- Jurisdiction
- California
When my wife and I got married, I owned a condo property for 13 years. She waived her rights to the property, ie the deed has only my name, married man, etc. She was a stay at home wife/mom for the first several years that we were married. This year she started a home business where she has made several thousand so far, nothing that we can live off of on its own but still good supplement money. She is a sole proprietor, I help with the accounting / business license side of the business, and we file joint taxes. So far, I have been putting all profits into a joint account, the same account that I use to pay all the bills, including the mortgage for the condo.
I was just reading "All property you own before marriage is your separate property in California, as long as you keep it separate and do not mingle it with community property". Does this mean she has a right to it since I used a joint account to pay for the mortgage and despite her signing off her rights to the condo? Would setting up a separate bank account for the business now (6 months into it), allow me to keep full rights to the condo?
I was just reading "All property you own before marriage is your separate property in California, as long as you keep it separate and do not mingle it with community property". Does this mean she has a right to it since I used a joint account to pay for the mortgage and despite her signing off her rights to the condo? Would setting up a separate bank account for the business now (6 months into it), allow me to keep full rights to the condo?