusive. Depending on the circumstances of signing the quitclaim, you may be able still to claim a community property interest in it. You would have to sit down with a family law attorney and go over all the facts and any documentation, to get any really reliable advice on this.

Rather than simply tell you to get a lawyer, let me see if I can help.

First, start with whether the property was community property or separate property. For that, you will need to look at what funds were used to purchase it, what credit and income was used to obtain a mortgage, and what the intention of you and your spouse was. (There are other considerations, but these should get you started.)

Then, if the property was community property, you need to see whether your signing the quitclaim deed was a transmutation, i.e. a conversion of the community property to separate property. For this consideration, you would look at yours and your spouse's intention. Was the quitclaim meant to accommodate a loan transaction? Did it make a gift of your interest in the property to your spouse? Were you conveying your interest in the property to shield the asset from a creditor? There can be many reasons for one spouse to execute a quitclaim deed to the other spouse.

Title is not determinative of whether you lost your interest. The key is your intention and your spouse's intention.

Before you say "hurray," you should be aware that the way to transmute property from community to separate is to execute a writing. Your quitclaim deed probably says that you are conveying your property interest to "John/Jane Doe, a married man/woman, as his/her separate property." While you would be able to introduce evidence that the document was not actually intended to transmute the property, the document is very strong evidence of the contrary position.

As you can see, characterizing property as community or separate can be a complicated matter. I agree that you should rely on the advice of an attorney, but this site is not to just sell lawyer's services. I hope this information helps.