Houston Property Division Lawyer
To understand the division of your Texas marital estate and what you may receive in a Texas divorce, it is important to know how Texas defines property in the context of divorce. Whenever two people divorce in Texas, nearly everything they own, which includes their family home, vehicles bought during the marriage, each spouses’ retirement account – all they way down to their personal possessions.
In Texas, property at the time of divorce is characterized as either separate property or community property. Texas is only one of nine community property states in America. The concept of the community originally came from Spanish civil law and made its way into Texas via Mexico.
Community property: under Texas law, all of the property (both assets and debts) that are acquired during the marriage is considered to be community property. This is essentially any property in a Texas marriage that is not identified as separate property.
Separate property: is either 1) property owned by the spouse prior to the marriage; or 2) the property acquired by the spouse during marriage by gift, through inheritance, or as part of a personal injury settlement.
In other words, separate property does not owe its existence to the marriage. Rather, separate property is acquired apart from the marriage and is owned by only one spouse.
Division of Property in a Texas Divorce: the Texas standard for dividing community property in a divorce that all community property must be divided in a “just and right manner”, having due regard for the rights of each party and any children of the marriage. Texas courts have held that a “just and right” division of community assets is not necessarily an equal, fifty-fifty split of the community estate. Instead, a court will look at certain factors that may warrant deviating from an equal division of property.
This means that almost all property – assets and/or debts – acquired during your marriage is owned jointly between both of you.