Q: Am I entitled to a portion of my wife's house even though it's in her and her mom's name
It was purchased while we were together but not married yet
A:
As always, it depends. What was the arrangement between your wife and her mother in the purchase of the home, did your wife use premarital money to make payments towards the home (taxes, maintenance, mortgage, etc.) during the marriage, or did you have a premarital or postmarital agreement between you and your wife that excluded you from obtaining any interest in the home?
In Utah, if your wife was making principal payments from her active income earned during the marriage (marital property/earnings), not passive income from premarital assets, this could mean you have an interest in the home. You would have to calculate how much marital money was spent on the home and what the increase in the value of the home from any such expenditures from those marital earnings was during the marriage. You would be entitled to one-half of the increase of the value of the home attributable to payments made from your wife's marital earnings.
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