What if a married couple pays off one party’s pre-marital debts?
Consider this example. Bob and Jackie get married. Bob has huge credit card debts that he incurred before the marriage. Bob and Jackie want to improve their credit rating so they can buy a house. They agree to pay off Bob’s debts. However, once they are debt free, Bob files for dissolution. In this case, Bob and Jackie have used community property earnings to pay off Bob’s separate property debt. California case law states that the community is entitled to a reimbursement for the amount it paid to discharge one party’s separate property debts.1 So, in the above example, the community is entitled to a reimbursement for paying Bob’s debts. What if one party uses his or her separate property to pay off community property debts? In this example, after they get married Bob and Jackie go on vacation and rack up huge debts. Jackie dips into her brokerage account which she built up prior to the marriage to pay off the vacation debts. In this case, Jackie has used her separate property to pay o
