Co-Mingling Funds, California?

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A man owns a small home before he is married. Once married, he sells the home and buys another larger house with the intent of it being the family home. In the interim between owning homes, the husband opens a joint account with his wife and uses the funds from the sale of his home to support both her own and the household's expenses through that account.

In a California court, would this be considered co-mingling funds from his separate property, thus rendering it community property? Does this make the ENTIRETY of the amount community property, or just the amount that was co-mingled?

Does this make the house that was bought as a marital home community property as well? Or since it was bought with separate property funds, does it stay separate property (even if those funds were co-mingled)?
 
You can get back the amount that the first home was sold for as you can trace that back to pre-marriage assets.

However, once married, any appreciation the new home goes up is considered a community asset and will be split 50/50

i.e. you sold the first home for $100k, bought the second home for $100K and it is now worth $200K when you sell it. The man can argue for the original $100K plus $50K appreciation, with the other half going to the wife.

Now in your case, what you have is the original $100K in an account waiting for the second home purchase. And what you would have to do is even though she is a joint owner - has she put money into the account? Also factor in that while using this money to support the household you are probably also adding your paycheck into the account, which is community property, and that's where it gets messy.

The only way you are going to be able to pull that money back is by pulling it out now, put it in a separate account in your name only, and arguing in the divorce courts that it was the original amount from the sale of a pre-marriage home.

You also don't specify the amount of time you are married - if you're a month in you can probably get it all back, if you're 4-5 years in, you're looking at getting back maybe a small percentage. 10 years and it's just plain gone.
 
If he bought the big house while he was married or even has the house before he's married....California is a community property state and I'm pretty sure that as soon as married the woman is entitled to half the bank accounts, and half the house as well........but if he can get the money out of the account before she can then it's all his...Good Luck :)
It's only what's in the accounts when closed that they divide...he can hide it away where she can't prove he has it anymore.
 
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