Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Assuming another's debts through marriage

California's Family Code provides at Section 910(a):

"Except as otherwise expressly provided by statute, the community estate is liable for a debt incurred by either spouse before or during marriage, regardless of which spouse has the management and control of the property and regardless of whether one or both spouses are parties are parties to the debt or a judgment for the debt."

However, property you own before marriage and property traceable to that property is not part of the community estate; it is your separate property as long as you don't "commingle" it so that it loses its traceability to pre-marriage sources.

Further, a spouse can keep post-marriage earnings from becoming part of the community estate by depositing them in a separate bank account to which the other spouse has no access. Family Code, section 911.

A married person's separate property is ordinarily not liable for debts of the other spouse (Family Code 913) unless the debt was contracted for the "necessaries of life" and in certain other limited circomstances (Family Code 914).

All of the foregoing addresses liability for debts, not credit rating. I'm unsure how the credit rating bureaus would handle the marriage of a high-scoring spouse to a spouse with poor credit. More likely than not, there would be some negative effect on your rating over time, but it could depend upon subsequent management of credit and finances by the two of you and the record you compile over the years.

It's probably worth consulting a California family law specialist to discuss a prenuptial agreement. Such agreements can be used to override community property law in many respects and to keep your assets, liabilities and financial affairs isolated. Whether and to what extent such an agreement can give you shelter against a specific pre-existing debt is uncertain, but with notice to the creditor of the existence of the agreement, you are less likely to be affected by it, I believe.