Even if only one spouse's name is on the deed, any property bought during the marriage is presumed to be community property, unless it was bought with separate property funds. The spouse claiming it as separate property must prove it in court.
Retaining an experienced family attorney is highly advisable when entering a Texas postnuptial agreement contract with your spouse. In fact, both parties should be represented by attorneys.
There are two potential pathways in seeking a partition: Partitions may be in kind (meaning that property is divided into separate parcels and each parcel is allotted to a separate owner) or by sale (meaning that property is sold and sale proceeds are divided among the owners).
23.001. PARTITION. A joint owner or claimant of real property or an interest in real property or a joint owner of personal property may compel a partition of the interest or the property among the joint owners or claimants under this chapter and the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.
Any co-owner has the right to file a partition action. A person who owns even a tiny fraction of joint property has standing to ask the court to divide the property or order a sale of the property to fairly divide the proceeds.
Potential solutions for dividing inherited property include selling the property and dividing the proceeds, providing siblings with co-ownership, and having one sibling buy out the other siblings.
The process of partition action starts with one or more owners filing a petition in court. The court then examines the real estate details and the owners' interests to decide on the best division method.
Legal Separation isn't available in Texas, so couples who would like to end their marriage formally must follow the state's divorce process. However, the court allows couples to live apart and make temporary arrangements while a divorce is pending.
Every co-owner of an interest in the property (no matter how small) must agree in order for a voluntary partition to occur. The remedy when agreement cannot be reached is for one or more of the co-owners to seek a court-ordered division by means of a partition suit.
To win a partition action can take anywhere from a couple of months to reach a settlement agreement to a year or more if it goes to a court trial.