What Is Separate Property?
SEPARATE PROPERTY is a concept in Texas law that any property that has not been determined to be COMMUNITY PROPERTY is considered to be SEPARATE PROPERTY. If you are currently married, all the property you own is considered to be COMMUNITY PROPERTY until you can prove that it is not.
There are five major ways to show that the property you own is SEPARATE PROPERTY:
You owned the property before you got married;
You received the property from another person as a gift while you were married;
You received the property from another person by the terms of that person’s Last Will and Testament;
You received the property from another person as the result of a Court Order in an Heirship proceeding because that person did not have a Will;
You and your spouse decided either before your marriage or just after your marriage that you would keep all of your property as SEPARATE PROPERTY and you both signed an agreement at that time dividing the current property you owned and any future property you will own.
Once again, dates matter. What date were you married? What date were you divorced? What date was the property acquired? What date was the Will signed? What date did the person die? These dates are important to show that one of the five conditions listed above apply to a particular piece of property to make it your SEPARATE PROPERTY.
You should be careful that you do not stumble into a Common Law marriage. That will change the date of your marriage and change what you thought was your SEPARATE PROPERTY into COMMUNITY PROPERTY. You can find out why if you read our previous post.