Q: husband and wife divorce, husband and wife jointly own a vacation house and a car. husband gets house. wife gets car.
husband gets remarried, does new wife have rights to the vacation property
A:
If a husband and wife own property jointly in Maryland, the type of joint ownership automatically changes at divorce to "tenants in common," meaning each person on title owns 1/2 with no survivorship rights to the other person's half. Unless the divorce decree / separation agreement says otherwise, each co-owner can do whatever they want with their respective half. This includes selling their interest, deeding it to someone else or leaving it in their Will.
Where a particular piece of real property gets deeded to one spouse after a divorce and they own 100%, they can generally do whatever they please with the entire property. Again, this means they can sell or give away to whomever they wish.
Marriage does not automatically make a new spouse a co-owner of anything.
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