Title isn’t controlling
Nov 10th, 2008 by Adrienne Keith
Title isn’t controlling. What does that mean?
According to the law in Washington, property acquired after marriage is considered to be community property. Clients can sometimes find this surprising, especially when the legal title is held in just one person’s name. The determining factor, though, is not what the title says but when the item is acquired and what funds were used to acquire it.
If you acquired the item before you were married, and it was in your name, it would be considered to be your separate property. If you had taken out a loan then, the loan would be your separate debt. But if you buy a car during marriage, with what I’m assuming was money you earned during marriage, the car is actually community property and you both have a claim to it. In other words: Title isn’t controlling.