Property Rights

• While community property rights laws can vary by state, each state recognizes the fact that there are two types of property within a marriage: community property and separate property. Each spouse owns an equal share of community property, while just one spouse owns his separate property.
  
  

Separate Property

• Separate property is real or personal property owned solely by one of the spouses prior to the marriage. For example, if the husband owns a rental house prior to the marriage, it remains solely his property after the marriage. Income produced by the separate property also belongs solely to the spouse, such as the rent earned by the rental property. Property a spouse inherits or receives through a gift during the marriage also falls under the category of separate property. Therefore, unless your husband's parents include you in the inheritance, the property they leave your husband belongs to him.
  
  

Rights of Separate Property

• Spouses have the right to mortgage, sell or give away separate property, without the permission of the non-owning spouse. With community property, it takes written permission of both spouses to encumber or liquidate the property.
  
  

Community Property

• Community property is property obtained during the marriage. Each spouse owns an equal share of the property. It is possible for separate property to become community property. While state laws may vary, it generally happens when the separate property commingles with the shared assets of the spouses. For example, if funds from community property maintain or improve the separate property, or if the funds from an inheritance go into a joint account or if the non-owning spouse helped pay any inheritance tax, the separate property typically becomes community property.
  
  

Inheritance

• When one spouse dies, the remaining spouse automatically owns half of the community property. The deceased spouse's separate property, such as an inheritance from his parents, and his half of the community property do not automatically go to the surviving spouse. A spouse has the right to will his property, both separate and his half of community property, to another party. In some states, the spouse automatically inherits the deceased's share of the community property, if there is no will.