California Partition Law Blog
In California, spouses and registered domestic partners are afforded specific legal protections because of their status as a “spouse” or “registered partner.” A putative spouse is different from an actual marriage and a registered domestic partnership but exists to provide the same protections in specific circumstances. The Putative Spouse Doctrine protects Putative Spouses when their marriage or registered domestic partnerships turns out to be invalid. Understanding what a putative spouse is will help ensure your property and interests are protected in the unfortunate circumstance that your marriage or registered domestic partnership is invalid.
What Is a Putative Spouse?
A putative spouse is an individual who holds a good-faith belief that they are married to their spouse or are registered as domestic partners, when they are not in fact married or registered under California law. The Putative Spouse Doctrine codified in Family Code Section 2251 provides the good-faith spouse the ability to share in the benefits of property obtained during the relationship in a manner equivalent to that of community property. (Miller and Starr California Real Estate (4th Ed.) 4 Cal. Real Est. § 11:36.)
In many contracts, the parties know that one person will be harmed if the other one breaches, but also realize that damage would be hard to calculate. So, what is a person to do to protect themselves from loss while also living their life in a way to pursue their goal? How can the law help people in that situation?
Property transfers often require documents showing the transfer to be notarized and recorded. This means the document is entered into the county recorder’s office and notarized to ensure the document is authentic. A signed document can be notarized via a jurat or an acknowledgment. The choice of method is left to the person signing. The purpose of this article is to explain the difference between a jurat and an acknowledgment.
This article is about whether a personal lien, like a lien for child support, can attach to real estate. This is important because property can be used as collateral for debt voluntarily or involuntarily. This means the owner of the property uses the property as collateral by having a lien placed on it.
The purpose of this article is to explain what Partnership Dissolutions and Partnership Buyout Agreements are. Understanding the purpose of these contracts is important to business partners attempting to navigate the dissolution or end of their partnership and the loss of a partner. Knowing the differences between a Partnership Dissolution and a Partnership Buyout Agreement is crucial to ensuring the best outcome for your partnership’s end.
Exceptions in a title report, also called a preliminary title report, make a potential buyer aware of issues with the property. Exceptions are important as they may limit what 
The purpose of this article is to explain whether a property owner can recover value of time or services in a 
An Assembly bill applying to decedents’ estates was finalized on August 29, 2024. The bill will amend six sections of the Probate Code (Cal. Prob. Code § 13100-13101, 13150-13152, 13154) and repeal one section (Prob. Code § 13158). This is significant because it impacts how successors of decedents can manage a 
The purpose of this article is to explain how a partition action could be brought in federal court. While it is possible to bring a partition action in a federal court, because of how state-specific partition statutes are, 
The purpose of this article is to explain about the legal concept of a title defect. Finding defects in the title of a property is important because it indicates there is a problem with the property’s ownership. Title defects can prevent sale and present additional costs to owners and buyers.