COMMUNITY & SEPARATE PROPERTY
There are generally two types of property in a family law and divorce case.

The first is called “community” property (which also includes “quasi-community” property).

The second is called “separate” property.

Whether an asset in a divorce such as real (real estate and land) or personal (everything other than real estate and land) property is “community” or “separate” property is the starting point for most divorce actions that involve the division of assets.

Community property is all property acquired by a married person during marriage while living in California.

Between registered domestic partners, community property is all property acquired by either partner during the partnership while living in California.

In California, a spouse’s property is considered community property regardless of whether the property is real or personal and no matter where the property is situated.

California courts generally will treat out-of-state community real property as community property for all purposes, including intraspousal management and control fiduciary obligations.

Each spouse generally has a 50% ownership interest in community property, with equal rights of management and control, but subject to intra-spousal fiduciary obligations.

Not everything acquired during the marriage is community property and only an experienced family law attorney, like the law firm of Farzad & Mazarei, can tell you whether or not the assets that are part of your divorce are community verses separate property.

Separate property is generally property owned before the marriage (although that doesn’t automatically make the property “separate”), property acquired during the marriage by gift or inheritance and any profits, rents or income from such separate property. Separate property can also include post separation earnings and accumulations and certain personal injury damages recoveries (depending upon when the cause of action arose and the nature of the recovery).

Whether or not a particular property (real or personal) is community or separate property is critical to the evaluation of your divorce. While community property is generally divided 50/50, separate property belongs solely to the spouse who owns it.

It is very common for one spouse to try and claim property as being “separate” when in fact it is “community” property, just as it is common for a spouse to not realize that his or her property is separate property and should not be divided like community property.

Farzad & Mazarei can help you make the correct determination so that the assets are divided fairly and equitably and you obtain the result that California law requires.