Q: If I already own a house and get married then divorced some time later. Is she able to fight me for the house?

A: It depends on the facts and circumstances existing at the time of your divorce. During a divorce, all property you and your spouse own is part of the marital estate and is presumed to be community property until you prove by clear and convincing evidence that such property is your separate property.

Ordinarily, property acquired before marriage is separate property. Ordinarily with a home, it is relatively easy to prove that you owned a house before marriage by introducing into evidence a certified copy of the the recorded deed transferring the property to you prior to the date of your marriage.

Of course, you have to comply with your discovery obligations by timely producing the certified deed in discovery to your spouse in order to introduce the deed into evidence at trial. And you have to include in your mandatory disclosures the contention and fact that you are claiming the house as your separate property because you owned the house before the date of your marriage.

Sometimes, when parties are married, they refinance a mortgage on a house. Sometimes, in connection with the refinance, they sign a new deed in which the original owner of the house transfers ownership of the house into both parties' names. That is prima facie evidence of a gift of a 50% interest in the house to the other spouse as her separate property unless the new deed specifies that the transfer is intended to be a gift to the community. A deed to "X and Y, as husband and wife" or "a married couple" might be construed as a gift to the community estate instead of a gift to the separate estate of the other spouse.

I have also seen a situation where a spouse transferred his previously-owned home into a trust and then later the trust transferred the property back to the spouse during the marriage. In that situation, the house was the husband's separate property, then became property of the Trust--a separate legal entity, and then became community property when the Trust transferred it back to the husband after the date of marriage.

But assuming there have been no new deeds signed since you originally bought the house and that you timely comply with your pretrial discovery obligations in your divorce proceeding, you should be able to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the house is your separate property.

Notwithstanding proof that the house is your separate property, your wife might be able to make a reimbursement claim if you used any community funds to pay the mortgage, taxes, or insurance on your separate property house or used community funds to make improvements to it. Community funds include wages for personal services you performed during the marriage (i.e. money you earned from your job) as well as income from separate property you owned (e.g. rent paid by a tenant leasing your separate property home).