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If you are married, you have already known the benefits of marriage as you have experienced them. There are two ways in which people have had an experience when it comes to marriage. You might have had the best experience with marriage, and until now, you are still married. The other case is when you have tried your marriage to work, but all your efforts don’t pay off.
Reasons Why Marriage Is Important
- Marriage is the beginning. Marriage is meant to be the beginning of a family. Marriage allows you to grow selflessness as you take care of your family
- Bring oneness. When a man and a woman decide to get married, the two become one. Marriage gives you a life partner and a friend who will help you face life’s challenges together
- Purity. Since you have already decided to be one, you can avoid all temptations like being unfaithful to your partner
- Parenting. Children come as added gifts in marriages. By a family being complete, you can perform all your parenting roles with ease
- Love. The important thing in marriage is love. Love will help you tackle problems that may arise in the union
Common law is used to determine who owns property in marriage. This is to mean property acquired during the marriage. Community property states say that couples have equal rights regarding property acquired during the marriage. This law is mostly used when divorce is on the table. If one of the spouses decides to lease one of the properties, then he/she should get consent from the other spouse. In case one of the spouses notices that one spouse is misusing the property, they can sign a pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreement to protect the assets in case of divorce or marriage dissolution.
We have seen what marital property is, now let’s look at other terms used in community law. Separate property is the property that was acquired before marriage and is solely owned by that original owner. However, the owner can decide to gift his/her partner part of the asset, and by doing so, the property automatically becomes community property.
Even though one can manage half of his/her property, you cannot sell, destroy or alter the property without the other’s consent.
Examples of Separate Property
- Property inherited by one spouse before marriage
- Property bought before marriage
- Assets gifted to one spouse before marriage
What Happens When Death Occurs or Separation?
Technically, when one spouse dies, his/her half of the property automatically becomes the surviving spouse’s property. Their separate properties can be given to anyone as per the will left. If the couple had title deeds of their home or piece of land and one dies, the property is given to the other spouse, thus avoiding court proceedings.
When divorce is on the table, the property must be divided in half. You cannot divide a vacation house in half, so one spouse is wholly given the house while the other is given other properties that sum up the house’s economic value.
Exceptions of Equal Division
There are special occasions where the properties cannot be divided by half. Here are the most common ones.
- If one spouse misuses the community property before and during the divorce
- When one spouse has acquired educational debts, when reconciling is out of topic, the debt owner takes themselves. The debt is separate
- If one spouse has gotten tort liability that does not benefit the marital community
- If one spouse has gotten the personal injury award when in marriage, the award is given to the injured spouse during separation
- In case the debts and liabilities incurred during the marriage are more than the value of the available assets, the main focus is to know how the debt will be cleared as protecting the creditors becomes the main priority
When you get married, so many things change, like sir names for women and what is attained during the marriage become one and there are laws in place to help protect them. The properties help in raising a happy family.
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