Well put Rich. Reminds me of a friend who went to court. The judge asked him, “Young man I’m sure you thik you know the law in this case/” My friend said “Yes Sir”.
The judge then said, “I’m sure you think you know how this case should be ajudicated?”…my friend again answered…Yes Sir.
The judge then said…“Let me tell you something…This is my court …this is my venue…and the law is going to say exactly what I say it says…do you understan that, young man?”
I am a married California resident who is about to buy his first house. My wife has previously been married in another state. As part of her divorce decree , her ex-husband was required to continue to make payments on a car they had purchased, and other items. After the divorce, the ex-husband who was a dead beat to begin with stopped paying on everything and, among other things, the car was repossessed. Essentially he screwed up my wife’s credit history after the divorce. Sad but happens. Now to the question, I am about to buy my first property in California, a community property state. My real estate broker wanted me to take title with my wife. However, I thought that myself, and the property for that matter, would be better protected if I take it in my own name. I don’t want my wife’s creditors, who I am sure run her name from time to time, to see that she has a property in her name and put a lien on it. Am I paranoid? What is the best course of actions?
How about taking title to the property in a title holding trust (see info on legalwiz.com Bill Bronchicks site) the benificary could be just the husband.
Re: How to protect your property from creditors? - Posted by John Merchant
Posted by John Merchant on August 02, 2007 at 18:31:11:
Another tack that you might take would be to take the deed (I’d do it your name alone so no creditor of your W could easily learn from the record that she’s involved too)and then immediately record it and a big deed of trust against it so it appears you’ve got it mortgaged to the hilt.
Any friend of yours might work with you on this faux D/T and he’d simultaneously execute a Release of D/T and you’d keep that in your safety deposit box so you could record anytime you wanted.
Only you & he would know that he doesn’t really have your note or a real D/T against the title.
Any creditor who might be looking at your property would quickly find the D/T and figure you’re mortgaged so heavily there’s no equity left and probably quickly lose interest.
Its fine to take the house in your name only (I’m in CA as well), however being a community property state, this remains an asset of both of you. Did your wife change her name after marriage? If not, then it would be easier to “hide” the house from the creditors this way.
Seems to me I rember from CA that the husband can take title “As a married man and his sole and seperate property” and the wife executes a quit claim which is recorded immediately afterwards and then it is leaglly his…lock, stock and barrel…she has no calim as community proerty.
They key would be the quitclaim. Like a pre-nup. On the other hand, neither instrument has any validity if a judge says they are a dodge of the claims of creditors or in a divorce situation. You can paper the walls from top to bottom, but a judge can torch the whole thing.