Legal Question in Family Law in Washington
State of Washington How to protect my house which was gifted to me prior to marrage in case of a divorce.
1 Answer from Attorneys
If you have documentation to demonstrate that you were gifted the home prior to marriage, and you have not since getting married, refinanced, you ought to be fine. If you refinanced during the marriage, if you obtained a quit claim of your spouse's community property interest in the property, you are most likely fine. Your spouse may have a claim to reimbursement for part of the payments, if you were paying a mortgage on the property during the marriage, but even this may come to nothing, such as if you lived in the home and can claim a fair market rental credit for the use of the property by your spouse.
To more definitely answer this question though, I highly recommend that you see an attorney with all documents in hand and have the situation analyzed more thoroughly.