As an attorney and the owner of The Blacknall Firm, a divorce and child custody law firm in Texas, I often get asked about the concept of separate property and how it relates to divorce and child custody. In this video, I’d like to address the question of what happens when a person unknowingly changes their separate property house into a community property house.

To give some context, separate property refers to assets that a person owns before getting married or assets that they acquire during the marriage through inheritance or gift. In contrast, community property refers to assets that are acquired during the marriage and are considered to be jointly owned by both spouses.

Now, let’s say that a person purchases a house before they get married. In this case, the house would be considered separate property. However, let’s say that this person later gets married and decides to turn the house into a rental property. To do this, they create an LLC and place the house inside of it. In doing so, they have unknowingly changed the separate property house into a community property house because the LLC was created during the marriage.

So, what can be done to prevent this from happening? The answer is simple: seek the help of a family lawyer and get a post-nuptial agreement created before placing the separate property house inside of the LLC. A pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreement is a legal document that can be used to classify the house as separate property, even if a couple later gets divorced.

I hope this information has been helpful and provides some clarity on the concept of separate and community property in the state of Texas. If you have any specific questions about your own situation, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at The Blacknall Firm. We’d be happy to schedule a call and provide further guidance.