Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Here are a few thoughts on this matter:

(1) You and your husband are already before a court, one with the power to decide this issue, and you need to bring the house-ownership question clearly to the judge's attention; this may but won't necessarily automatically happen since title doesn't stand in your names.

(2) The law tends to treat gifts as complete and final transfers of ownership of the thing given upon its delivery by the donor and acceptance by the donee.

(3) Recorded title to real property is called "legal title," but the questioning as to who is the actual owner doesn't always stop there. Property may be owned equitably or benefically by someone other than the holder of record or legal title. Just because your parents' name is no title doesn't mean they will end up as owners.

(4) Amplifying upon #3, there is a concept called "purchase-money resulting trust" under which the person providing the purchase money is considered the owner, even though someone else's name goes on title. If the purchase money was given to your husband and you as a gift, then used by your parents to purchase the home, I'd say the down payment was made with YOUR (yours and your husband's) money and that the two of you are the beneficial or equitable owners.

(5) In my opinion, the house doesn't belong to either set of parents. It belongs to your husband and you, and the divorce judge should so rule and divide the equity in the house between you as an asset to be divided under the usual community-property-in-divorce principles. You get half, your ex gets half, none of the parents gets anything. Tell the judge I said so.