“There are six (6) kinds of property: Personal property, real property, separate property, quasi-marital property, community property, and quasi-community property.
Personal property is movable property owned by an individual; it is not land or attached to land. ‘Every kind of property that is not real is personal.’ (CC 663.) A joint tenancy in personal property may be created by a written transfer, instrument or agreement. (CC 683(a).)
Real of immovable property is land and any and all property that is affixed to, incidental or appurtenant to it. (CC 658.) Real property includes land and buildings, and anything attached to the land and condominiums.
Separate property is any property (real or personal) acquired by a spouse before the marriage, after the parties separate or at any time by gift, devise or bequest, unless the spouses agree in writing otherwise. A married person may convey his or her separate property without the consent of his or her spouse. (FC 770(b).) ‘The earnings and accumulations of a spouse and the minor children living with, or in the custody of, the spouse, after the date of separation, are the separate property of the spouse.’ (FC 771(a).) After entry of a judgment of the legal separation of the parties, the earnings or accumulations of each party are the separate property of the party acquiring the earnings or accumulations. (FC 772.)
If a court makes the determination that a marriage is void or voidable and finds that either party or both parties had a reasonable, good faith belief that the marriage was valid, the court must declare the marriage to be putative and divide any property equally that was acquired during the union. The property so acquired, which would have been community property or quasi-community property if the union had not been void or voidable, is called quasi-marital property.
Quasi-community property is real or personal property, wherever situated, acquired by either spouse while domiciled elsewhere that would have been community property if the spouse(s) who acquired the property had been domiciled in this state at the time of its acquisition. (FC 125, PC 66.)
Community property is all property, real or personal, wherever situated, acquired by a married person or a married couple during the marriage while domiciled in this state; the respective interests of each spouse in community property during the marriage are present, existing and equal. (FC 760 & 751.)”
[LW Greenberg, California Family Law]
