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Ownership of Property

Which spouse owns what property in a marriage?
A. Most property that is acquired during the marriage is considered marital or community
property. For example, the wages earned by both husband and wife during the marriage are
considered marital property. If one or both spouses buy a house or establish a business during
the marriage, that usually will be marital property, particularly if the house or business is
purchased with the husband's and wife's earnings.
Separate property is property that each spouse owned before the marriage. It also
includes inheritances and gifts (except perhaps gifts between spouses) acquired during marriage.
During the marriage (and afterwards), each spouse usually keeps control of his or her separate
property. Each spouse may buy, sell, and borrow money on his or her separate property.
Income earned from separate property, such as interest, dividends, or rent are generally
separate property. However, in some states that recognize community property, these profits
may become marital property.
Separate property can become marital property if it is mixed with marital property. If, for
example, a wife owned an apartment building before the marriage and she deposited rent
checks into a joint checking account, the rent money probably would become marital property,
although the building is likely to remain the wife's separate property as long as she kept it in her
name. If the wife changed the title on the building from her name alone to the names of both
herself and her husband, that probably would convert the building into marital property. In
addition, if one spouse put a great deal of work into the other spouse's separate property, that
could convert the separate property into marital property, or it could give the spouse who
contributed the work a right to some form of payback. A later section in this chapter will discuss
how courts divide marital property in a divorce.