Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Where to start? First, there is no legal concept of "prime owner" of real property. You and your wife may co-own this house as community property, joint tenants, tenants in common, etc., and under most of these ways of holding your percentage interests may be other than 50-50, but almost always a 1% owner and a 99% owner will have the same rights as to possession of the entire property. In other words, the owner of a 1% interest in a house can live in it and not owe a penny of rent to the 99% owner (this is a complicated subject that I point out in brief and do not hope to explain in detail here).

However, when a co-owner derives income from renting to non-owner third person (as here), the net profit from renting must be shared with the other owner(s). You are entitled to an accounting for the gross income, expenses, and net profit from the rental activity, and to a pro-rata share of the net.

What do you mean by a "foreclosure home?" Probably you mean that the loan payments are delinquent, more or less, and that the property is likely to be sold at a trustee's sale in the near future, but without more information a LawGuru attorney cannot address that aspect of your problem.

What is most puzzling here is the question as to whether your wife can sue you in court. The standard answer is, yes, of course. This begs the questions "For what?" and "Will she win?" I'd say she can sue you for dissolution of marriage, and will "win" because the right to divorce is pretty much absolute these days. However, you probably are asking whether she can sue you about some aspect of this co-owned house. I think the short answer is that a divorce court can handle issues relating to a couple's co-owned property, whether it is community property or not, if the parties so request.

Otherwise, any co-owner can sue the other co-owners of real estate for "partition" of the property, essentialy asking for an order that the property be sold, the liens paid, and the net proceeds fairly distributed. If the property is "under water," as a foreclosure candidate probably is, a partition lawsuit makes little sense.

If there is a realistic chance that the property can be refinanced, your wife and you should sensibly try to get that done before splitting up; it will make the eventual property settlement better for both of you. These kinds of questions should best be addressed to a family law specialist, not the real-estate guys.