What is Quasi-Community Property?

While many married couples in the San Jose and San Mateo areas that are considering divorce have been California residents throughout their marriage, there are also many married couples in California who were married in another state or resided in another state for a period of time before moving to the San Jose or San Mateo area. If at any point during your marriage you or your spouse acquired assets or accrued debts while living in another state, you may have what is known as “quasi-community property.” This term can be confusing, and often California residents who are filing for divorce assume incorrectly that this term applies to property that has been commingled, meaning a mix of community property and separate property. In reality, the term applies to property obtained outside California that would have been considered community property if acquired or obtained in California.

Our Silicon Valley divorce attorneys can explain this term in more detail and what it means for you in your California divorce.

Defining Community Property in California

Under Section 760 of the California Family Code, community property is defined as “all property, real or personal, wherever situated, acquired by a married person during the marriage while domiciled in this state.” In other words, the term community property refers to assets and debts of either of the spouses during the marriage when one or both of the spouses were a California resident.

For spouses who may have temporarily resided outside California but still had all of their primary and legal ties to California, the State of California is likely to be where they were “domiciled.” To be clear, where you are “domiciled” and where you “reside” are not necessarily the same thing (though they can be). Where a person is domiciled is where they have a legal home — with a permanent address, driver’s license, and so forth, even if they temporarily reside elsewhere. For most individuals, a domicile is also a residence, but that need not be the case in all circumstances.

What happens to property that was acquired or accrued while you were domiciled elsewhere? For example, perhaps you and your spouse resided previously in New York, where you made your legal home and were “domiciled,” and where you obtained much of the property that came with you before you relocated to California. This is where the term “quasi-community property” applies.

Quasi-Community Property

Under Section 125 of the California Family Code, quasi-community property refers to “all real or personal property, wherever situated, acquired . . . in any of the following ways:

• a) By either spouse while domiciled elsewhere which would have been community property if the spouse who acquired the property had been domiciled in [California] at the time of its acquisition; or
• b) In exchange for real or personal property, whatever the situation, which would have been community property if the spouse who acquired the property so exchanged had been domiciled in [California] at the time of its acquisition.”

For practical purposes, quasi-community property is not treated differently than community property — both are distributed as community property in a California divorce. The terminology, however, is different under California law.

Contact Our San Jose and San Mateo Divorce Lawyers for Assistance with Property Division Today

If either you or your spouse lived outside California at any point during your marriage and acquired assets or accrued debt during that time, you will need to address the matter of quasi-community property in your divorce. As we discussed above, quasi-community property will be treated as community property and divided accordingly, but it is important to understand the classification and to work with an experienced San Jose and San Mateo divorce attorney at Foster Hsu, LLP to ensure that all of your assets and debts are accurately classified and, where necessary, divided appropriately between you and your spouse. Contact our firm today for assistance with community property division or any other aspect of your California divorce.

Sources:

leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAM&sectionNum=760

codes.findlaw.com/ca/family-code/fam-sect-125/