Texas is a community property state, so you don’t have to be too concerned about your spouse taking all your money and evicting you. Your spouse cannot kick you out of community property. To determine whether property is community property, you have to look at when the property was purchased– what the courts call “inception of title.” Basically, if your house was bought while you were married, then your house is community property.
In Texas, separate property is property that was either bought prior to marriage, bought with an inheritance or you inherited it, or received as a gift. A lot of people think, well, I bought this with my earnings, so it’s mine. Or they think, we have kept all of our monies separate, so it’s mine. It doesn’t matter. Your earnings during marriage are community property.
If you had money in the bank that you had earned before you got married and you went and bought a house with that money and you could prove you bought it with that money, then, yes, you could say the house was separate property. If you take the money that you have earned during the marriage and you buy a house, the house is going to be community property. Even if you buy the house and you only put it in one person’s name, it is still considered community property in Texas and your spouse cannot kick you out of the house.
Additionally if you’re living in the house, your spouse cannot kick you out. You have a right to be there. The spouse would have to file paperwork and kick you out through a court process.
Bank accounts and any other property are also considered community property, unless you owned it before you got married. Many people who come into my office are afraid because one spouse is threatening to take all of the money. It is scary when you do not know how you are going to support yourself. You have to realize that people will say all sorts of things in an attempt to control you because they don’t want you to leave, but the reality is not always what somebody tells you.
