Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: real estate, marriage

There are at least a couple of ways I see you could address the financial issues. You could do a cohabitation agreement that recognizes the initial contributions, even while the deed/title to the property is Tenants in Common (with rights of survivorship). Another approach would be to document the contribution as a note against the property, this would need to follow the strict rules that apply to transfer of interests in real property.

Washington is a community property state. If you keep clear records of what you brought into the marriage you can document it as separate property. If you don't keep detailed records you may end up having commingled your assets and it may all be perceived as community property by a court. Prenuptial agreements can address these issues, but if you are thinking of a prenuptial agreement as a mechanism to protect property in a divorce, you should know that courts are not absolutely bound by them and further that all property (separate and community) comes before the court in a divorce. The shorter the marriage the less the court worries about equality of division (considering assets and liquidity, liabilities and incomes) and the more it attempts to just return the parties to the point where they entered the marriage.