images 3

Community Property

This entry was posted in Community Property on by

Most people are at least a little bit confused about the concept of “community property” which is basically property jointly owned by both spouses.

The easiest way of understanding what is community property, is to first understand what is “separate property”.  In general, separate property is:

  1. property owned prior to marriage;
  2. property acquired at any time by gift or inheritance;
  3. recoveries for personal injuries sustained by a spouse during marriage (except for loss of earnings);

In Texas, most everything else is separate property (with some exceptions).  People have some misconceptions about this, such as the idea that if only one person’s name is on the title of something (car, house, etc.), then it must be separate property.  That is not the case.

There is a general presumption that all property acquired after marriage is community property, and you must PROVE that an asset was purchased solely with your own separate property for that asset to also be separate property.

On the other side of the coin, there are also some misconceptions that without a pre-nuptial agreement, ALL property becomes community property.  This is also false.  If the property can be clearly traced to being acquired before the marriage, purchased with completely separate property, it is NOT part of the community estate and CANNOT be awarded to the other spouse in a divorce.

This is just a brief overview, and more in depth analysis will follow as time goes on.  If you have any questions please consult a lawyer, as many issues dealing with community property can be highly complex, and very expensive to make mistakes with.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profile

Timothy Hutton

Mr. Hutton is a Divorce and Custody Lawyer based out of Round Rock, TX. His background is with child psychology at Arizona State University where he received a B.S. in 2006, and he continued this by working with the Children’s Right’s Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law where he received his J.D. in 2009. Throughout his practice, he has been a strong proponent of utilizing modern technology to improve his practice and the representation of his clients. He currently is the technology chair of CAFA of Travis County and is committed to improving and modernizing the practice of law in Texas. If you have any questions you can contact him at attorney@okohlaw.us

Leave a Reply