Q: I'm currently going through a divorce, my parents gave $80000 to put down on a house (cheque was made only in my name)
Posting this again and adding moore context to it, I think, I did not get a clear answer last time.
$80,000 was given to me (only me) by my parents as a gift to put down as a down payment for a marital property. So, will my wife have any rights to any of that $80,000 after we are divorced?
A:
The $80, 000 is your separate property, and will remain so unless you do something to indicate that you have gifted it to your community or your spouse. So BEFORE you buy anything that will comingle separate and community property, you need something in WRITING, preferably notarized, from your wife stating that she agrees this is your separate property and not being transmuted to community property. She may sign such a document AFTER, but unlikely. This is not the end of the story, because you can always claim it as your separate property but then you get to spend thousands of dollars on attorneys trying to sort out what is separate and what is community and whether you gifted it or transmuted it. So the short answer is: Maybe, if you gift or transmute it to community.
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