Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

The gift to you was your separate property, unless it was a specific gift to both you and your wife. The title company usually will want the other spouse to execute a quit claim deed affirming that they are not making a claim to the property.

Without more information we can not definitely state what the title is. Real property received as a gift or by inheritance is treated as being separate property and not community property, but if you added your wife to the title or used community funds on the property then you could transform [intermingle] it in to community property. Say it was a house and you used community funds to rehab. it or pay the property taxes and mortgage, then at least part of it would be community funds. It can be difficult to figure out what part has been changed -- does your wife get back only 1/2 the amount of community property funds put into the house, does she get a percentage of the appreciation, etc. The title company wants to be very conservative so they ask if you were married so they can say whether or not it might be community property, but that is not really the correct question [title insurance companies often do not know real estate law].